An eight-month online course, complemented by a two-week residential course in Uganda.
This eight-month course aims to reinforce the knowledge and skills that humanitarian professionals need when working in complex environments. The course puts emphasis on adaptive and flexible strategies and projects. It focuses on your working situations and enables you to reflect on your current practice as you learn.
The course programme takes into account the major contexts for humanitarian action (armed conflict, “natural” disasters, social exclusion, complex emergencies). In addition, the course investigates the relationship between humanitarian and development aid.
The course is delivered in partnership with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Groupe urgence réhabilitation développement (URD), Handicap International (HI), United Nations Development Programme Bureau (UNDP-BCPR),the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAE), Conflict Dynamic International, International Federation Red Cross Red Crescent (IFRC), International Committee of Red Cross Red Crescent (ICRC), Sphere Project, the Centre de Psychologie Humanitaire (CPH), ACAPS (Assessment Capacities Project), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR), Transparency International, CHS Alliance, The Leadership Academy, and Strategic Edge.
Structure of the course and key topics
Around 250 hours of individual work in total, including:
- E-learning (courses: E-learning modules, videos, documents, educational games, forum discussions, individual and collective work, research, exercises, reflective analysis
- Face-to-face sessions (lectures, case studies, individual and collective work)
- Personal work with coaching (reflective analysis, writing, and implementation of an individual plan of action, individual and bilateral work)
Phase 1: Initialization process
2 weeks (4 hours/week) by distance
Phase 2: Foundation: Myself within this training + basic concepts
1 week (8 hours/week) by distance
Phase 3: Institutional strategic framework
3 weeks (8 hours/week) by distance
Phase 4: Operational strategic framework: Project Cycle Management and related operational stakes
6 weeks (10 hours/week) by distance
Phase 5: Decentralized residential session preparing/sharing/strengthening
4 weeks (96 hours in total) at distance and residential in Uganda
Phase 6a: Deepening my learning and preparing for my Plan of Action design
11 weeks (8 hours/week) at distance with coaching
Phase 6b: Deepening my knowledge and my Plan of Action in my current working context
6 weeks (8 hours/week) at distance with coaching
Phase 7: Closing: recap / evaluation / final feedback
2 weeks (8 hours/week) by distance
Residential session
More details about the Uganda two-week residential session are available here.
How to register:
Admission process
The Selection Committee examines the quality of the applications and aims to reach a balance between the number of men and women, educational profiles and professional experience, geographical distribution and financial contribution.
Incomplete applications will not be considered.
Requirements
Hold a bachelor’s degree or an equivalent university degree requiring three years of study, plus a minimum of two years work experience in the humanitarian, social or development sector OR hold a bachelor’s degree or an equivalent university degree requiring three years of study and at least five years work experience in another sector and wish to transfer to the humanitarian sector.
Language requirements
All classes at the Geneva Centre of Humanitarian Studies are delivered in English. All students must have an excellent command of English. Students whose mother tongue is not English, who do not have secondary or post-secondary qualifications taught in English or who have not spent a minimum of one year studying full-time at a university level in English (please provide transcripts certifying that courses were delivered in English), must provide a certificate to prove their mastery of English. More information on recognised tests and scores is available here.
Enrollment deadlines
- Regular academic year (starting in September)
- with scholarship/visa: For candidates who wish to apply for a scholarship and/or who need an entry visa for Switzerland, application deadline is February (before the academic year).
- all other candidates: applications are open until 15 July (before the academic year).
- Candidates without scholarship can also enroll to the Master during the current academic year.
To submit your application:
- * Duly fill in the form on the online enrollment platform
- Register to the correct programme
- Upload all requested documents (check your scholarship eligibility beforehand: see Fees & Scholarship)
- Submit to https://apply.humanitarianstudies.ch/index.php/Home/login
You will receive a confirmation by e-mail. Should you have any questions, please contact us at humanitarianstudies@unige.ch