The 17th Emergency Management Higher Education Symposium, organized by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, will be held on 1-4 June 2015 at EMI, Emmitsburg, Maryland. The symposium theme is: “Moving Us Forward: Blending Higher Education and Experiential Knowledge in Emergency Management”.

IRDR SC member Djillali Benouar, from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at University of Science & Technology Houari Boumediene (USTHB), Algeria, will deliver a paper on the experience of the PeriPeriU consortium (an IRDR International Centre of Excellence) titled “Exploiting the African Higher Education Institutions in Advancing Disaster Risk Reduction: A Model for Post-2015 Capacity Building”. The presentation focuses on achievements in embedding active DRR-related teaching and training within higher education institutions, as well as research and policy advocacy capacity with particular emphasis on urban and hydro-meteorological risks.

The symposium plans sessions on curriculum development and institutional considerations for higher education programmes. The FEMA EMI Emergency Management Higher Education Programme aims “to encourage and support the dissemination of hazard, disaster, and emergency management-related information in colleges and universities across the U.S.” They argue that future emergency managers will come to their roles in government as well as in business and industry with college degrees in emergency management. They also contend that to build disaster resistant and resilient communities, a broad range of students and professionals need courses that teach them what to do about hazards, risk, vulnerability, and disasters.

Click these links for more information on the FEMA Higher Education Programme and on PeriPeriU at the ICoE REaL.