Credits
36
Format
Full-Time
Priority Deadline
January 31
After January 31
Rolling admission until full
Final Deadline
August 1
Duration
1 Year
Instructional Sites
Jordan, Uganda
Critical Global Issue of Study
Identity & Human Resilience
Gain the skills and on-the-ground experience needed to respond to humanitarian crises around the world.
For the program beginning fall 2021
36
Full-Time
January 31
Rolling admission until full
August 1
1 Year
Jordan, Uganda
Identity & Human Resilience
Political upheaval, natural disasters, forced displacement, public health emergencies, and other major events have displaced people worldwide on a massive scale. Through excursions, fieldwork, and experiential learning across at least three continents, this program gives you hands-on, graduate-level training in humanitarian assistance and crisis management.
Spend your first two semesters in Amman, Jordan, and Kampala, Uganda, which together host nearly 3 million refugees, observing humanitarian crises in starkly different geographical, political, and cultural environments. Interact with aid workers, NGOs, and refugees, as you witness humanitarian assistance and advocacy in action.
Along the way, you will design and implement crisis management plans and humanitarian responses that will aid and protect populations affected by disaster. You will also learn how to create contingency plans to assess and approach risk to ensure the security of yourself and others in high-conflict environments and emergency situations.
On a 10-day excursion to Geneva, Switzerland, a global hub for humanitarian assistance, you will gain expertise in humanitarian policy, diplomacy, and advocacy. Meet with the United Nations refugee agency, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and other key organizations.
In your final semester, you will put your learning into practice during a 12-week field practicum at a humanitarian aid organization in Jordan, Uganda, or a place of your choosing. You will also complete a capstone paper reflecting on the experience.
Designed to prepare the next generation of leaders in humanitarian assistance and crisis management, this unique master’s degree gives you the skills and on-the-ground experience you need to stay ahead of critical issues stemming from the world’s rising number of humanitarian crises.
Students who have graduated with this degree have worked in careers such as:
Humanitarian assistance program manager
Humanitarian policy and practice analyst
Humanitarian policy director
Humanitarian affairs officer
Humanitarian aid worker, manager, or administrator
Humanitarian policy analyst or researcher
Senior program manager or officer
Community organizer
Human rights officer
Visit the SIT blog to read more about SIT Graduate Institute alumni careers.
Spend the fall semester in Jordan, home to millions of refugees and displaced persons from Palestine, Iraq, and Syria. Jordan currently houses 661,000 Syrian refugees registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), although it is estimated that the total number is closer to 1.5 million. Here, you will get firsthand exposure to the humanitarian responses of various NGOs, INGOs, and UN agencies, most notably, UNHCR, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the United Nation’s International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), during emergency, post-emergency, and resettlement phases, in collaboration with the host government.
You will spend the spring semester learning from Uganda’s approach to refugees and comparing its refugee policies with Jordan’s.
For more than five decades, Uganda has provided asylum to people fleeing war and persecution. When renewed conflict broke out in South Sudan in July 2016, an unprecedented number of refugees came to Uganda, doubling the refugee population in less than seven months. Uganda has since become the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa, with refugees making up 3.5 percent of the country’s total population of 39 million. Uganda currently hosts more than 1.35 million refugees, the majority from South Sudan (75 percent), the Democratic Republic of Congo (17 percent), Burundi (3 percent), and Somalia (3 percent).
With an open-door policy, Uganda maintains one of the most progressive approaches to refugee protection. The government grants refugees freedom of movement and the right to seek employment, establish businesses, and access public services such as education on par with nationals. Uganda is also party to key refugee conventions and international human rights treaties.
Please note that in order to take advantage of dynamic learning opportunities, program excursions may occasionally vary.
With SIT’s experiential curriculum, you will learn how to put theory into practice, focusing on topic areas that will help you meet your career goals.
In this program, you will:
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICUM
The practicum is central to the SIT MA in Humanitarian Assistance and Crisis Management. You will apply learning from the classroom directly to real-world settings, while getting hands-on, professional experience you can put to immediate use after you graduate.
Get valuable experience and enhance your skills in an international professional environment. In the final semester of the program, you’ll put your learning into practice during a 12-week practicum. SIT will support you in finding an approved practicum with an institution providing humanitarian assistance and development aid to refugee and local communities for your final semester.
The organization and your practicum activities must be approved by the program’s director. You’ll attend regular reflection and assessment meetings to review the progress of the practicum and learning associated with it.
SIT’s Student Financial Services Office provides guidance on all aspects of funding your degree throughout the application process and during your degree program. Tuition costs vary by program and scholarships are available.
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