Global Governance and Sustainable Development MA

Program Overview

The Global Governance and Sustainable Development MA equips students with analytical skills and a deep understanding of sustainable development in theory, policy, and practice. Through a critical case study approach, students develop the skills to lead and manage change in a global environment, preparing them for careers in national and global NGOs, private and public sector institutions, and Westminster-based consultancies. The program features an international mix of students, renowned experts, and internship opportunities in London or internationally.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

Global Governance and Sustainable Development MA

equips you with analytical skills and deepens your understanding of sustainable development in theory, policy and practice.

Objectives:

• Explore approaches to global, national and regional strategies, policies and projects addressing issues such as climate change, food security and sustainable urban development.
• Develop skills to lead and manage change in a global environment in the private, public or third-sector.
• Learn from renowned global governance and sustainable development experts, with expertise in development and gender and environmental policy.
• Participate in internship and work-based learning placements in London or internationally at institutions like the United Nations, OECD, and NGOs.
• Benefit from an international mix of students, enriching your learning with diverse cultural and national perspectives.

Program Description:

This postgraduate degree focuses on responsible environmental resource usage and establishing enabling social and economic relations within sustainable development and global governance frameworks. You'll examine various approaches to how intergovernmental and national strategies, policies and projects addressing global socio-economic and environmental issues are formulated, implemented and evaluated. Through a critical case study approach, you'll develop the skills to lead and manage change in a global environment, whether in the private sector or with public or third-sector agencies.

Outline:

Structure:

• Four core modules plus two optional modules over autumn and winter/spring terms, with a dissertation period over the summer.
• Dissertation submission or work-based project report in October or January of the year following entry, depending on the chosen option.
• Each module typically worth 20 credits, except the dissertation and Work Integrated Learning modules (60 credits each).
• Work Integrated Learning module replaces the dissertation with prior agreement for those securing suitable placements with external organizations.

Modules:

Core Modules:

• Global Governance for Sustainable Development (20 credits): Understand sustainable development, governance, explore global governance blueprints like Agenda 21, collaborations of state and non-state actors in advocacy, policies, and practical actions for global issues, new and emerging theorizations of governance, power, evidence, normative and institutional premises of governance for sustainable development, critical understanding of global governance issues like food security, climate change mitigation and adaptation, healthy cities.
• Politics of Globalisation (20 credits): Analyze the implications of globalization in international relations, exploring international political processes and institutions at political, economic, and cultural levels, international organizations' relevance, transnational politics and issues of global importance, theoretical debates surrounding these issues, develop critical evaluation skills regarding the effectiveness of international policy.
• Research and Practice Skills (20 credits): Prepare for dissertation, assessed work placement or work-based learning projects, attend lectures, workshops, online exercises for research methodologies, skills, employability.

Optional Modules:

• Dissertation (60 credits): Substantial academic research project on a key program issue, apply methodology, research design, and methods to a chosen research topic and present the findings, builds on Research and Practice Skills module but encourages independence and self-discipline in independent research and project management.
• Placement (60 credits): Apply theoretical knowledge and research to anticipate and respond to challenges in a selected workplace experience, undertaken as an internship, current workplace, existing voluntary role, fosters sustainable long-term learning by taking responsibility for own learning, designing and negotiating learning goals, making informed judgments about performance across the program of study, engages students as active subjects in the assessment process, enhancing transformative learning capacity, select a topic of interest in your own workplace for reflexivity, self-regulation, and self-assessment for personal and professional development journey.
• Environmental Law and Governance (20 credits): In-depth understanding of environmental governance and central theoretical approaches for its principles, introducing the governance spectrum from coercive mode and legal instruments to approaches relying on environmental resource users' agency and knowledge, examine theoretical principles and practical applications of environmental rights, legal frameworks for environmental protection at various levels (international, regional, national), environmental dispute resolution mechanisms, challenges and opportunities for environmental governance in a globalized world.
• Foreign Policy Analysis: Geopolitical Perspectives (20 credits): Analyze foreign policy practices as crucial sites of political agency and choice in contemporary geopolitics of international relations, draw on advanced classical and critical theories of international relations and geopolitical perspectives applied to the study of the foreign policy traditions, strategies and practices of the key actors and cases in global politics, encourage and qualify an international group of postgraduate students who may wish to further their specialized study of foreign policy analysis and or employment in fields related to governance, business, politics and diplomacy, create a multidisciplinary, multicultural learning environment reflected on the teaching practice and research of the module leader and receptive to the diverse needs and views of students.
• Global Security (20 credits): Analyze changes in the global security agenda since the end of the Cold War, both empirically and theoretically, explore the meaning of security and compare competing theoretical perspectives in the discipline, analyze the transformation of military security threats with particular emphasis on the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and the significance of global terrorism, explore the rise of non-military issues of human security including environmental change, crime, disease, poverty, and disasters.
• Migration: Theories & Approaches (20 credits): Examine the relationship between migration, politics, and policies from a comparative and European perspective, analyze migration policies, their regulatory role in managing and controlling migratory flows, and how they have been affected by political debates over migration, investigate the growth of anti-immigration politics and how anti-migrant mobilisations have become a constant feature at European level, not only for marginal groups but also for mainstream government parties, investigate conflicts between migrants and natives over the uses of space and the distribution of welfare resources, examine different forms of migrant participation in the public sphere, from self-organized migrant protest around issues such as freedom of circulation, citizenship rights, and labour rights to more institutionalized forms of participation through unions and NGOs.
• Business and Human Rights (20 credits): Understand how the sub-discipline business and human rights challenges State-centred architecture of international human rights law and delves into the responsibility of non-state actors such as multinational corporations in the area of human rights, challenge the idea that only individuals can commit international crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by looking into corporate criminal and civil liability for human rights violations.
• Cities and Sustainable Development (20 credits): Develop and apply practical approaches to complex and diverse urban settings, addressing challenges related to urban regeneration, social inequality, health and climate change, co-taught and developed between Middlesex University and the charitable NGO, London Development Trust (LDT).
• Brief Cases at Middlesex (20 credits): Work to a brief set by the Heaven Company Ltd - a company specializing in sustainability strategy and communication (CSR - and receive support and feedback from them throughout the term, the brief invites you to consider ways to improve the sustainability of private enterprises and to introduce a project, product, or service that will enable a business of your choice to be ‘greener’, more equitable, inclusive and socially just in relation to a community within a defined geographic area.

Assessment:

• Assessment methods vary across modules and can include essays, book reviews, student seminar presentations, a research proposal, and a dissertation.

Teaching:

• Delivered in person and on digital platforms by academics and industry partners.
• Includes lectures, presentations, workshops, seminars, interactive learning, webinars, one-to-one tutorials, and group projects.
• Students can gain skills in computer-based data analysis.
• Taught by an experienced teaching team with a wide range of expertise and professional experience.

Careers:

• Graduates can expect to find work in national and global NGOs as well as private and public sector institutions delivering on social and environmental policy targets.
• Potential roles include consultant, researcher, and policy advisor in organizations such as Westminster-based consultancies, national government departments, and private enterprises interested in aspects of sustainable development.
• Middlesex Unitemps branch helps students find work that fits around study and other commitments with hundreds of student jobs on campus paying the London Living Wage and above.
• Alumni network supports career progression after graduation.

Other:

• International mix of students from 122 countries offers valuable insights and a basis for informed discussion.
• London campus provides everything you need with over 1,000 study spaces, 500 computers, and access to the Sheppard Library.

UK students1 Full-time students: £11,000 Part-time students per taught credit: £84 Part-time students per dissertation credit: £42 International students2 Full-time students: £17,600 Part-time students: £112 per credit Part-time students: £56 per dissertation credit