King's College London

This Global Affairs MSc was the first course in the UK designed to give you an advanced understanding of the politics, society, economy and history of non-Western countries, regions and rising powers, including through comparative analysis.

The programme is anchored in the study of China, Africa, India, Brazil, Russia and the Middle East — and through the careful selection of optional modules, you can specialise in a particular country or region while considering cross-cutting and transnational issues. You’ll be taught by prize-winning academics who are well-known in their fields.

Your global affairs master’s will begin with a required foundational introduction module that considers some of the most important questions shaping the world we live in today and how their position or presence changes across societies and territories. You’ll explore the process and conditions of globalisation, the contradictions within globalisation, and deglobalisation. You’ll cover topics such as the history of globalisation in empire, modern state-formation and the emergence of post-colonial nation-states, capitalism and development, globalisation and work, migration, and current global crises such as climate change, democratic backsliding, and the digital challenge.

The rest of your Global Affairs MSc is up to you, thanks to a flexible curriculum that allows you to tailor your learning to your own interests. You’ll need to take at least two regional introductory modules, which cover Brazil, India, China, Russia, Africa and the Middle East. You’ll also get to choose three further optional modules offered by the Global Institutes and other departments at King’s.

For example, you could study an introduction to China and the age of globalisation and then learn more about China’s international relations, economic policies and development in contemporary China, or infrastructure, technology and power in the age of global China. Alternatively, you might pair an introduction to African issues in global affairs with modules that look at the state and development in Africa and Asia, democracy and authoritarianism, or global welfare politics — or combine a module on Russia and the European Union, with a focus on contemporary Ukrainian politics and society and the war in Ukraine, for instance.

You could also balance your study with thematic modules that cut across regions, with teaching on topics such as building gender-inclusive organisations and outcomes, global leadership, youth and society in the developing world, and beyond.

It’s possible to take a language module offered by the King’s Language Centre as part of your programme or for additional credit, a distinctive feature of the MSc Global Affairs. The languages typically offered include Arabic, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

You’ll get to decide whether to take a specialist module on research methods and showcase your research skills with a dissertation or build your real-world experience with a multifaceted Capstone group research project that allows you to apply your knowledge and skills. If you choose the latter option, you’ll also study policy-making with the School for Government.

There are plenty of opportunities to enhance your education beyond the classroom, including an active seminar series on each of the regions of specialisation, conferences and workshops. Some students may even get the opportunity to spend time abroad during their studies.

By the time you graduate, you’ll be a globally minded citizen who can challenge ethnocultural assumptions, engage interculturally, think and learn independently, and shape the future. You’ll be able to plan and conduct research projects, identify and assess the impact of contextual factors or global factors on local issues, develop and apply theoretical approaches to real-world situations, and more. You’ll also strengthen various skills that employers find desirable, including critical thinking, communication and presentation, collaboration and teamwork, autonomy, and beyond.