King's College London

Managing risk and hazards has become a core task of governments, businesses, and wider societal organisations across the globe as they seek to anticipate and respond to both old and new potential harms to human health, safety, security, and the environment. This task is inevitably multi-faceted, creating a need for inter-disciplinary specialists who can understand how the key technical, organisational, and societal dimensions of each problem fit together.

The MSc Risk, Hazards & Society answers this need by equipping you with the knowledge and skills to critically analyse risk and hazard problems from a unique combination of social and natural scientific perspectives – from psychology, political science and sociology to development and physical geography – as well as develop reflexive problem-solving strategies across a wide range of societal, public, and private sector contexts. Taught by world-leading experts based in the Department of Geography’s Risk, Hazards & Society research group, you will learn about the political, organisational, and societal contexts that shape vulnerabilities to risks and hazards as well as their management, governance, and public communication. This programme also gives you the chance to connect scholarship and practice. As well as combining theoretical with case-based study, our internship programme will give you the opportunity to learn from professionals in public, private and third-sector organisations.

This programme is a fantastic launchpad for exciting careers in a rapidly developing field. Many of our graduates have secured diverse careers as specialists within a wide range of international and national government bodies, non-governmental organisations, consultancies, insurance companies, banks and other business organisations.

The Risk, Hazards & Society MSc programme offers an advanced interdisciplinary foundation in understanding, and responding to, environmental, societal, and technological risks and hazards, enabling you to develop a broad suite of intellectual and practical skills.

In the first term, all students take one programme-specific module:
Fundamentals of Risk, Hazards and Society will give you a foundational knowledge of leading disciplinary perspectives on understanding, and responding to, environmental, societal, and technological risks and hazards. This foundation will help you appreciate the diverse technical, organisational, and societal dimensions of risk and hazard problems, as well as help you refine your own particular interests.

You’ll build on that foundation to deepen your theoretical and practical understandings according to your own particular interests through your selection of six other optional modules in the first and second terms. You can see a full list of compulsory and optional modules in the programme structure section.
You’ll also get the chance to undertake an internship module, which gives you the opportunity to link theory and practice. Your placement will be with one of a number of relevant, specialist organisations in the public, private and third sectors both within the UK as well as worldwide. Past graduates have found that the internship module has given them a significant advantage when competing in the job market.

After completing two terms of taught modules, you’ll need to undertake independent fieldwork for a research-based Dissertation.