Pursuing a postgraduate degree while working full-time can be both challenging and rewarding, something graduates of the International Centre for Co-operative Management (ICCM) at Saint Mary’s University know too well.
Stephen Gill, CEO of Coop Exchange, who started on the course in August 2020, calls the programme “a complete game changer”.
“Within the first two weeks, I was addicted,” he said. “It’s so important to create co-operative business managers, people that understand co-operative values and principles. We have so many individuals, and I like to believe the majority of people are good people. They want to do good things, but if they don’t have anything else to fall upon, all they know is what they’ve been taught in business schools across the world, and that’s the way they’re going to work, and that’s what works for general business out there, but not for co-operative, purpose driven businesses, especially people centric ones. So it is imperative that we have more people through programmes like this, through a Master’s certificate, just to understand the co-operative model and apply it in their everyday business and everything that they do. I’m very proud to have this, this Master’s. We need more people to be to have these skills and take them into business in different areas of the co-operative world and sometimes even the non co-operative,” he added.
Initially founded in 2001 to provide a customised Master’s programme in co-operative management, the Centre offers a range of courses, meeting the different needs of co-operative members and professionals.
Sonja Novkovic (above), a Professor of Economics and Academic Director of the International Centre for Co-operative Management (ICCM) at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Canada, has been teaching in the Cooperative Management Education programme from its inception in 2003.
“It was started by people in the sector in cooperatives, who realised that they keep hiring new talent that comes from Master’s education in regular business. And when they come with the knowledge of regular business, they don’t see the difference in accounting for co-ops or non co-ops. They don’t know the difference in marketing between the two. So there was this recognition that we need a business degree that is specific to co-operatives and credit unions.”
ICCM was launched with over CA$1m, in financial support from co-ops and credit unions in the USA, UK and Canada and the first cohort of students enrolled on the course in 2003.
Since then, over 330 co-operative and credit union professionals in over 160 organisations have engaged in ICCM’s graduate programmes.
And while its the Master of Management, Co-operatives and Credit Unions is still the flagship programme, the offer has been expanded to include a Graduate Diploma in Co-operative Management, a Certificate in Co-operative Management, international co-operative study tours and short leadership development courses. In addition to all this, ICCM conducts and publishes research, hosts symposia, and offers webinars.
“The condition to be accepted on our programme is that you are either on the board or working for a co-operative,” says Novkovic explaining that this experience will inform how the students approach their assignments.
Those wishing to start with a lighter course can first pursue the certificate, and the decide if they want to continue for the postgraduate diploma and, following that, the full MA. All course materials are available online, enabling students around the world to access them. The emphasis is on discussions and exchanges between participants, rather than online lectures.
“The certificate is building towards the Diploma and MA. So if you finish your certificate, we give you the credit once you embark on on these other longer degrees. While the MA is a commitment, there are different options to suit different people. So if I was worried about the time commitment, I would start small. People start with the certificate, and then they realise they can do this. So then the second year is still light, and then they have to embark on one year of heavy studying, which most manage.”
The courses aim to enable participants to understand how their business works while exploring the specificities of the co-operative model, focusing on issues like preventing demutualisation and building indivisible reserves.
“All these questions that protect the collective effort and collective ownership and intergenerational resources, make it a unique model.”
The course also helps professionals from different co-operative sector to connect with each other, which often leads to cross-sector collaborations.
“The outcome is that students start talking to each other and really get the bigger picture. They get the understanding of how important where they are really is in the bigger picture, but also the networking and the connection to the movement, to other types of people and other parts of the world,” adds Novkovic.
“What comes as the main lesson I would argue, is that people who finish the degree say, ‘Okay, now I’m confident in the co-op model, and confident in the difference we make. And I’m confident in this being the right thing for me.’ So this confidence then gets them to grow their co-op, to really push forward,” she explains.
Technological advancements and global economic crises also mean that the curriculum for the courses keeps changing. Recent trends include exploring new ideas and new ways of thinking about the economy as well as where co-ops fit within it.
In addition to offering these courses, ICCM also conducts and publishes research – so what are some of the challenges co-op researchers face?
“If you are researching cooperatives, the challenge is always getting the data, getting the right information. Data is really scarce and inconsistent,” explains Novkovic. The International Cooperative Alliance along with the International Labour Organization are working to address these issues including by developing guidelines on co-operative statistics.
“The other challenge is trying to use theories and frameworks that are coming from the mainstream and applying them to the co-op model.” This, she explains, can lead to the co-op difference getting lost.
Another challenge is getting research on co-op published in mainstream academic journals, something emerging researchers care about. To achieve this they can end up burying the co-op element into the study in an attempt to fit into the bigger picture.
Meanwhile, with co-ops becoming more mainstream, particularly at UN level, and with 2025 being the International Year of Cooperatives, there is also a danger or researchers who do not understand the model choosing to study it.
Overall, Novkovic the picture is positive, with more an more young researchers interested in co-operatives and driving their agenda through universities that may not have been interested in the topic in the past.
As to the future of co-operative academic education, Novkovic says this “is really difficult to predict”.
“Universities have been corporatised and to them, it’s really about the business proposition. And so the co-operative movement needs to put some money behind education in the universities, in any case, including in our case and Leuven University case and Co-op College’s case. All of us need some financial support. For us, students coming in are the financial support, because we have to charge for the degree. And so even sending students, is a win-win, because you get education and we get the finance we need. But in general, if you want to have a Harvard degree for co-ops, you will have to finance something, and sometimes it’s a research chair that they can fund.
“Other corporations have unfortunately done that, but governments do it as well, depending on the priorities and realising that to sell this research chair, for example, in co-operatives or social economy, there have been some already in social economy in particular, but to sell it, you have to also pitch the model as delivering multiple benefits, which is true. It is a development model, an economic development model. It is an alternative enterprise model, a transformational option. And so, there are many things nowadays that are important where co-operatives can do a good job. And I think people need to be educated about them. And so this, financing researchers is one. Another is also contributing to existing business degrees and asking for some additional offerings there. But there, I would argue, you need expertise. You can’t just have the existing faculty who don’t know co-ops to teach a finance course for them, that’s really a challenge.”
Co-operative education was one of the original Rochdale Principles and has remained one of the seven co-operative principles ever since. Yet, the movement must be prepared to invest more in this, says Novkovic, particularly co-operative academic education.
“I think co-operatives are usually thinking about training in house for the particular industry they’re in, and not thinking about the bigger picture. Any kind of education is good. So if they send their people to an arts school, that’s fine, anything is fine. But I think co-operatives are not taking the opportunity of the already existing programmes to educate their staff and members in why we matter in the big picture, and again, they are focusing on training, but not focusing on education. And I think we really need them to do a much better job in that respect.”
