MSc Humanitarian Action (Online)

SOAS University of London

MSc Humanitarian Action (Online) is an online degree that engages critically with the history, politics and practice of humanitarian action. Students take the core module, followed by a selection of elective modules and a final dissertation.

How and where is humanitarian aid given, and how does it interact with the political and military complexities of emergency contexts? How have critiques of humanitarian aid, including from recipients, impacted on humanitarian action? How does South-to-South assistance in emergencies change, challenge or complement the concepts and practice of humanitarianism?

Why study MSc Humanitarian Action (Online) at SOAS

• SOAS is ranked 2nd in the world for Development Studies (QS World University Rankings 2023).
• We're ranked 6th in UK for graduate employability (QS World University Rankings 2023).
• Our academic staff create an intellectually stimulating and challenging space across the many branches of international development and humanitarianism that make up Development Studies.
• All modules engage with questions of climate crisis, recognising its impact and interaction with processes of inequality and change.
• Our staff specialise in a range of thematic areas including sustainability and climate change, migration and displacement, conflict, humanitarian action, labour, political ecology, and aid and institutions.
• Combined with exceptional resources and our interdisciplinary approach, we offer a unique learning and research opportunity for our diverse and vibrant student community.

The core module for the MSc Humanitarian Action has three parts: it starts with the groundwork in humanitarian principles and architecture, and then presents the critiques and voices from the Global South. It deals with practice and the contradictory contexts for humanitarian work, exploring the politics of security decisions, Responsibility to Protect, witness and asylum. This part presents the opportunity to examine and assess competing priorities in situations of multi-layered insecurity.

This module draws on a range of literatures, including the academic work on humanitarianism, publications, data sets and relevant websites from NGOs, humanitarian thinktanks and UN bodies. It also includes blogs, crowd-sourced data and journals from the Global South.