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Study Global Prosperity MSc at UCL

  • London, All EnglandLondon, All England

Description

Global Prosperity MSc

The 21st century is a critical moment for humanity. From climate change to global pandemics, livelihood security and human wellbeing is under threat around the world. Existing economic structures, extractive systems and patterns of consumption are exceeding planetary limits. With GDP oriented growth failing to increase the welfare of millions of people, many communities remain isolated from the models of economic prosperity generated in the 20th century.

The Global Prosperity MSc argues that in order to address these interconnected challenges, we must fundamentally reconceptualize what prosperity means and how it is designed and delivered. Students on this programme will unpack this premise by critically exploring how the economic, political and institutional roots of today’s global challenges have informed current modes of social prosperity thinking. In assessing the legacies of these paradigms, you will explore a range of methods and experimental case studies aimed at addressing extant global challenges through the process of co-design and the decentralisation of older more hegemonic paradigms of prosperity. Students will critically deconstruct current solutions to global challenges and explore models for enacting and co-designing positive and inclusive change for livelihoods around the world.

This MSc offers an explicitly transdisciplinary learning experience. You will be situated within a diverse network of IGP-led initiatives with industry leaders, businesses and citizen scientists. Through these networks, you will not only be taught cutting-edge social science methods and theories but will be offered real practical experiences through direct engagement with the kinds of future initiatives needed to address current global challenges. The programme draws particular originality from world-leading research into heterodox forms of inclusive and sustainable prosperity generated by the IGP and its ongoing engaged work with multiple stakeholders in the UK, Lebanon and Kenya. These initiatives include regional Prosperity Collaborations in the UK, Lebanon and Kenya (PROCOL) and the Fast Forward 2030 (FF2030) network for young entrepreneurs. Through these initiatives you will be integrated into projects that are prototyping and designing new futures built upon the notions of equality and inclusivity in design, access and decision making.

Global Prosperity MSc is a dynamic, novel transdisciplinary degree that links students with communities of practice in order to generate new pathways to social prosperity. In doing so, students will be trained as the next generation of sustainability managers, policy-makers, entrepreneurs, critical thinkers, researchers and artists who are able to draw on these ideas in their daily practice – both as the ‘responsible citizens’ envisaged in the SDGs – and as future change-makers working through their selected careers to generate and co-design a diversity of prosperous futures.

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Who this course is for

This programme will appeal to a range of students from around the world. In particular, individuals who already have a postgraduate degree and/or significant real-world experience in business, social entrepreneurship, government or third sector organisations are encouraged to apply. Entry to the programme is highly competitive and we are especially searching for students with diverse knowledges and abilities and a desire to work as part of a dynamic and inclusive community. We welcome students from natural and/or social science and humanities backgrounds and with skills in both quantitative and qualitative research. Students with a strong personal vision for social, economic and ecological transformation are especially encouraged to apply. Please also note that this is a unique transdisciplinary programme and is not a standard business, economics or development studies programme.

The foundation of your career

As a student at the Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP) you will join a wider network of both past and future alumni. Alumni are actively encouraged to engage in the life and community of the institute beyond their degree programme. Our alumni often go into major roles in government, business and the third sector thus becoming future partners and collaborators. We run regular alumni events throughout each academic year, allowing current students to engage with alumni and to build on this growing network of change makers. On graduation we expect students to become an active part of this lively alumni network and to engage with and mentor future students, providing essential career inspiration, advice and opportunities. Recent cases include:

Silvia Velasco Arellano, who funded her MSc at IGP through a Chevening Scholarship, now works as Lead Manager for the Skills for Prosperity & Education Policy Programme, part of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in the British Embassy, Mexico.

Areej Al Medinah, a Commonwealth Scholar from Pakistan, has returned to her home nation to work for SadaPay in promoting financial inclusivity.

Patricia Naya, a Commonwealth Scholar from Ghana, is now completing a PhD in Business Administration with a focus on Organization and Social Change at UMass, USA.

Employability

The programme attracts a wide diversity of both established professionals and new graduates. We recruit from diverse backgrounds in the UK and across the globe. We expect our graduates to show self-initiative and a drive to make global change across the environment, policy, economics, business and the third sector. Graduates must be able to work in truly global, cross cultural and international teams. You will learn to think across and between traditional disciplines and to apply a range of qualitative and quantitative skills alongside broader strategic and design/prototyping thinking. Graduates will gain key transferable skills in teamwork, communication, digital capabilities with particular software, academic and popular writing, presentation, visual design, foundational quantitative methods, creativity, real world problem-solving and in the methods of building engaged and participatory initiatives. The IGP organises careers events with alumni throughout the year.

By educating a new generation of transdisciplinary change leaders we aim to build the informed and responsible global citizens envisaged in the SDGs and contribute to the speeding up of appropriate responses to the climatic and ecological crises of the moment. We expect our graduates to go on to leadership roles in the public and private sector, working in government and civil service, in sustainability and business, and in the NGO and third sector. This could include a broad range of roles such as ecological consultants, policy officers and social research officers. We also envisage graduates going on to careers in research and PhD study.

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