Certification ceremony for university academic programmes
Brussels, 26 January 2010
Report
During an historic ceremony at WCO headquarters on 26 January 2010, the Secretary General of the WCO, Kunio Mikuriya, had the pleasure of awarding the first WCO certificates certifying that the academic programmes offered by the Centre for Customs and Excise Studies of the University of Canberra (Australia), the University of Münster (Germany), and Riga Technical University (Latvia) had been developed in conjunction with the WCO as meeting the requirements of the international standards for the Customs profession.
The certificates were accepted on behalf of these Universities by Prof. David Widdowson (Canberra), Prof. Dr. Hans-Michael Wolffgang (Münster) and Prof. Aivars Krastiņš (Riga) respectively. These Universities are all members of INCU – the International Network of Customs Universities.
Mr. Mikuriya said, “The WCO PICARD Programme, developed in partnership with INCU, has provided an opportunity to establish common development standards designed to maintain and raise the professional standing of Customs, particularly Customs senior and middle management.”
“The principle objective in developing the standards is to establish benchmarks: which can be developed into job profiles for the purposes of Customs recruitment; against which the in-house training of WCO Member administrations may be measured; and against which academic development can be designed or procured,” he added.
These development standards can and are being used by the academic world to develop educational programmes which provide professional qualifications for Customs staff, and others, to Bachelors and Masters Levels.
Universities that are able to demonstrate that their curriculum substantially addresses the standards contained in the WCO Professional Standards publication at the Batchelors level or higher may apply for formal recognition.
More information
capacity.building@wcoomd.org