Global Humanitarian Studies BSc

The BSc aims to educate and train future generations of humanitarian leaders in the theory and practice of humanitarian action. This multidisciplinary programme will equip you with the knowledge, critical, analytical and research skills and core competencies grounded in practice to anticipate evolving and emerging humanitarian threats and manage widening vulnerability and crisis response.

In each year of your degree you will take a number of individual modules, normally valued at 15 or 30 credits, adding up to a total of 120 credits for the year. Modules are assessed in the academic year in which they are taken. The balance of compulsory and optional modules varies from programme to programme and year to year. A 30-credit module is considered equivalent to 15 credits in the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS).

You will take a compulsory central core of humanitarian studies (50% of the programme) running through all three years. This core includes both researcher-led academic subjects and core competencies. You will cover a broad range of subject areas including understanding and analysis of humanitarian crises, conflict, disaster, migration, natural hazards and climate risks, humanitarian policy, law and aid economics, emergency and crisis response, communication and negotiation, quantitative and qualitative research methods, and ethical, historical and political contexts.

You will select up to two optional pathways (25% each) to follow through three years, which provide both breadth and depth according to your interests, from: Digital Science; Management Science
; Global Health
; Anthropology and Social Science.

Digital Science includes humanitarian data science, statistics, digital science and computer programming, risk quantification and digital health. Management Science includes organisational and project management, organisational behaviour, decision making and leadership for the complex interconnected world of the future. Global Health includes global health policy, disease and poverty, conflict and health and maternal and child health, to give you an understanding of global health, challenge concepts of development and health, and interact critically and flexibly with healthcare professionals. Anthropology and Social Science includes social anthropology, culture and identities, inequality, social networks and resilience, and the anthropology of war and society, to deepen your understanding and provide the tools for shaping future policy and practice.

There is also some flexibility for you to take other modules known as ‘electives’ from other pathways or which may be available across UCL, for instance in international development and human rights, subject to availability and timetabling.

In the third year, you will undertake a major independent research project. This may be associated with your Pathway or the core humanitarian studies. UCL has extensive links to the sector and to practitioners and researchers who may support students in their research projects.

Upon successful completion of 360 credits, you will be awarded a BSc (Hons) in Global Humanitarian Studies.