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Why choose the School of Applied Social Sciences
Volunteer with the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½'s Refugee Legal Assistance Project (RLAP), gaining real-life, practice-based knowledge and skills while supporting refugees.
Highly experienced staff with global work experience with the United Nations and NGOs in the humanitarian and international development sector.
The perfect course for professionals and recent Honours graduates looking to give their career an international perspective.
About the course
This course focuses on social issues with an international dimension such as humanitarian aid, forced migration, human rights, social justice and social enterprise. In addition to gaining theoretical knowledge, you develop practical skills – such as advocacy and intercultural competence – so you can work effectively with communities and individuals from diverse cultural and social backgrounds, in the UK and abroad. The course also exposes you to innovative approaches to enhancing and decolonising international social welfare and development, with case studies from across the globe.
For further course information, contact course coordinator Dr Lena Opfermann at lena.opfermann@beds.ac.uk
Industry links
We collaborate with the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½'s Refugee Legal Assistance Project (RLAP), supporting refugees with family reunification applications.
Your student experience
Highly interactive, student-centred learning with in-class debates, role plays and weekly presentations applying course work to current affairs.
Learn from an industry-experienced, research-active academic team, producing high-quality research that influences policy making and improves the protection of vulnerable migrants.
Get first-hand experience of the situation of asylum seekers through a field visit to the Luton City of Sanctuary network.
Expand your knowledge through guest lecturers with global work and research experience, teaching on topics such as public health in emergencies; humanitarian sanitation; and the relationship between climate change and international social work.
Course Leader - Dr Lena S. Opfermann
I am Senior Lecturer in Applied Social Studies and coordinate the MA International Social Welfare and Social Development. Prior to joining the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ in September 2019 I worked as Teaching Fellow in Post-conflict Reconstruction at Durham ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ where I was Programme Director of two MSc Programmes at the Durham Global Security Institute (DGSi) from 2017-2019.
Course Leader - Dr Lena S. Opfermann
I am Senior Lecturer in Applied Social Studies and coordinate the MA International Social Welfare and Social Development. Prior to joining the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ in September 2019 I worked as Teaching Fellow in Post-conflict Reconstruction at Durham ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ where I was Programme Director of two MSc Programmes at the Durham Global Security Institute (DGSi) from 2017-2019.
What will you study?
ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ing our International Social Welfare and Social Development MA course will introduce you to theoretical foundations, approaches and practice skills around social welfare and social development in a global context. You will develop your knowledge of the origins, development and future of International Social Welfare and Social Development to understand the landscape in which it operates. More specifically, you will learn the requirements for effective and ethical social welfare practice in diverse countries and cultures to ensure that you are culturally competent in our Comparative Social Welfare and Cultural Competence – Approaches, Policy and Practice unit. Here, you will compare different approaches to practice in various settings to consider how global social work values and ethics can be integrated into local practice.
Aside from this, our core unit in Humanitarian Aid, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Social Welfare in Disasters will allow you to develop a critical awareness of the role of social welfare and development in contexts of humanitarian aid and disasters. In particular, you will interrogate the relationship between humanitarian principles and human rights, question issues of power and exploitation, learn about humanitarian standards (such as the SPHERE project) and humanitarian communication. You will also familiarise yourself with approaches aimed to decolonialise the humanitarian sector through a stronger focus on participation and localisation.
This course also offers a range of optional units for you to specialise in. For instance, you may choose to develop your knowledge of international Human Rights frameworks and apply them to a variety of case studies. Alternatively, you may want to explore the theories and concepts of social entrepreneurship and learn how to design and implement a social enterprise project in our Social Enterprise unit. In our unit on the Complexities of Forced Migration, Displacement, Trafficking and Refuge, you will be able to explore the international system that protects refugees, the shrinking space for asylum in the UK, separated children and debates around human trafficking.
You will complete the course with a Dissertation in Applied Social Sciences where you will engage in an independent research project focused on a research question of your own interest that is relevant to your field of study. With the support and guidance of a supervisor, you will conduct an original piece of research. You will be prepared for this through our units Research Methods 1: Setting Deep Foundations and Research Methods 2: Design, Data Collection and Ethics. In these two units you will be taught to combine policy, data and research evidence to propose a research idea that is robustly designed, makes use of appropriate data collection methods and is ethically sound.
How will you be assessed?
The assessments develop incrementally across the programme allowing you to gain skills, acquire knowledge and receive feedback on your performance. This will enable you to apply the knowledge gained and feed it into subsequent assessments.
A small number of non-graded formative assessments are also used to enable you to receive feedback and further support your learning.
At the end of the course the assessments will demonstrate your ability to analyse, evaluate and synthesise knowledge and communicate this in both written and other presentational formats and to demonstrate a range of high level transferable skills, attractive to prospective employers and evidenced in the course learning outcomes.
The assessment methods include:
- Case studies, written statements and policy reports
- Individual and group presentations (e.g. posters, podcasts, powerpoint)
- Analysis of qualitative and/or quantitative data
The dissertation allows you to carry out an independent research project and communicate knowledge, findings and recommendations in an academic way
Careers
Graduates typically go on to work in the humanitarian, human rights and international development sector with local, national and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or government institutions. Some students take up further study at Professional Doctorate or PhD level. Globally, there is a growing demand for social welfare and social development professionals with the academic and professional competences acquired on this MA.
Alumni of this course currently work with a range of NGOs and government institutions in the fields of migration, human trafficking, modern slavery and humanitarian aid. Some have gone on to pursue PhDs.
Entry Requirements
Entry Requirements
Fees for this course
UK
The full-time standard fee for a taught Master's degree for the Academic Year 2025/26 is £10,000 per year. You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for your tuition fees and living costs. Visit
Alternatively if you have any questions around fees and funding, please email admission@beds.ac.uk
International 2024/25
The full-time standard fee for a taught Master's degree for the Academic Year 2025/26 is £16,900
If you have any questions around fees and funding, please email international@beds.ac.uk
Fees for this course
UK
The full-time standard fee for a taught Master's degree for the Academic Year 2025/26 is £10,000 per year. You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for your tuition fees and living costs. Visit
Alternatively if you have any questions around fees and funding, please email admission@beds.ac.uk
International 2024/25
The full-time standard fee for a taught Master's degree for the Academic Year 2025/26 is £16,900
If you have any questions around fees and funding, please email international@beds.ac.uk