MA in Human Rights
Brighton, United Kingdom
MA
DURATION
2 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
01 Sep 2025*
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
GBP 10,500 / per year **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* UK
** £10,500/year for full-time home, Channel Islands and Isle of Man students | £21,500/year for full-time international students
Key Summary
How could a critical human rights approach help fight pervasive social and economic inequalities, anti-democratic forces and the climate crisis?
On this course, you’ll engage with human rights and their historical origins, philosophical foundations, global expansion, everyday practice and possible futures. You’ll learn from our expert faculty. Their cutting-edge research in a range of disciplines – including international relations, anthropology, law and human geography – underpins your teaching.
You’ll gain specialist knowledge in the field of human rights research and practice. Your learning is grounded in our distinctive interdisciplinary, critical social science approach. The course explores a range of topics, which may include:
- advocacy, activism and social justice
- human rights and culture
- decolonisation and anti-racism
- (state) violence, civil liberties and counterterrorism
- globalisation and neoliberalism
- the environment and climate change
- international human rights organisations
- children’s rights
- indigenous and minority rights
- LGBTQ+ rights
- women’s rights and gender equality.
You’ll be based in the interdisciplinary School of Global Studies. On our campus, you’ll become part of an active student community. There are debates, lectures, films and social events covering global and political issues. We also run a varied programme of guest lectures and seminars. This gives you the opportunity to network with academics and professionals based around the world. When you graduate, you’ll have the expertise and global perspective for a career in the field of human rights.
We understand that deciding where and what to study is a very important decision. We’ll make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the courses, services and facilities described in this prospectus. However, if we need to make material changes, for example due to government or regulatory requirements, or unanticipated staff changes, we’ll let you know as soon as possible.
Scholarships
Our aim is to ensure that every student who wants to study with us is able to despite financial barriers so that we continue to attract talented and unique individuals.
Studying an LLM in International Human Rights Law: The Course and Career Options
Full-time and part-time study
Choose to study this course full time or part time, to fit around your work and personal life. Modules for the full-time course are listed below. For details about the part-time course, contact us.
Core modules
Core modules are taken by all students on the course. They give you a solid grounding in your chosen subject and prepare you to explore the topics that interest you most.
Autumn teaching
- Human Rights and the Politics of Culture
- Human Rights in International Relations
Spring teaching
- Research Methods and Professional Skills
Summer teaching
- Dissertation (Human Rights)
Options
Alongside your core modules, you can choose options to broaden your horizons and tailor your course to your interests. This list gives you a flavour of our options, which are kept under review and may change, for example in response to student feedback or the latest research.
While it’s our aim for students to take their preferred combinations of options, this can’t be guaranteed and will be subject to timetabling. Options may be grouped and if so, students will be able to choose a set number of options from the selection available in any particular group.
Spring teaching
- Activism for Development and Social Justice
- Childhood and Youth in the Contemporary World
- Civil and Political Rights: Contemporary Challenges
- Critical Debates in Environment and Development
- Doing Gender in Theory and Practice
- Forced Labour, Trafficking and Global Mobility
- Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery
- Humanitarianism in Global Politics
- Humanitarianism in Global Politics
- Indigenous and Minority Rights
- Issues in Forced Migration and Displacement
- Knowledge, Power and Resistance
- LGBTQI Rights: International and Comparative Perspectives
- Migrant Transnationalism, Refugees and Diaspora
- Poverty, Vulnerability and the Global Economy
- Re-imagining Humanitarian Responses to Displacement
- Sex, Work and Reproduction
- Socioeconomic rights: economic violence, social justice and human rights law
- War and Security in North/South Perspective
- War and Security in North/South Perspective
- Women and Human Rights
Summer teaching
- Dissertation with Placement (Global Studies)
Placements
To help you gain experience and increase your employability, you can apply for an optional placement as part of your course. Research placements run for up to 12 weeks in the summer term and vacation. You can also write your dissertation based on your experience. You’ll be responsible for applying for and securing your placement. Our dedicated careers team can help you:
- find an employer
- draft an application
- prepare for interviews.
Find out more about Global Studies postgraduate placements
Recent dissertation titles
The depoliticisation of homelessness: spaces of care and resistance in a voluntary homelessness organisation in Brighton
In sickness and in health: the relevance of HIV healthcare strategies in securing the rights of marginalised communities
Self-serving or self-effacing? An analysis of the Zimbabwe-UK diaspora's role in human rights advocacy
We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2023/24. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.
We’ll do our best to provide as much optional choice as we can, but timetabling constraints mean it may not be possible to take some module combinations. The structure of a small number of courses means that the order of modules or the streams you choose may determine whether modules are core or optional. This means that your core modules or options may differ from what’s shown here.
Check back in January 2024 for the modules running in the academic year 2024/25.
American Student Loans and Federal Student Aid
If you’re receiving – or applying for – USA federal Direct Loan funds, you can’t undertake your placement/internship in the USA if the number of credits for the placement/internship exceeds 25% of the total credits for your course. Find out more about American Student Loans and Federal Student Aid
1st in the world for Development Studies (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023)
If you’ve worked in the field of human rights before, this course will allow you to critically reflect on that experience, develop new research skills and progress in your career.
If you’re new to the field, the course will introduce you to human rights in action: not only what human rights are, but what they do and what their possible future might be.
This expertise will be an important asset for a human rights career path. You’ll also have access to research placements with our worldwide alumni network and partner organisations. The dissertation with placement is an invaluable opportunity for you to prepare for your future career.
Graduate destinations
Recent Human Rights MA students have gone on to roles including:
- adviser, LGBT Rapid Response Fund at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance
- change executive, Digital Transformation Programme at Save the Children UK
- assistant programme director at Wilton Park (an executive agency, sponsored by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office).
(School of Global Studies careers database)