Are you dismayed, disturbed and totally disenchanted with what is happening to the only real planetary home we have? So are we.
But are you also excited by the opportunities and prospects this opens up for us to create a better, brighter and more beautiful world? So are we.
Then join us in this innovative new postgraduate programme from Schumacher College in collaboration with the School of Architecture, Design and Environment at Plymouth University, the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University, the Dartington Hall Trust and surrounding communities.
Never has there been a more important time for a new approach for engaging with the challenging situations we face from the local to the global levels. In a rapidly changing dynamic situation, solutions rarely remain optimal for very long and continuous active participation is a necessary ingredient for success. Growing resilience in individuals and communities is the way to keep going despite the continuous change around us.
Our programme in Ecological Design Thinking embraces and explores this complex world of interactions with lively engagement and an optimistic approach. It offers powerful, practical and ecology-centred skills and knowledge to apply to a diverse range of practices from design, education and business to the more specific roles of leadership, management and consultancy.
The Ecological Design Thinking programme is trans-disciplinary, insightful and universal in its application; pragmatic and integrative in its operation. It brings together theoretical and practical discourses on ecologically inspired design, with methods of design thinking that are merged with the latest developments in anthropology, psychology and socio- political economics. It aims to create a novel ground for change makers at the forefront of our transition to sustainable societies.
Ecologically inspired design includes the study of ecological worldviews, systems dynamics and applied complexity theory alongside the philosophies and practices of permaculture and biomimetic design.
Design thinking is a well-established participatory technique grounded in the empathic understanding of the feelings, experiences and emotions of others. It engages people in lively conversations, visually stimulated interactions and playful prototyping. It frames problems as opportunities, forms insights and generates creative and collaborative solutions in complex situations.
The Ecological Design thinking programme aims to provide a nourishing environment for participants by incorporating short-courses led by internationally recognised thinkers, place-making projects in collaboration with the Dartington Hall Trust, the home of Schumacher College, and short placements offered by external partner organisations.
This programme is the fourth radical postgraduate programme developed at Schumacher College and contributes to and enhance the College’s ongoing collaborative inquiry into sustainable living – a live and networked inquiry of practice underway around the world by the College’s 20,000 alumni and others.
We would be delighted to receive your application whether you are coming directly from an undergraduate degree, taking time-out to study mid-career or wanting an opportunity to develop your understanding of a practice that is of great importance to all of our futures. We encourage applications from community practitioners and activists as well as planners, educators, architects, politicians and policy makers. You do not necessarily need a first degree in design to apply for this course. You only need to be enthusiastic, resilient and committed.
We are looking for enthusiastic agents of change who are ready to co-design new approaches to the way we live that are socially just and ecologically sustainable. We are looking for those prepared to take risks and stand on the cutting-edge of new practices in this area.
Schumacher College welcomes students from all over the world in a diverse mix of cultural experience and age that allows for rich peer- to- peer learning.
An interdisciplinary programme integrating design methods with those of ecology and the social sciences.
An integrative design programme rooted in deep ecological understanding and practice and informed by cutting edge thinking in new economic approaches and social dynamics.
A balanced distribution of time and resources on skill-based and cognitive-based knowledge and between practice and theory.
Access to some of the world’s leading thinkers and practitioners in design, Gaia theory, complexity, climate science, systems thinking, new economics and social change.
Short courses led by internationally recognised thinkers and researchers.
Short practical placements with a range of partner organisations operating at the leading edge of social innovation.
An immersive, integrative and transformational teaching and learning approach rooted in the principles established by Schumacher College and Dartington Hall, and engaged in a living and working community on and around the Dartington Estate in Devon.
Ecological Design Thinking can be applied to a wide range of contexts, from the personal to the societal. This programme aims to create a new generation of designers, entrepreneurs, policy-makers, educators, researchers, consultants and activists. Graduates will have the skills and knowledge to work for sustainable change in the public and private sectors as well as in civil society, or to set up their own projects or organisations that will contribute to the transformation of society.
New York City boasts the country’s largest number of creative-sector jobs and attracts top design talent. Local industry events and collaborations with commercial and nonprofit partners deepen connections to the field. In the MFA Industrial Design program, students combine advanced making skills with critical inquiry to design for production at all scales, from low volume to high volume, employing methods ranging from desktop manufacturing to systems involving global supply chains. Students develop their knowledge and skills at the university’s state-of-the-art product prototyping and testing facilities.
The MFA Industrial Design curriculum balances competing interests such as economical production and sustainability, consumerism, social and environmental improvement, and global and local production, investigating ways to integrate and reconcile these forces as a whole. In their second semester, MFA students explore limited-run making in New York City, and in the third semester they can investigate large-scale global production through virtual collaborations or study abroad at sites including Parsons Paris. A specialized thesis project offers opportunities to develop designs that advance — or challenge — industrial design theory and practice.
Parsons’ Master of Fine Arts in Industrial Design program offers an innovative two-year, 60-credit full-time graduate curriculum that prepares students to negotiate the seemingly contradictory forces at play in the growing product design industry. Students explore the way goods can be produced in both localized contexts (a “making in place” approach, which relies on regionalized needs and constraints) and globalized contexts (employing design principles focusing on universal needs). Parsons’ School of Constructed Environments includes graduate students in Architecture, Interior Design, and Lighting Design, creating a unique learning community.
This program is part of Parsons' School of Constructed Environments (SCE). Learn about the SCE community and explore our SCE blog to see what students, faculty, and alumni are doing in NYC and around the world.
Find out more information here: http://www.newschool.edu/m/parsons-industrial?utm_source=find_a_masters&utm_medium=hyperlink_listing&utm_campaign=pm_parsons_grad&utm_term=industrial_design
The faculty of design practitioners aims to develop a community of designers committed to improving industry, protecting the environment, and promoting the quality of life. The MFA Industrial Design program attracts motivated, reflective students with experience in product design but also accepts candidates from other design professions and disciplines such as engineering, fine art, management, and anthropology. An innovation-focused university with programs in the social sciences, business and management, media studies, and the performing arts, The New School offers complementary courses that enrich design practice.
Students graduate equipped with the ability to integrate the many considerations involved in product design and to lead as socially aware makers, strategists, and industry specialists. Graduates emerge prepared to design innovative products and lead the industries that produce them as well. Career paths include industrial design, product development, manufacturing, furniture design, humanitarian and service design, toy design, design management, and architectural building systems.
Find out more information here: http://www.newschool.edu/m/parsons-industrial?utm_source=find_a_masters&utm_medium=hyperlink_listing&utm_campaign=pm_parsons_grad&utm_term=industrial_design
This Master's programme focusing on "Architecture: Resilient and Sustainable Strategies" explores architecture from a research-by-designand design-by-research perspective. Students are educated and trained in a multicultural and international context. The programme combines an academic approach with creative- experimental approach. It is characterised by a fully-integrated design methodology, providing students with solid skills in the contemporary discipline of architectural design and research.
The Master of Architecture programme is organised at both of the faculty's campuses in Brussels and Ghent, though each campus offers a different orientation:
This is an initial Master's programme and can be followed on a full-time or part-time basis. The programme consists out of a minimum of four semesters.
The Faculty of Architecture takes its international dimension as the basis for its own quality assessment. It positions itself squarely within the international field of qualitative academic education. The faculty's international activities are extensive and diversified: student mobility and staff exchange on a European and intercontinental level, internationally oriented programmes for incoming students, international workshops and competitions, international research projects, international internships, development cooperation, etc.
The faculty continues to build on its tradition of academic integration of teaching and research to maintain and enhance its standard of quality and international standing.
The faculty works hard to consolidate and enrich its network of cooperative associations with professionals and universities all over the world and strives to leverage this international network for students' benefit. Its international dimension is a strong catalyst for creativity and an added value to students' future professional career.
"The intended academic quality, is the core of the program (architecture, urban planning), i.e. academically based 'professionalism'.
The broadening of the profile focuses on basic disciplines (architecture and urban planning), however without compromising the appropriate focus on the professional profile of the architect (in multiple forms).
In the profile of master, one should obtain extreme concentration and specificity (however, no specialisation).
On the one hand, the master focuses on the content and area-specific level of the bachelor phase, and on the other hand on the acquirement of access to the professional or doctoral field (advanced masters, PhD,...).
The core competences of the master are:
The master program should guarantee the acquirement of scientific depth. The offered frontier disciplines focus on the current state of research and development within the competence field. The technical qualification to be acquired, focuses on the high quality problem solving of complex tasks.
At our campus in Ghent, the International Master of Science in Architecture is concerned with the current theory and practice of architecture and sustainability.
The Brundtland report (United Nations, 1987) defines sustainable development as 'development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'. The United Nations in 2005 referred to the 'interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars' of sustainable development as economic development, social development and environmental protection.
Translating these three pillars for sustainable architecture, they would entail: providing access to high quality and healthy living and working environments for all, finding ways to create socially sustainable environments at different scales and a wise use of natural resources. Technical considerations, together with more conceptual or strategic issues, are dealt with in this two-year program about architecture and sustainability.
Central in the program of the International Master of Science in Architecture is a critical reflection about architecture and its social, cultural or environmental role for society.
Based on a highly interdisciplinary learning process of integrated research and 'research by design', students are expected to determine a theoretical stance on current issues with particular emphasis on how aspects of sustainability, universal design, urban ecology and energy-efficient technologies may contribute to the development of more sustainable human settlements.
Apart from the theoretical courses, the program includes 3 design studios (during one semester) and 1 final master dissertation studio (during one year). Each semester, there is a focus on a specific attitude, related to the main theme of the programme. All studios are organised through a pool of studio groups (Academic Design Offices and Design Studios) where the teaching staff provides a series of specific themes, methods and intervention areas for the students to develop an architectural project:
Themes sem 1
Themes sem 2 (specific focus on the city of Ghent)
Themes sem 3
Themes sem 4
Graduates are trained to lead multidisciplinary teams of engineers, interior architects, landscape architects and artists. In addition to working as independent (self-employed) architects, our graduates also work as professionals in government agencies and international design firms. Some graduates go on to roles as researchers serving local or international governance bodies, NGO's or other institutes.
The MSc Advanced Home Futures course is designed to revolutionise the building and construction of houses and homes. It was developed adhering closely to TV architect George Clarke’s MOBIE modular building concept and advanced home construction principles.
This course places an emphasis on the innovative design and construction of new homes, conceptualising prototypes of how we will live in the future and the exciting new materials and building techniques that are becoming available.
You develop knowledge of housing design and are introduced to the role of CAD, BIM and model making. These are all developed alongside a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the housing provision for health, wellbeing and universal needs creating a learning experience that disrupts and challenges the concept of ‘home’ as we traditionally know it.
Hosted by the School of Science, Engineering & Design this course has academic input drawn from across the University to consider housing design, materials and technology, the role of the home in health and wellbeing and in society, and methods of effectively managing projects and leading change. You learn about concepts of sustainability, design thinking, design processes and technological innovations and you are challenged to develop new ideas and approaches to the housing and homes for the future.
This course emphasises group work and collaborative learning, and mixes practical and theoretical experiences.
George Clarke’s social enterprise, the Ministry of Building, Innovation, Education (MOBIE), is kickstarting a fundamental change to the building industry and our courses have been designed to adhere closely to the modular building concept and advanced home construction principles of MOBIE.
Course structure
Core modules
Modules offered may vary.
How you learn
You study four 30-credit modules and then work on a 60-credit project.
How you are assessed
You are assessed within each module through a variety of methods including writing reports, creating artefacts and presentations. Each module is led by a different academic School within the University to embed the culture of multidisciplinarity into the course.
You are challenged to develop new ideas and approaches to housing and homes for the future. Graduate career opportunities exist primarily in the home design and construction industry, but also in town and social housing planning and management.
This course is highly regarded in both music business education and the industry at large. It will prepare you to become one of the next generation of music industry leaders and entrepreneurs. All teaching staff on the course are currently working in the music industry, and every week there are a number of high-level industry guests. You will need to be a self-motivated and open-minded student, as this is an intense course, but one which can help you to progress your career across a wide range of music business disciplines.
Working with music industry leaders and organisations, the course has developed a unique curriculum. You will be able to combine a strong underpinning of key business skills (entrepreneurialism, leadership, organisational management, and marketing with essential music industry management knowledge (strategic innovation technology, intellectual property and copyright) and academic concepts and theories relevant to the industry today.
Formal teaching is conducted through sessions which each include a formal lecture, industry guest speaker and seminar exercises. Each of the six modules has a minimum of two assignments. The final project (equivalent to three modules) is a report of a minimum of 12,000 words.
The following modules are indicative of what you will study on this course.
Core modules
The course is globally recognised and industry leaders are weekly guests to the Central London Cavendish teaching campus for guest speaking , Q&A sessions and networking with students . Furthermore , our alumni are working across the international music industry on all continents, in areas of the industry ranging from music companies to live music and publishing , artist management to tech start up, with a wide variety of companies and organisations, large and small, including:
Course graduates have gone on to work in a wide variety of creative industries, from mobile marketing through to the Arts Council. Many of our graduates are working in the music industry, with companies including Apple , Spotify Universal, Sony Music , Pledge Music , Kobalt , Shazam and PIAS. Our international students are working around the globe in music and music –tech related companies, including EMI Holland , PIAS European office and Outdustry in mainland China .
Today's music industry organisations need graduates with both strong degrees and skills relevant to the workplace. The MA Music Business Management course is committed to developing employable graduates by ensuring that:
This programme provides advanced academic training in food safety and food control. It includes topics such as food control, hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) and food chain security.
You will consider the relationship between food and public health, and examine the scientific, technical, managerial, political and legislative factors that influence food safety.
This programme provides advanced academic training in food safety and food control. You will consider the relationship between food and public health, and examine the scientific, technical, managerial, political and legislative factors that influence food safety.
The course is particularly suitable for those with relevant food related knowledge and/or experience including:
Programme content
The syllabus includes detailed coverage of food safety hazards, especially microbial contamination, and the impact of such contamination on public health. Also covered in depth are the Food Controls used in the EU to contain such hazards.
This postgraduate programme is designed to provide rigorous academic training in Food Safety, Hygiene and Management.
It provides an opportunity for students to develop an appreciation of the relationship between food and public health by focusing on the factors that influence food safety and quality. These are multidisciplinary and include scientific, technical, managerial, political and legislative matters. Topics covered include:
Food Safety
Access to safe food should be a basic human right. Unfortunately food borne illness is universal. Changing methods of food production and the globalisation of the food chain increase the risk that food borne contaminants will cause larger and more serious outbreaks, as well as providing opportunities for emerging pathogens.
The MSc in Food Safety Hygiene and Management differs from other postgraduate food courses in that it focuses on the mechanisms of Food Control and Food Safety Management. All Food Control and Safety Systems seek to prevent food safety hazards from causing illness; microbiological hazards are considered to be some of the most significant food safety hazards in the food chain and the content of the course reflects this viewpoint.
Food Control
One of the main mechanisms of Food Control is the implementation of food hygiene and food standards legislation. Together with the relevant food microbiology, this legislation forms the basis of the course, underpinning the study of processes and management systems commonly used by industry and the competent authorities.
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP)
The course also covers HACCP, Risk Assessment, Quality Assurance, Integrated Pest Management, premises and equipment design and other aspects of control in a national and international context. The research projects conducted by the students as part of the MSc reflect these priorities and may be laboratory or practice based.
Food Chain Security
The emphasis on implementation and enforcement of legislation and safety standards is a novel approach and, by offering a comprehensive picture of food chain security, provides progression for those from undergraduate degrees such as food technology, veterinary medicine or microbiology. This legal perspective qualifies successful candidates to work in enforcement or advisory positions for UK competent authorities such as the Food Authority (Local Authority). The course is accredited by the Environmental Health Registration Board.
The legislation considered is EC based and the course welcomes many students from other member states, some of whom return home to work in their own Competent Authorities or to represent their country on specialist food committees at national, EU and international level. Several have also taken up lectureships in food safety. The course has also become increasingly popular with overseas students, especially those from countries wishing to accede to the EU or to trade with it.
Related links
Learning, teaching and assessment
Various learning and teaching methods are used on the programme, including traditional lectures, computer-based learning, student-based learning such as case studies and directed learning, laboratories and visits. The programme is assessed using both traditional unseen examination and coursework. The MSc requires candidates to complete a research project and submit a thesis.
Skills gained
Apart from a high level of technical knowledge, students will also gain the ability to critically analyse data and published information, apply scientific principles and legislation to practical situations and become experienced at locating and interpreting government guidance. Successful candidates will also develop an advanced understanding of common food safety management systems such as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP).
Careers
The Postgraduate Diploma and MSc are accredited by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health /Environmental Health Registration Board as a route to the Higher Certificate in Food Premises Inspection and therefore very appropriate for anyone wishing to work as a food premises officer in a food authority or competent authority. Past students have found work in a variety of areas, including NGOs, competent authorities in the UK and overseas, academic institutions and the food industry.
The International Politics and Human Rights programme is for students who want to explore international politics and human rights more widely and then drill down to specialise their knowledge. The MA is designed to give you the chance to create your own questions about the way the world works – and to shape arguments where you feel it doesn’t. These are some of the questions the course poses:
This is a course where you will challenge your own point of view. We unpick the ideas that structure the way we understand the world, so we can identify how those understandings shape global events. We then focus on how the way we view things may, in itself, be ethically problematic.
International Politics and Human Rights is an evolving subject so you explore unique specialisms backed by real-world research. The department’s academics are actively shaping policy, sitting on the advisory board for the Corbyn shadow cabinet, hosting talks on the human right to housing in London, and engaging in study groups around the Obama presidency. This keeps the content of the course effective and current, giving you a contemporary lens from which to view rapid political change.
You have the opportunity to undertake a placement, but it is not a formal requirement of the course. We encourage you to create your own, by fostering connections offered by the Careers Service. There is also the International Politics Careers Day, which explores career opportunities with international politics degrees and includes:
As part of the University of London you can also become a member of Senate House Library for free with your student ID card.
The course is taught by academics within the department with industry professionals offering insight in the form of talks for the Practitioner Series. This is a programme of talks from visiting speakers and alumni working within organisations such as The Refugee Council and Amnesty International.
The staff within our Department of International Politics are research active, enthusiastic and passionate about their work. Often this research and influence leads to policy change and many media appearances. Find out more about International Politics staff.
You can follow our staff’s activity through their Twitter feed: @cityintpolitics
Each taught module is assessed by an essay, either a 5,000-word essay for 30 credit modules or a 3,000-word essay for 15 credit modules. Your final MA marks are derived from a combination of your essay and dissertation grades.
You are required to submit a dissertation of 15,000 words in an area linked to the MA degree. Your dissertation topic will be agreed with your personal tutor/supervisor.
Your work will be assessed by coursework alone, there are no exams. Many students develop their key interest first when they choose their elective modules, then when they write their essays, and finally when they write their dissertation over the summer term.
The structure of this MA means you can design your own degree. The first core module Human Rights and the Transformation of World Politics l is taught in the first term and Global Ethics: Principles, Power and Politics, is taught in the second term. Throughout the year you can choose elective modules that suit your interests. You can also opt to study across departments with optional modules from the Department of Sociology and The City Law School.
You take two 30-credit core modules, one in each term, totalling 60 credits. You will then take elective modules totalling 60 credits, which include 15 and 30 credit options, and complete your 60 credit dissertation in the third term as a student on the full-time programme (with submission in September of that year). You must also attend the dissertation workshops that are offered by the department, as it is a compulsory and important part of the MA programme.
The skills you will take away from this programme – those of research, analysis and presentation – are highly valued by employers. In 2016 70% of City's International Politics graduates were in employment or further study six months after graduation. Current graduates now work within the following organisations:
From human rights organisations to NGOs and government agencies, the course gives you the perfect foundation to prepare for a career in a wide range of fields. You will graduate with the ability to undertake in-depth research, challenge received explanations of topics in social and political life and to examine and critically evaluate the complex structure of relationships between governments, transnational actors, transnational networks and intergovernmental or governmental organisations.
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