Children, Youth and International Development at Brunel University London at Main

Working with and for young people in the developing world offers an exciting career full of challenges and rewards. This Children, Youth and International Development MA is a varied course with a global perspective which will help equip them for roles in international development organisations, government ministries and global agencies.

Students will acquire a breadth of knowledge that will enable them to critically evaluate research, policy and practice in the area of children, youth and development. Students will also discover the differing disciplinary perspectives on childhood and youth by studying modules from related disciplines.

As students journey through the course, they also will acquire the skills necessary to design and undertake their own research.

Students can opt for the 'Applied Learning' module and they will have the opportunity of a short placement (one or two days a week for ten weeks) with an organisation that works in the field of children, youth and international development.

Examples of the ‘Applied Learning’ placements previously undertaken include:

• Action Aid – on a campaign targeting exploitation in the garment industry
• Anti-Slavery International – on a project to eradicate caste-based bonded labour
• Basti RAM – planned lessons for a Global Citizenship project
• BookAid International – helped build up an evidence base for Book Aid’s international programmes
• Commonwealth Secretariat – on the CS’s Youth Programme in Uganda
• International Refugee Trust – development of the online classroom about refugees
• National Deaf Children's Society – developed international exchanges for deaf young people
• Oxfam – mobilised UK school children to get involved in Oxfam campaigns
• Project Hope – several placements including designing a survey on youth experiences, and developing leaflets to help South African adults to identify signs of mental illness
• The Mouth That Roars – helped children in London and Saudi Arabia to create videos through which they communicated their everyday lives to each other

Additionally, an Erasmus agreement exists between the Brunel MA and the MPhil in Childhood Studies at the Norwegian Centre for Child Research (NOSEB) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. The agreement allows two students from the MA to spend their second term (January to May) at the Trondheim centre. Erasmus students do not pay tuition fees at NOSEB and are entitled to a grant (€375/month) to cover any additional costs.