MSc Humanitarian Intervention by Distance Learning

This ground-breaking MSc course offers online training for people working in humanitarian organisations, wherever they are in the world.

Our distance learning course is aimed at people who are currently, or hope to be, engaged in humanitarian work in any country and who want the skills and knowledge to offer psychosocial support.

This involves helping people to maintain their positive psychological development in the face of challenges - often traumatic - being posed by their social environment.

Once you have completed this course you will be able to support others within your organisation, whether or not you are part of an established human resources department.

As well as 'helping the helpers', you will be equipped to offer direct psychosocial guidance to people who have suffered, or who continue to suffer, from the effects of a natural or man-made catastrophe such as famine, flood, epidemic or war.

To support humanitarian and healthcare practitioners' mental wellbeing during the pandemic, the MSc Humanitarian Interventions Distance Learning course has put together a wellbeing portal bringing together a range of internal and external resources for support. 

As part of the portal the course is also putting together a webinar series with the participation of our current students and alumni, to offer live sessions on topics relating to mental wellbeing. These contributions to the webinars foster students' professional development and enhance their experience and competence in the field. 

This MSc course introduces you to different types of intervention and the skills to put them into practice.

These include engagement, development of trust, facilitation, enabling and the identification of a process by which information can be accessed, shared and evaluated.

You will learn how to consult with other members of your team, offering them appropriate psychosocial support and stress management strategies.

You will also be given the skills to develop psychosocial support programmes within the organisation, perhaps through its HR department.

The course includes key modules on how to offer mental support to beneficiaries outside the organisation - that is, people who have suffered directly from natural or man-made disasters.

The MSc can be completed in a year full-time or two to three years part-time, and involves passing six modules.

These include the two conceptual core modules - Psychological Aspects of Humanitarian Intervention, and Assessing, Planning and Intervening During and After Disaster and Conflict.

We consistently review our courses to ensure we are up to date with industry changes and requirements from our graduates. As a result, our modules are subject to change. 

Optional modules include Foundation Counselling Skills, Intercultural Counselling Practice and Processes and Individual Group and Organisational support for IDPs and Refugees. You will also complete two core modules involving research and a dissertation.

• Bachelor's degree: GPA of 2.5 / 4 or overall classification of "Good" or higher
• UK Bachelor's degree with Honours: Second Class, Second Division or higher
• US Bachelor's degree: GPA 2.5 / 4

Extended Diploma or Diploma

FROM

INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE

Diploma with 24 points including a minimum of 15 points at Higher Level

This course offers very specific, applied training. And, as the UK's only MSc in the subject, it will give you the opportunity to go on and study for a PhD.

We also offer intermediate awards .The PG Diploma requires you to pass the two conceptual core modules, plus two optional modules.

The PG Certificate requires a pass in the two conceptual core modules, and the University Certificate asks for a pass in any module other than those relating to research methods and the dissertation.

On completion of the course, you may go on to build or further a career in a humanitarian aid agency in the UK or overseas, or within a public health or social services setting with a psychosocial focus.

The course takes into account the time limitations and practical difficulties the field of psychosocial support can entail. It will cover the changing demands of different phases of aid offered – relief, transition, development and consolidation.

Explore the different career options you can pursue with this degree and see the median salaries of the sector on our Career Coach portal.