Child Protection Data Futures MSc, PgDip (ICL), PgCert

A new interdisciplinary degree with the Edinburgh Futures Institute

The MSc programme in Child Protection Data Futures aims to build data skills and connect disciplines for safer futures for all children. The current child protection system is fragmented and disjointed, with multiple data sets, sources, standards and capabilities. This means that it is difficult to join up data, obscuring the scale of complexity and challenges within the child protection system. Without high-quality data that can guide policy, funding and interventions, children continue to be exploited and abused, and perpetrators of abuse have impunity.

Child protection data is also changing. With the advent of new technology like extended realities and generative AI comes new online forms of harm. Public services and frontline practitioners are experiencing for the first time enormous volumes of data, particularly around the creation and sharing of Child Sexual Abuse Material. Those who work across the child protection system therefore need to be prepared to not just build better foundations and standards to commission, collect and analyse existing data, but be ready to future-proof the system against harm in new spaces and in new ways.

This programme recognises that complex data insights are needed for a complex system, and that every actor and discipline within the system has a role to play. Through this interdisciplinary and challenge-driven programme, students will learn how to conceptualise and actually use child protection data to create change.

This programme will increase knowledge and understanding of:

• risk and protective factors
• the prevalence and incidence of child abuse
• the theories and promising programmes and policies that exist to prevent and respond to child abuse

Importantly, the programme will provide students with the specialist skills to make an impact, with a value-driven, socially responsible contribution to tackling child maltreatment and youth violence globally. Expert speakers, case studies and real-life examples will bring the child protection system to life, and students will have many opportunities to synthesise this learning through activities that apply theory to reality.

Postgraduate study at the Edinburgh Futures Institute

This programme is part of an interconnected portfolio of postgraduate study opportunities at Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI).

The Futures Institute supports interdisciplinary teaching, learning and research that is focused on complex global and social challenges. Our programmes are taught by academic experts from many different subject areas.

As a Futures Institute student, you should be proactive and motivated. You will be supported to develop creative, critical, and data-informed thinking that cuts across traditional disciplinary boundaries. You will have the space to think deeply about questions linked to your own passions and professional goals and will develop a project based on an issue that you care about.

As well as knowledge specific to your area of study, studying at Edinburgh Futures Institute will give you the skills and understanding you need to become a creative, confident, and critical citizen in a fast-changing world.

These skills include:

• core data skills
• data ethics
• the ability to interrogate issues of global scope using perspectives from across disciplines
• creative and analytic approaches to knowledge

You can join us regardless of whether you already have experience or practical skills in the use and application of digital data.

These entry requirements are for the 2025/26 academic year and requirements for future academic years may differ. Entry requirements for the 2026/27 academic year will be published on 1 Oct 2025.

A UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, in any discipline.

We will also consider your application if you have other professional qualifications or experience; please contact us to check before you apply.

Students from China

This degree is Band C.

• Postgraduate entry requirements for students from China

International qualifications

Check whether your international qualifications meet our general entry requirements:

• Entry requirements by country

English language requirements

Regardless of your nationality or country of residence, you must demonstrate a level of English language competency which will enable you to succeed in your studies.

English language tests

We accept the following English language qualifications at the grades specified:

• IELTS Academic: total 7.0 with at least 6.5 in each component. We do not accept IELTS One Skill Retake to meet our English language requirements.
• TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition): total 100 with at least 23 in each component. We do not accept TOEFL MyBest Score to meet our English language requirements.
• C1 Advanced (CAE) / C2 Proficiency (CPE): total 185 with at least 176 in each component.
• Trinity ISE: ISE III with passes in all four components.
• PTE Academic: total 73 with at least 65 in each component. We do not accept PTE Academic Online.
• Oxford ELLT: 8 overall with at least 7 in each component.

Unless you are a national of a majority English speaking country, your English language qualification must be no more than three and a half years old from the start of the month in which the programme you are applying to study begins. If you are using an IELTS, PTE Academic, TOEFL, Trinity ISE, or Oxford ELLT test, it must be no more than two years old on the first of the month in which the programme begins, regardless of your nationality. (Revised 14 January 2025 to include Oxford ELLT.)

Degrees taught and assessed in English

We also accept an undergraduate or postgraduate degree that has been taught and assessed in English in a majority English speaking country, as defined by UK Visas and Immigration:

• UKVI list of majority English speaking countries

We also accept a degree that has been taught and assessed in English from a university on our list of approved universities in non-majority English speaking countries (non-MESC).

• Approved universities in non-MESC

If you are not a national of a majority English speaking country, then your degree must be no more than five years old at the beginning of your programme of study.

Find out more about our language requirements:

• English language requirements

This programme is applicable to individuals from many disciplines including child welfare, health, judiciary/law, education, law enforcement, political science, the social sciences including social policy, international development. It is for those who want to:

• commission, conduct or apply research on issues of child welfare and child protection in academic, private sector, government or non-governmental settings
• shape policy and practice to address pressing issues in relation to children

The hybrid nature of the programme, the focus on futures, and the opportunity to hold course credits for up to ten years, means that the programme is particularly valuable for those students who are already working as a practitioner or in a professional space, or are looking to balance their continued education with other life commitments. The programme is aimed at students who wish to continue their academic studies in the sphere of child protection, at people who are passionate about gaining the tangible data skills to make a difference for children, and at individuals who are already working in the field as a practitioner or professional, and wish to deepen their learning to support a move to the next career level.

Possible employers may include:

• universities and research organisations
• frontline practitioner organisations (e.g. law enforcement, child welfare, justice)
• non-governmental organisations focused on child protection
• 3rd sector charities and advocacy organisations
• local and national government bodies and departments centred on child protection
• international organisations (e.g. The United Nations)
• online technology platforms and providers (e.g. in trust and safety roles)