MA Humanitarianism and Conflict Response

Fees for entry in 2027 have not yet been set. For reference, the fees for the academic year beginning September 2026 were as follows:

• MA (full-time)
  UK students (per annum): £14,700
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £30,700

The fees quoted above are fully inclusive of tuition, administration and computational costs.

Fees for entry are subject to yearly review. The University reserves the right to increase your tuition fee by up to 7% each year for courses lasting more than one year, including to reflect rising costs associated with delivering our educational and wider student experience. Postgraduate fees information .

Always contact the admissions team if you are unsure which fee applies to your qualification award and method of attendance.

International student CAS deposit

Self-funded international applicants are required to pay a deposit of £2500 towards their tuition fees before a confirmation of acceptance for studies (CAS) is issued. Some applicants will be required to pay a higher deposit. More information on tuition fee deposits .

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

We know that student finance can be complicated. The links below provide further information to help guide you.

• Learn more about - student finance options for UK students.
• Learn more about - fees and finance for international students .
• Graduates of The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University can receive a 10% discount on their master's degree tuition fees as part of our Manchester Alumni Loyalty Discount scheme.

This course will critically examine the definitions and practices of humanitarian diplomacy and negotiation – an emerging concept within the humanitarian sector. Egeland (2013) argues there is ‘in our age of information, advocacy, and non-governmental activism no place with widespread suffering where there is no humanitarian diplomacy and action’. Despite this, many humanitarian practitioners may associate diplomatic practice in its traditional political sense, viewing it as the preoccupation of states as opposed to aid agencies. They may also feel that humanitarian principles should not be negotiated. Yet, increasingly the expectations placed upon international and national humanitarian groups, agencies, and organisations to be ready to respond immediately to any disaster or conflict has brought humanitarian diplomacy to the fore. For this reason the course examines negotiation practices understood in the broadest sense, from informal exchanges in ‘the field’ to advocacy and international diplomacy. Students will engage with the topic in two ways. First, they will learn from academic social science and humanities approaches, through readings and seminar teaching. Second, students will work together to prepare and lead critical exchanges with the guest expert speakers.

 

• Provide knowledge about the area of humanitarian diplomacy (key actors, issues and norms), which will familiarise students with a key area of humanitarian practice.
• Nurture students’ critical thinking and reflexivity about the politics, sociology, history and economy of humanitarian diplomacy, beyond buzzwords and technocratic language.
• Deepen students’ abilities to work across disciplines, levels of analysis and modes of analysis (general and case-specific perspectives).
• Develop students’ abilities to critically engage with inputs from academic, practitioner and policy resources (from both readings and expert inputs).
• Equip students to identify and strategise about the possibilities, limits and uncertainties of action in humanitarian diplomacy and negotiation.

• Lectures and classroom, debates (using flipped classroom approach) and tutorials.
• The module content, assessments, reading lists and external resources will be posted on Canvas.
• Students will be encouraged to join group discussions on Canvas and will be encouraged to use/access/share online resources.

• Identify the key actors in humanitarian diplomacy and negotiation, their goals and their unequal agency
• Understand the key issues and debates in humanitarian diplomacy and negotiation
• Grasp the key norms in humanitarian diplomacy (laws, rules, codes of behaviour)
• Understand the systems, structures and institutions of humanitarian diplomacy and negotiation (factors, implications, effects of inclusion and exclusion)

• Apply critical thinking to the concepts and practices of humanitarian diplomacy and negotiation
• Critically use and assess concepts and theories from a range of social science disciplines and methodological approaches
• Critically assess and use practitioner and policy documents and views from actors in humanitarian diplomacy and negotiation
• Consider multiple levels of analysis (from micro to macro) and draw out connections and contradictions between general topics and case studies
• Be reflexive about their sociological, political and ethical position in the field of humanitarianism

• Practise critical reading of an array of sources
• Search for, assess and select literature from academic, practitioner and policy sources
• Craft and complete rigorous academic research, from choosing a research question to planning research steps and timeline, researching it, assessing material, and writing and self-editing
• Structure and present written and oral arguments
• Prepare and conduct interviews of elite experts to gather factual information and construct theoretical analyses

• Apply analytical and synthesis skills in writing
• Hone written and oral communication skills
• Be successful at complex team work on written and oral tasks
• Conduct, observe and debrief interviews

Assessment Task	Formative or Summative	Weighting
Essay	Summative	70%
Policy Brief assignment	Summative	30%

 

 

 

Feedback method	Formative or Summative
Mid-course student evaluation of learning – verbal feedback in tutorials (individual and group)	Formative
Written	Summative

 

The course reading list will comprise both general references on humanitarian diplomacy and references specific to both core case studies and reflective practice. References may include:

IFRC (n.d.). Humanitarian Diplomacy Policy. IFRC. http://www.ifrc.org/Global/Governance/Policies/Humanitarian_Diplomacy_Policy.pdf

Minear, L., & Smith, H. (eds.). (2007). Humanitarian Diplomacy: Practitioners and Their Craft. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.

Régnier, P. (2011). The emerging concept of humanitarian diplomacy: identification of a community of practice and prospects for international recognition. International Review of the Red Cross, 93(884). http://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/review/2011/irrc-884-reginier.pdf

Magone, C., Neuman, M. and Weissman, F., (eds.), Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed: the MSF Experience (Hurst, 2011)

Egeland, J. (2013). “Humanitarian diplomacy” in The Oxford handbook of modern diplomacy / edited by Andrew F. Cooper, Jorge Heine, and Ramesh Thakur. (pp. 352–368). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Acuto, M. (2014). Negotiating relief: The politics of humanitarian space. London: Hurst.

ffrench-Constant, Laura (2014), How To plan, write and communicate an effective Policy Brief: Three Steps to Success. https://www.researchtoaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/PBWeekLauraFCfinal.pdf