MA Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution
MA
DURATION
27 months
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
GBP 20,468 *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* international / home: GBP 7,938 | part-time: home: GBP 3,969
Key Summary
- Are you interested in advancing your knowledge of contemporary conflict studies, and developing the skills and qualities needed for professional conflict and peace practice?
- Do you want to spend a year studying in a stimulating academic environment, working with staff at the forefront of their field and with students from all over the world?
- Are you looking for a challenging learning experience that will involve solving real-world problems, addressing complex ethical dilemmas, undertaking independent research projects, and practising advanced skills for conflict engagement?
- Would you like to build a portfolio of work demonstrating your achievement of a set of professional competencies relevant to employment in peace, conflict and development?
The MA in Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution is offered by the internationally recognised Department of Peace Studies and International Development, drawing on over 50 years of experience as a leading centre of peace research and education.
The programme will develop your understanding of the causes and dynamics of conflict and violence in a range of settings. It will support you in making informed judgements about when and how to engage constructively with conflict. You will weigh up the strengths and limitations of different approaches to intervention and consider critical questions surrounding efforts to build peace in different contexts.
Through a diverse programme of study, including a significant applied, practical element, you will develop knowledge and competencies essential to effective, ethically aware and reflective practice within conflict engagement and peacebuilding practice - locally, nationally or internationally.
As part of our 50th anniversary celebrations, we have been gathering memories and reflections from our large and diverse community of alumni. These will give you a good sense of the many things students take away from our programmes and the diversity of pathways they follow after their studies. Take a look at our memories and reflections.
Every year we award numerous non-repayable scholarships to UK, EU and international students based on academic excellence, personal circumstances or economic hardship.
What you will study
All module information is for 2023 entry and is subject to change.
First Year
Core
- Applied Conflict Research
- Theories and Practices of Conflict Resolution
- Creative Practice in Conflict Engagement and Peacebuilding
- Dissertation
Options
- African Politics and Security Dynamics
- Critical Perspectives on Sustainable Development
- Security and Development in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Areas
- Social-Ecological Systems and Crises
- Studying Peace in a Changing World
- Policy Analysis for Governance and Development
- African Politics and Security Dynamics
- Africa Study Visit
- Environment, Trafficking, and Crime: Transnational Issues and International Governance
- Gender, Conflict, and Development
- Middle East Politics and Security Dynamics
- Natural Resource Governance
- Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding
- Sustainable Cities
- Terrorism and Political Violence
- University Semester 1 Elective
- University Semester 2 Elective
Placement Year
You can choose to include an internship as part of your course, in which case you will study over 15 months rather than a year. To do this, you should initially register for the one-year programme and then transfer to the 15-month programme when you have secured a placement, any time up until the middle of Semester 2.
The internship/placement further enhances the development of professional experience and practical skills during your master's programme, integrating practitioner community engagement with your academic studies.
This element is student-centred and student-led, and therefore the initiative for identifying and applying for internships is driven by you. Academic staff can facilitate and support the identification of suitable opportunities with leads and suggestions, help with the writing of applications, and provide supporting letters of reference. They provide customised preparatory training before, and mentoring support during, the placement or internship.
The internship/placement can be taken with an organisation anywhere in the world. You'll need to detail your proposed activities and receive approval before the opportunity is finalised.
Once the internship/placement is complete you'll return to the programme, submit a completion report summarising key learning points, and then undertake your Master's dissertation. Students often use their placement period and experience to inform and shape their dissertation.
Learning and assessment
We use a range of innovative approaches to teaching, learning and assessment to enable you to actively engage with the key concepts and syllabus and to develop not only your academic knowledge and understanding but also your skills and experience for the worlds of policy, practice and employment.
There are opportunities to take specialist pathways, including thematic specialisms, and to specialise in selected regions (e.g. Africa, Middle East), with opportunities for selected study visits. This includes the high-profile Africa Study Visit to an African country recovering from conflict (which can be taken as an assessed element of the programme) or other further voluntary study visits to Northern Ireland, Hiroshima or to major locations of International Organisations, such as The Hague, Brussels and London.
You'll also have opportunities to participate in an extended ‘crisis response game’ or the international ‘Model United Nations’ simulation game.
Methods of assessment are varied and include traditional assignments (essay-type tasks) alongside more competency-based assessment through tasks such as reports, policy briefs, case study analyses, oral and audio-visual presentations, and reflective notes.
The programme culminates with the research and preparation of a Dissertation project on a subject of your choice, related to the programme’s aims and learning objectives. This is a major opportunity for you to produce a substantial scholarly analysis of a specialist area of interest, and to demonstrate an advanced understanding of relevant policy and practitioner agendas and debates - helping you to use this Masters's degree to pursue your career aspirations.
Career prospects
There is an increasing demand for professional education relating to careers in peace and humanitarian work internationally. You’ll develop the skills required by employers in this area, such as conflict analysis, leadership and decision-making, making you highly employable as a graduate.
The programme is also designed to meet the needs and expectations of early/mid-career professionals looking to take the next step in their careers.
Our postgraduate politics courses were ranked 2nd in the UK for employability in the 2018 Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES).
Career support
The University is committed to helping students develop and enhance employability and this is an integral part of many programmes. Specialist support is available throughout the course from Career and Employability Services including help to find part-time work while studying, placements, vacation work and graduate vacancies. Students are encouraged to access this support at an early stage and to use the extensive resources on the Careers website.
Discussing options with specialist advisers helps to clarify plans through exploring options and refining skills of job-hunting. In most of our programmes, there is direct input by Career Development Advisers into the curriculum or through specially arranged workshops.
Full-time
- 14 months January start
- 12 months September start
Part-time
- 27 months January start
- 24 months September start