Risk, Disaster and Resilience MSc

Teaching and Learning

Learn from world-class researchers and professionals delivering the course through a combination of lectures, class discussions, problem-solving exercises, practicals, field trips, directed reading, student-led dialogue, and a practitioner-led real-time disaster scenario event.

Assessment involves individual and group presentations, coursework, written examinations, and a research project.

What you'll learn

Physical and social science of natural and anthropogenic hazards

• What is known and unknown.
• Current research and uncertainties.

Building resilience

• What are the barriers to risk and disaster reduction and how do we overcome them?
• Developing a common language to communicate complex concepts in an accessible way.

Understanding vulnerability

• From fragility curves describing damage to buildings to social vulnerability of individuals and society.

Quantifying risk

• What is risk and how do we measure it?
• Components of risk: exposure, hazard, vulnerability.

Multidisciplinary holistic approaches

• Integrating scientific knowledge into disaster risk reduction research, policy and practice.
• Communicating with stakeholders.
• Conduct and appraise research and policy.

Managing disaster

• How to apply plans to manage real emergencies.

Funding

The UCL Risk and Disaster Science MSc is one of the eligible courses for the Commonwealth Shared Scholarship Scheme. This scholarship is available to Commonwealth citizens, refugees or British-protected persons who are permanently resident in a developing Commonwealth Country. The scholarship covers full tuition fees, a maintenance allowance, and air travel to and from the UK at the beginning and end of the course. You must have applied for the MSc by the scholarship application deadline.

Careers

Whether you wish to start a new career in risk and disaster reduction or you already have experience we are here to support you. With a Risk, Disaster and Resilience MSc you will have excellent academic credibility coupled with practical and analytical skills. We run an annual Careers Discovery Evening that offers expert and targeted advice, and hosts stalls from a range of employers and recruiters in the field of risk and disaster reduction. Our alumni are highly sought-after in the following sectors: insurance, catastrophe modelling , risk management, public policy, humanitarian development, NGOs, business continuity, government, emergency services, consultancy, and academia.

Where do our graduates go?

• Verisk
• UK Research and Innovation
• Surrey Heath Borough Council
• British Red Cross
• Sector&Segment
• Societe Generale
• Marsh Commercial
• Mitsubishi Corporation
• PwC
• Quick Release
• Goodson Removals
• Guy Carpenter
• Lancashire Insurance Services Ltd
• 4C Strategies
• Arthur J Gallagher

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Get in touch

UCL RDR Risk, Disaster and Resilience MSc course leader
Dr Myles Harris
email: myles.harris@ucl.ac.uk

UCL RDR postgraduate admissions enquiries
email: rdr-education@ucl.ac.uk                                                                                            

Educating Leaders

Discover prize-winning student dissertations and research focusing on future leaders and influencers in the humanitarian and disaster risk reduction sphere.

• Find out more

Alumni Testimonials

"I chose to study Risk, Disaster and Resilience MSc at UCL because the variety of topics and the teaching staff looked really exciting! I was interested in being able to take a module from another department as part of my studies and enjoyed a topic in terrorism. During my programme, I enjoyed meeting new students from diverse backgrounds and with different experiences, which helped me in building my network for my future career. I now work for the UK government in resilience and found that my studies at UCL set me up with a good foundation in understanding how resilience and emergency management work. It has been interesting to use my learnings and apply them to developing policy. I’d highly recommend studying at RDR for anyone looking to go into the resilience policy space!"

–– Kirsty Johnson (Risk, Disaster and Resilience MSc, 2020)

• Read more alumni stories