MA Risk, Security and Politics

Terry graduated in January 2012 with a merit in MA in Risk. Health and Public Policy. As part of his degree he completed a dissertation on ‘”Media coverage of the radiation risks from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster” and took the elective modules Social Policy & Society and Social Risks for Population Health.

I am currently employed as a Risk Analyst with the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, DC. I work to protect critical infrastructure from terrorist attack. My current focus is on the security of the chemical sector. I strive to ensure that the focuses of security regulations account for all of the consequences of a terrorist event – human health, economics and critical national mission needs.

I believe the Risk Masters is a very important course. The significance of the linkage between risk and human health is too often minimized. Governments allocate the majority of resources to the protection and recovery of the economic sector, ignoring the often long term costs of health related effects, both physical and psychological. The Risk Masters brings to the forefront the need to consider all costs in the analysis of risk, not just those that can easily be assigned a monetary value. I believe this course, or one with a similar focus, should be mandatory for those in the civil service who have to deal with the difficulty of balancing risk management resources and/or creating risk based regulations.

David graduated in January 2012 with a MA in Risk and Security.

David says: “Whilst studying for my MA in Risk and Security I covered a wealth of material from health to international politics, taking in technology and terrorism along the way ... Learning about the various conceptions of risk and some of techniques used to study it really opens up a world of possibilities when it comes solving problems”.

David is now pursuing a career in the film industry and says that the “MA not only provides a solid safety net to fall back on, but ... potential employers are interested to know what a degree in Risk and Security means and how widely it can be applied”.

The range of topics and people I encountered was fantastic, it has easily been my most interesting year of higher education! It was great to spend a year with the kind of people who ask exactly all of the right questions, and to be taught by academics who knew all of the right answers.

I can’t stress enough that the vast majority of the course was extremely interesting, challenging and everything I hoped for from a Masters at Durham. Studying at Durham was a long standing ambition and this year has certainly not disappointed!

As a result of studying this programme I am now working for Applied Resilience as a resilience advisor – a startup public sector mutual providing emergency planning and business continuity services to Runnymede, Spelthorne and Guildford borough councils in Surrey.