University College London (UCL)
Humanitarian Policy and Practice MSc
London, United Kingdom
MSc
DURATION
5 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2026
TUITION FEES
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
The MSc in Humanitarian Policy and Practice is designed to give students a solid understanding of the key issues in humanitarian work. It covers areas like crisis management, disaster response, and the politics behind aid efforts. The program combines theoretical insights with practical skills, preparing students to work effectively in complex emergency situations. Throughout the course, students explore topics such as refugee protection, health crises, and the role of different organizations involved in humanitarian aid. The curriculum emphasizes critical thinking and decision-making, aiming to equip students with the tools they need for real-world impact.
Students will also get the chance to develop their research and communication skills, which are essential in this field. The program encourages engagement with current debates and challenges faced by humanitarian agencies worldwide. It offers opportunities for practical experience through placements, projects, and interactions with practitioners. This helps students understand the realities of humanitarian work and build networks that can support their careers. Overall, the course aims to prepare graduates to contribute thoughtfully and effectively to the ongoing effort to improve responses to crises and vulnerable populations around the globe.
UCL Scholarships
There are a number of scholarships available to postgraduate students, including our UCL Masters Bursary for UK students and our UCL Global Masters Scholarship for international students. You can click the link below to search via the scholarships finder for awards that you might be eligible for. Your academic department will also be able to provide you with more information about funding.
External Scholarships
Online aggregators like Postgraduate Studentships, Scholarship Search, Postgraduate Funding and International Financial Aid and College Scholarship Search contain information on a variety of external schemes.
If you have specific circumstances or ethnic or religious background it is worth searching for scholarships/bursaries/grants that relate to those things. Some schemes are very specific.
Funding for disabled students
Master's students who have a disability may be able to get extra funding for additional costs they incur to study.
Teaching and learning
While lectures, seminars, self-directed study will form the main body of the teaching and learning methods, there is also a strong focus on group work, reflecting the reality of working in the humanitarian sector. Group work will be organised around specific problems and challenges, based on interactive work, task sharing, reflecting, discussion with team members and evaluating approaches.
The course is built around expert- and practice-informed case studies and will draw from operational expertise from individuals and organisations that are actively engaged on humanitarian issues.
Students will be able to make use of a broad range of digital resources, and face-to-face learning will prioritise expert speakers and small group practical work on case studies.
- Written exams – Testing and applying knowledge and understanding to case study/scenario analysis.
- Coursework essays – Organisation of knowledge and understanding to develop cohesive argument.
- Presentations – Selection, synthesis and communication of information for varied audience/ purpose, media, precis/concision, including both group and individual projects.
- Portfolio – Collated series of short pieces of writing that have been developed and critiqued over the course of the module.
- Group project – Presentation demonstrating planning and preparation and teamwork, complemented by a written report demonstrating structured subject knowledge from across the course.
- Research project – Research analysis, literature review, critical appraisal, structured research writing and presentation of argument.
Typical contact hours and self-directed study requirements for this programme (though this varies slightly across different modules and for individual study or dissertations) are as follows:
For a 30-credit module (300 hours):
60 hours contact teaching (lectures and/or seminars); 160 hours independent study (reading, undertaking formative assessments etc; and 80 hours for revision, summative assessments(s))
For a 15-credit module (150 hours):
30 hours contact teaching (lectures and /or seminars); 80 hours independent study (reading, undertaking formative assessments etc; and 40 hours for revision, summative assessments(s))
For full-time students this equates to approximately 12 hours of contact time a week, including lectures, seminars and tutorials. Overall we expect full-time students to study a full 35-hour week, with time outside classes spent in self-directed study. Part-time and flexible students study at a pro-rata rate.
Modules
Full-time
Students take eight core modules, plus one optional module. Seven are taught modules and two are project-based, of which one of the projects is an individual dissertation project, and the second is a group-based project.
Part-time
Part-time study is completed over two academic years, during which time you will take eight core modules, plus one optional module. Seven are taught modules and two are project-based.
Flexible
Modular/flexible based study is available for up to a maximum of five academic years, during which time you will take eight core modules plus one optional module. Six are taught modules and two are project-based. Flexible students can take as many or as few modules as they would like in any given academic year.
Compulsory modules
- Programme Management for Humanitarians
- Understanding Humanitarian Policy and Practice
- Research Methods for Humanitarian Contexts
- Improving Outcomes in Humanitarian Emergencies
- Humanitarianism and Intersectionality
- Humanitarian Technologies
- Individual Research Project
- Group Humanitarian Project
Optional modules
- Ethnicity, Migration and Health
- Gender, Disaster and Conflict
Please note that the list of modules given here is indicative. This information is published a long time in advance of enrolment and module content and availability are subject to change.
Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits Upon successful completion of 180 credits, you will be awarded an MSc in Humanitarian Policy and Practice.
What this course will give you
- Study as part of UCL’s world-leading Faculty of Population Health Sciences, working alongside our academic experts across diverse disciplines including anthropology, public health, development studies, humanitarian affairs, and medicine.
- UCL is ranked 6th in the world for public health (ShanghaiRanking’s 2023), 9th in the world as a university (QS World Rankings 2025) and is rated No.1 for research power and impact in medicine, health and life sciences (REF 2021).
- Focus on a subject of fast-growing global importance, working with practitioners and policy makers with decades of experience in humanitarian response and research.
- Explore the complex contexts in which humanitarian issues arise, and how such situations come to be framed and understood as crises.
- Develop the technical, critical thinking and interdisciplinary skills needed to make complex decisions that take into account political, economic, social, cultural, environmental, health and other factors.
- Learn to understand, analyse and critique existing and future humanitarian programmes, policies, approaches and processes, drawing on knowledge from across a variety of disciplines.
- Gain a solid grounding in the methodologies and tools needed to interpret information and data ,and make appropriate judgements in difficult circumstances.
- Tap into extensive networking opportunities in London, a hub for humanitarian policy-making and research, and set yourself up with the skills needed to enter, and progress in, the humanitarian sector and beyond.
- Become part of a knowledgeable, interconnected and committed workforce of value-driven practitioners, policy-makers and researchers that are urgently needed to address local, global and planetary challenges and threats in the years and decades ahead.
The foundation of your career
Humanitarian systems have changed dramatically in recent decades. On this course, we focus specifically on the sector-wide desire to shift away from ‘top-down’ humanitarian approaches towards more locally-driven and locally-owned responses that are borne of, and work with, local networks and communities, to ensure equitable partnerships for lasting crisis response and recovery.
You’ll finish the course with an interdisciplinary academic qualification that demonstrates a strong interest and technical grounding in humanitarian politics and practice. The knowledge and practical skills you gain will allow you to contribute productively and critically to policy formulation, research, and practice across humanitarian and adjacent sectors.
You will be well placed to pursue implementation, advisory and research roles with civil society and community networks, non-governmental organisations, and government agencies, engaged in humanitarian policy formulation and response.
Employability
As a graduate of this programme, you’ll go away with:
- A detailed understanding of humanitarian politics and practice.
- The ability to critically analyse humanitarian programmes and policies.
- The ability to select, and apply, tools and knowledge to evaluate humanitarian interventions, policies, and positioning.
- The ability to critically evaluate how knowledge is produced in humanitarian contexts, and critically appraise and design research initiatives.
- Essential project management skills.
- Effective written and verbal communication skills.
- Effective teamwork skills.Networking
Alongside your studies, you will have the opportunity to engage with a diversity of organisations engaged in different aspects of humanitarian response, and to immerse yourself in events, discussions and conferences organised in London.
The group project has been designed with the aim of connecting students with operational humanitarian organisations such that students are exposed to the real-life challenges that shape policy-making processes and operational humanitarian response.
London remains a vibrant hub for humanitarian research, policy and political engagement. Students will have opportunities to connect with experts across UCL and affiliate institutions. Expert talks, debates and career panels will also be organised for students on a periodic basis.
UCL is a member of the International Humanitarian Studies Association (IHSA), which students will have the opportunity to make use of during their studies.