MSc International Disaster Management and Humanitarian Response - September Intake

When disasters strike suddenly, they require a quick response, and create burdens for rescue and humanitarian workers.

There is a great demand not only for preparing and equipping workers prior to the disaster event, but also building knowledge and skills to prevent disasters from occurring.

A community that has both a team with the capacity to prevent disasters and a ready-to-respond team can reduce disaster mortality and economic losses.

Our master's course is consistent with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) 2015-2030, which emphasises disaster education, including for personnel who have difficulty in attending conventional face-to-face provisions.

This course has been designed to equip you with advanced knowledge, and to continue your personal development in disaster risk management and humanitarianism.

You will learn to conduct theoretical and practical analysis, as well as evaluation to support disaster management and humanitarian action in global health contexts.

• provide you with critical insights into competing perspectives on how disaster management and humanitarian action can be understood, analysed and explained - from both an historiographic and contemporary viewpoint;
• develop your analytical skills in critically evaluating the idea of disaster risk management and humanitarian action and the ways it has been organised, justified and implemented. This includes competency in developing a reasoned argument, critically considering data sources and defending different approaches;
• develop your skills in gathering, organising and using evidence and information from a wide variety of sources. This will be complemented by guidance on how best to manage workloads and obtain research materials;
• enable MSc students to apply established techniques of research and enquiry to a relevant research area to create and/or interpret knowledge.

• We're one of the leading global centres for humanitarianism, conflict responses, global health, international disaster management and peacebuilding.
• We're a World Health Organisation Collaboration Centre with a focus on Conflict Analysis and Programming.
• We have a truly diverse student body, with individuals from over 65 countries.
• We bring together disciplines of medicines, humanities and social sciences, including international relations, geography and political sciences.

Each course unit will include outline readings with points for discussion. These will help focus your study, while an online chat room/discussion board will be provided as an optional tool. 

Course units will be assessed by formative and summative prose-based assessments.

You could also work at international institutions such as:

• UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee
• International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction
• World Bank
• World Health Organisation
• IFRC
• Peacebuilding Commission
• Department of Peacekeeping Operations
• Regional bodies such as the European Union, African Union, Organization of American States.