This unique course will equip graduates to report from international hostile environments in a safe, informed and innovative way. It was developed in consultation with media organisations, conflict reporters and international security/safety experts/disaster healthcare specialists, all with frontline hostile environment experience. This is supplemented by academic research and critique of the coverage of conflict, terrorism, natural disasters and of state suppression of media and investigative journalists. Students complete a 12,000 word dissertation in a chosen topic.
This new course will equip graduates to report from hostile environments in a safe, informed and innovative way. It was developed in consultation with media organisations, conflict reporters and international security/safety experts/disaster healthcare specialists, all with frontline hostile environment experience. This was supplemented by academic research and critique of the coverage of conflict, terrorism, natural disasters and of state suppression of media and investigative journalists. The University has long and successful experience running an MSc in Disaster Health Management (online/blended), MA Journalism, MSc Disaster Recovery and MFA Photography (online/campus) and expertise from these programmes will also be used for this new course.
The figures are stark for the increasing global danger for journalists. Some 780 journalists have been killed since 2006 (Reporters Sans Frontiers, 2017) with 74 killed alone in 2016. Thus, Ulster University is harnessing its expertise in areas related to conflict to deliver this innovative programme.
This course is underpinned with advanced practical skills on remaining safe and assessing risk that meet the requirements of major media organisations.This element will be taught through a week long field exercise preceding the course by several highly experienced international trainers all with decades of front line experience in Northern Ireland, Iraq, Afghanistan, Mexico and parts of Africa. Even for those opting to complete the course by distance learning, they will have to attend this element in person and it will be delivered the week before the main semester starts.
This hostile environment training course will cover preparation such as country analyses prior to deployment to include geography, history, economics and social structure.This also includes familiarising yourself with cultural etiquette and local area taboos, regional threats and in country communications infrastructure analyses. Water purification and food sourcing and survival tools will also be included. Also preparation such as travel vaccinations, tropical medicine, visas and currencies. It will include a component on emergency first aid and disaster zone healthcare. Other elements will include surviving natural disasters, navigation training, theft avoidance and security of possessions, packing kit, equipment and safety devices. The area of vehicle maintenance and loading, vehicle systematic search and transport considerations.
Once in the hostile environment, it will look at personal and accommodation security and situation awareness and counter surveillance measures. It will look then at the more journalistic elements such a meeting sources, establishing remote source communication, using cover stories, telephone security and negotiating check-points. Mines and weapon awareness will also be covered.
It will then look at more common areas that can become hostile environments such as civil disturbances and riots, crowd dynamics and control. Finally, there will be a session on post-traumatic stress disorder awareness. Each day will also have a reflective session.
The course, however, is not just a hostile environments training and certification programme. It will provide students with a deep theoretical understanding of the key elements that both create hostile environments and critiques of how they have been covered in the past. The School has several staff expert on analysis of conflict and post conflict reporting and investigative journalism, particularly relating to paramilitary groups. Other staff from biomedical science, disaster and austere environment nursing, environmental science and disaster recovery engineering who will give guest lectures on disease, climate change, earthquakes and disaster recovery. Students will select an area of importance to their career or interest and complete a 12,000 word dissertation researching this area. These could be areas of conflict, terrorism, post-conflict, criminal gangs, state suppression, climate change, famine, natural disaster, refugee issues and disease.
The Environment, Politics and Globalisation MA, MSc is an interdisciplinary course offering a unique combination of theoretical and relevant policy subjects to give you indepth knowledge and critical awareness of the politics and geographies shaping environments, both now and in the past. You will examine local case studies as well as global environmental issues, politics and policies from a variety of perspectives to gain a textured understanding of this contested and vital area of study.
The Environment, Politics & Globalisation MA, MSc is a demanding and stimulating course, with an emphasis on developing your analytical and research skills.
You will study Globalisation and the Environment, as well as optional modules covering topics such as Climate: Science and History, Geopolitics, Power and Place, Environmental Actors and Politics, and Disasters and Development. If you choose to follow the MSc research pathway, you will study Advanced Quantitative and Spatial Methods in Human Geography.
The Environment, Politics and Globalisation course is aimed at providing students with an in-depth and critical awareness of the politics and geographies shaping environments at a range of interrelated and ever shifting scales. In this context the course involves a broad and reflexive interpretation of the terms ‘environment’, ‘politics’, and ‘globalisation’. It aims to enable students to develop the skills required to engage with both cutting edge academic literature and grounded policy scenarios so that they can participate in the dynamic and contested environmental arena. These aims are achieved by the unique combination of theoretical and practical modules that draw on staff environmental expertise, along with internships with participating environmental organisations. You will be required to obtain the minimum of 180 credits to complete the course.
If you are studying full-time, you will complete the course in one year, from September to September. If you are studying part-time, your course will take two years to complete. You will take the combination of required and optional modules over this period of time, with the dissertation in your second year.
For those seeking to develop their intellectual and practical skills to engage in both academic debates and the practical construction of environmental policy and politics at national and international scales.
Teaching
We use lectures, seminars and group tutorials to deliver most of the modules on the course. You will also be expected to undertake a significant amount of independent study. Typically, one credit equates to 10 hours of work.
Per 20-credit taught module:
Lectures, seminars and feedback: Typically 20 hours
Self-study: 180 hours (some modules may involve lab work or e-learning which would require less self-guided learning).
Dissertation:
Lectures, seminars and feedback: Usually four dissertation workshops/ tutorials and five contact hours of one-to-one or group consultation with supervisors.
Self-study: 587 hours.
Assessment
Performance on taught modules in the Geography Department is normally assessed through essays and other written assignments, oral presentations, lab work and occasionally by examination, depending on the modules selected. All students also undertake a research-based dissertation of 12,000 words.
Many of our graduates have gone on to undertake further graduate study. Others have gone on to work as research assistants for international development agencies as well as pursuing careers within government agencies, teaching and journalism.
This MA explores how contemporary politics, conflict and debates about human rights and security are informed by the processes of globalisation.
You will study topics including human rights and humanitarian intervention, the world economy and the changing global order, global governance and the United Nation system, the growth of global networks and movements, global security, conflict resolution and peace-building, international relations and law, global poverty and development, and the politics of sustainability and environmental decline. Because globalisation transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries, our MA takes an interdisciplinary approach to challenge conventional political and international relations approaches.
There are two core modules: Globalisation and Global Politics, and Conflict, Security and Human Rights. You can also select two optional modules to focus on an area of particular interest, for example human rights and humanitarian intervention, global environmental politics, the Middle East, conflict resolution, genocide, international relations theory, the nature of warfare, and global ethics.
On the Globalisation: Politics, Conflict and Human Rights MA, you will:
The programme is founded on the notion that politics, conflict and human rights must now be understood in the context of contemporary globalisation.
Globalisation and Global Politics
This module begins by examining a range of approaches to globalisation and global politics before exploring the processes, institutions and ideologies that are widely considered to be driving them. For example, economic globalisation is studied in relation to the financial crisis of 2008 and wider debates about global economic disorder. In particular, the emphasis is on fostering an informed understanding of contemporary globalisation through study of critical theories, debates about power, patterns of global poverty and inequality, and development responses.
In relation to claims about a shift in global power, the rise of China and its implications for the Asia-Pacific Region and the rest of the world are explored. At an institutional level, the Human Rights Council, the International Criminal Court and the European Court of Human Rights are examined. The politics of global sustainability is considered in relation to the formation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Finally, the politics of a transnational/global movement is investigated through the study of La Via Campesina.
Conflict, Security and Human Rights
This module examines contemporary conflict, security and human rights debates in relation to globalisation and the evolution of global politics. Areas and issues examined include: the relationship between global security and international relations theory; conflict resolution theory and the prospects of conflict resolution in Syria; state building and peace-building in Somalia; and a global NGO (Amnesty International) dedicated to monitoring conflict and human rights abuses.
Environmental security is considered within the context of global environmental decline, focusing in particular on Moscow’s apparent resource-based approach to international relations. As for human rights, the major theories and critiques are examined, with specific reference to humanitarian intervention and the emergence of the concept of human security. In this vein, the politics of movement under contemporary globalisation is explored by studying the Geneva Convention and the rights of refugees.
Modules
Two from:
This MA is relevant to careers in the public sector, teaching, the media, the legal profession, business, journalism, management and human resources, as well as to further research. You may also seek work in development, charities, non-governmental organisations and the environment, as well as the European Union and the United Nations.
Biodiversity, evolution and conservation are of growing importance due to climate change, extinction, and habitat destruction. This new research-led programme is run in collaboration with the Institute of Zoology and the Natural History Museum, providing a rigorous training and unparalleled opportunities across the full breadth of pure and applied research in evolutionary, ecological, and conservation science.
Taught modules will focus on cutting-edge quantitative tools in ecology, evolutionary biology, genetics, bioinformatics, systematics, palaeobiology, conservation, biogeography and environmental biology. Seminars, journal clubs and the two research projects will provide students with diverse opportunities for experience at UCL Genetics, Evolution and Environment & Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, the Natural History Museum and the Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London.
Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits.
The programme consists of three core taught modules (60 credits) and two 16-week research projects (120 credits).
Core modules
Optional modules
Dissertation/report
All students undertake two 6000-word, 16-week research projects, which each culminate in a written dissertation, and poster or oral presentation.
Teaching and learning
The programme is delivered through a combination of seminars, presentations, assigned papers, as well as data analysis and interpretation. The seminar series includes mandatory seminars at UCL, the Natural History Museum and the Institute of Zoology (Zoological Society of London). Assessment is through essays, project reports, presentations and practicals. The two research projects are assessed by dissertation, and poster or oral presentation.
Further information on modules and degree structure is available on the department website: Biodiversity, Evolution and Conservation MRes
This programme offers students a strong foundation with which to pursue careers in academic research, environmental policy and management, applied conservation, public health, or scientific journalism.
Recent career destinations for this degree
Employability
This programme provides students with a strong foundation to pursue careers in academic research, environmental policy and management, applied conservation, public health, or scientific journalism.
Interested in a PhD? Find out about London NERC DTP
Careers data is taken from the ‘Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education’ survey undertaken by HESA looking at the destinations of UK and EU students in the 2013–2015 graduating cohorts six months after graduation.
This programme is an innovative collaboration between three globally renowned organisations: UCL Genetics, Evolution and Environment & Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, the Natural History Museum and the Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London.
By consolidating research expertise across these three organisations, students will gain a unique and exceptionally broad understanding of ties among different fields of research relating to the generation and conservation of biodiversity.
The MRes offers diverse research opportunities; these include the possibility of engaging actively in fundamental and applied research and participating in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (based at the Natural History Museum) or the EDGE of Existence programme (based at the Zoological Society of London).
The Research Excellence Framework, or REF, is the system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. The 2014 REF was carried out by the UK's higher education funding bodies, and the results used to allocate research funding from 2015/16.
The following REF score was awarded to the department: Division of Biosciences
82% rated 4* (‘world-leading’) or 3* (‘internationally excellent’)
Learn more about the scope of UCL's research, and browse case studies, on our Research Impact website.
You will undertake advanced studies in political sociological analysis and this programme is ideal preparation for a research degree. It assumes an undergraduate training in sociology and/or political science, or a cognate discipline, or relevant professional experience such as journalism.
The programme is distinctive in its focus upon social and political movements, protest, and the less conventional and institutionalised forms of political action and participation, environmental politics and globalisation, but students with interests in other areas of more conventional and institutionalised politics are well catered for.
You will gain an understanding of the interaction and interdependence among social and political institutions, processes and action, especially collective action. The programme begins with a focus upon protest and social movements, and in the second term you may choose to focus upon either or both of environmental politics and / or processes of global social change and questions of political order. There is a wide range of optional modules from which to choose, and at the end of the programme, you should have a much enhanced understanding of processes of social and political change and the theoretical and methodological approaches to their interpretation and study.
Depending upon your choice of option modules, the programme will also give you:
The programme is also designed to enhance your professional development. We place considerable emphasis on the socialisation of graduate students into a research community. This is reflected in our pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning. There is less didactic teaching and more emphasis on structured seminars with greater participation from students. Class sizes are generally much smaller than at undergraduate level and you will be taught by established members of the academic staff, many of whom are internationally recognized leaders in their particular fields of inquiry. This facilitates close working relationships between staff and students. You will also be encouraged to participate in the staff/graduate seminar which allows MA and research students the opportunity to become more fully involved in a professional research culture, and to meet visiting speakers from many universities in Britain and beyond.
You take compulsory modules alongside optional modules of your choice. Modules may include:
https://www.kent.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/134/political-sociology#structure
Building on Kent’s success as the region’s leading institution for student employability, we place considerable emphasis on you gaining specialist knowledge in your chosen subject alongside core transferable skills. We ensure that you develop the skills and competences that employers are looking for including: research and analysis; policy development and interpretation; independent thought; writing and presentation, as well as time management and leadership skills. You also become fully involved in the professional research culture of the School. A postgraduate degree in the area of social and public policy is a particularly flexible and valuable qualification that can lead to many exciting opportunities and professions.
Our graduates obtain a range of transferable skills and report high levels of being in employment or further study within six months of graduation across all of our degree programmes.
Over 98% of Kent's postgraduate students who graduated in 2016 were in work or further study within six months. Recent graduates from our School have pursued careers in academia, journalism, local and central government, charities and NGOs.
How to apply: https://www.kent.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/apply/
We offer inspirational teaching and supervision alongside first-class library and IT facilities. You also benefit from our high-impact research in all subjects. Whatever you are looking to study, Kent provides a dynamic and challenging environment for your postgraduate studies.
* of 122 universities, not including specialist institutions
World-class researchers developing modern Biology at the largest teaching centre for biology in the Republic of Ireland
