MSc Global Migration
Migration in today’s globalised world stands at the heart of key national and international debates: over migrants’ and asylum seekers’ rights and citizenship, state security and border management, development in the global South, ageing populations in the West, the globalization of skilled labour markets and other issues.
Overview
UCL researchers are actively engaged with debates on a broad range of migration topics, from the latest developments in domestic, European and international law, analyses of state and global migration regimes, intersections between migration, health and disease, explorations of identities and cultural change, to ethnographic, visual and literary representations of migration and displacement. Migration research at UCL has a strong international dimension, benefiting from extensive networks across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. Students on the Global Migration MSc benefit from this expertise with a programme that is interdisciplinary in scope.
The Programme combines policy and theoretical debates over migration. It is aimed at students who wish to work with migrants and asylum seekers in different parts of the world, who aspire to posts in UN, EU, national policy think-tanks, government research and policy departments, NGOs, community-based and grassroots organizations, and at students wishing to pursue doctorates in the interdisciplinary field of migration studies.
Aims
1. to equip suitably qualified students with the advanced skills, methods, concepts and theories essential for the study of Global Migration in an interdisciplinary context at postgraduate level;
2. to give students the opportunity to apply these advanced methods, concepts and theories in both general and more specialised contexts relating to the processes, policies and politics of migration;
3. to introduce students to new and intellectually demanding areas of Global Migration;
4. to foster and develop students’ ability to think critically;
5. to foster students’ ability to carry out independent research
Structure
The Programme can be taken full time over one year, or part time over two years. Students take the following 2 core modules plus a compulsory methods module and choose a further 5 modules chosen from a wide range.
Compulsory modules
| Module code | Module title | UCL Credit value |
|---|---|---|
| GEOG0127 |
Approaches to Global Migration: Interdisciplinary Perspectives |
15 credits |
| This core module introduces key theoretical concepts. It provides an overview of the interdisciplinary field of migration studies, with lectures discussing: 1. Migration flows and processes (including economic, demographic and ethnographic approaches) 2. State policy, legal and institutional frameworks (including approaches to the law, policy and its evasion) 3. Culture and identity (including approaches to integration, transnationalism and diaspora) |
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| Module code | Module title | UCL Credit value |
|---|---|---|
| GEOG0128 | 15 credits | |
| This core module introduces topical issues in migration studies, of global scope. The course content is flexible to reflect shifting contemporary concerns. It may include topics such as: remittances and diaspora engagement, home town associations, migration and sexual health, reproduction and fertility, trafficking and smuggling, detention and deportation, global care chains, religious transnationalism, debates over multiculturalism, integration and the representation of migrants, race and ethnicity. The range of topics will be chosen to reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the MSc programme, and will complement and extend the approaches course, allowing key concepts to be applied to issues of current controversy. | ||
| Module code | Module title | UCL Credit value |
|---|---|---|
| GEOG0082 | 15 credits | |
| This core module is designed to equip students with the range of knowledge and skills needed to complete a substantive piece of independent, social scientific research in geography. Research is an adventure. That is the central premise of this module. Doing research is a precarious and challenging process. Things go wrong as much as it goes right. Good research requires perseverance, inventiveness, a willingness to try different angles. It is as much craft as it is science. It is something that cannot be learnt only through books and reading. Done well, with rigour and enthusiasm, it is a hugely rewarding activity. You will learn the basics of doing good qualitative social research, what goes into making good qualitative research, and how to go about developing, designing, managing and completing a qualitative research project. | ||
Optional or Elective modules
Students take an additional total of 75 credits units from the range of optional or elective modules available. While these will usually be taken from the list below students may, with the agreement of the programme convenor, substitute other UCL module choices.
**these are 3/4 courses shared between undergraduate and graduate students. No more than 25% credit of taught modules may come from such modules.
The titles and availability of these courses are subject to change and their listing here is not a guarantee that they will be available each year.
Assessment
Most taught modules are assessed through a varied range of coursework tasks, although a few option courses may be assessed by examination.
Assessment of the taught component of the course comprises 66.7% of the overall final degree.
Dissertation
The research dissertation (of up to 12,000 words), submitted in mid September, counts for 33.3% of the overall assessment. For examples of recent dissertations by Global Migration MSc students, please see Working Papers.
People
Colleagues who contribute to core teaching on the programme include:
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Ben is convenor of the MSc Global Migration programme. His research is in the field of migration and development and he has over 25 years of experience of working in Cameroon. He is the editor of the recent collection Timespace and International Migration. |
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Johanna's research interests include international and transnational migration, young people and international higher education, and educational mobilities. She is particularly interested in understanding the ways in which experiences of (higher) education and subsequent employment are being transformed through internationalisation, and the relationship to (im)mobilities. |
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Elena is Co-Director of the UCL Migration Research Unit and coordinates the Refuge in a Moving World research network. Her research focuses on the intersections between gender, generation and religion in experiences of and responses to conflict-induced displacement and statelessness, with a particular regional focus on the Middle East and North Africa. |
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Tatiana's research focuses on how individuals cut off from mainstream institutional support navigate precarious urban environments, especially with regards to work. Alongside her long-term and on-going ethnographic engagement in Kenya, her current projects include research on refugee economies and street level humanitarian work in Athens, Paris, Berlin and Budapest, funded by the British Academy Camps2Cities. |
 Tariq Jazeel Tariq is co-founder and co-director of UCL’s Centre for the Study of South Asia and the Indian Ocean World. His research is positioned at the intersection of critical geography, postcolonial and critical theory, and South Asian studies. He is interested in the politics of ethnicity and difference in Sri Lanka and the diasporic and transnational forms of South Asian cultural production. |
 Alan Latham Alan is an urban geographer whose research focuses on sociality and urban life, globalisation and the cultural economy of cities, and corporeal mobility. He is interested in the ways which certain internationally mobile individuals and groups use globalisation – and the transportation and communication networks that sustain it – to create life-projects that are strung across enormous distances. |
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Russell's research examines various aspects of everyday life that may be changing in ways that have important implications for social wellbeing and environmental sustainability. He is interested in a range of academic topics, including theories of social practice and social norms; ways of studying nature and environmental experience; human adaptation and sustainable consumption; energy research and the social sciences; and qualitative interview and ethnographic methods. |
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The UCL Migration Research Unit brings together more than 40 academics with interests in migration across UCL. They all have Office Hours when students can talk to them. |
Fees and funding
For information on fees visit UCL's Fees page.
Funding
Information on a variety of sources of funding for graduate study can be obtained via the UCL Funding pages.
There are a number of funding schemes available to support you for the duration of the MSc. Applicants are advised to explore funding opportunities as early as possible. This is a short general list of funding opportunities available to taught postgraduate students;
- UCL Doctoral School
- UCL Graduate Scholarships and Awards
- ESRC funding at UCL (includes the 1+3 scheme, but please contact Ben Page directly if you are applying for this)
- UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Chevening Programme. Offers approximately 1,000 scholarships to overseas students undertaking taught postgraduate study or research at a UK Higher Education Institution
- Commonwealth Scholarships and Fellowships Plan (CSFP). Available to prospective postgraduate students from Commonwealth countries
- Ford Foundation International Fellowships Programme. For students from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Russia
- Marshall Scholarships - Marshall Commission. Taught postgraduate funding for US citizens
- Fulbright Traditional Postgraduate Student Awards - US-UK Fulbright Commission - Provides awards to US citizens to fund the first year of a Masters or Doctoral Degree or to pursue research at an educational institution within the UK.
The deadline for most of these awards is the start of March each year, though for some awards as much as 12 months’ notice is required.
You are also strongly encouraged to contact your own Ministry of Education or Education Department, who will have details of most funding schemes and who will be able to advise you of your own government's conditions for studying abroad. You should also contact the nearest British Council office in your own country, who will have details of scholarship schemes and provide information and advice on educational programmes and living in the UK. If there is no British Council office, then contact the nearest British Embassy, High Commission or Consulate. There is additionally funding available from sources such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the European Commission, whom you should contact directly. For further information on studying in the UK as an overseas student please contact the UCL International Office.
Applications
Entry requirements
Potential applicants are expected to have a first or upper-second class Honours degree in a relevant discipline from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard.
How to apply
To apply online, please visit UCL's Graduate Study Applications page.
For further information
All admissions enquiries should be emailed to the Geography Office.
Careers
Graduate careers are diverse and include social work, NGOs, education, public administration, international bodies. Take a look at our Careers page to see where some of our students have gone on to work.