UAlg opens post-graduate course in Humanitarian Action

Recent years have seen an increase in humanitarian crises resulting from various factors, such as globalisation, the changing nature of conflicts, climate change, growing rivalry in access to energy and natural resources and extreme poverty, among others. Many of these events have serious consequences and devastating, long-lasting and complex effects that contribute to several critical scenarios, with strong impact on sustained development and the well-being of the populations of the affected regions, being at the origin of a large number of refugees and internally displaced persons.

Given this panorama, the postgraduate degree in Humanitarian Action aims to develop professional skills to critically analyse humanitarian action and work effectively in humanitarian and development fields; prepare professionals or future professionals to deal with humanitarian responses; save lives, alleviate suffering and preserve human dignity during and after crises, as well as prevent and strengthen the response capacity for when such situations occur.

This course aims to help students to assume different roles in humanitarian practice (e.g. project manager, mission coordinator, consultant, etc.) and in the planning of interventions in volatile contexts, increasing their degree of knowledge and specific capacities, which will allow minimising negative impacts and maximising opportunities for positive and sustainable change.

The course is organized in 160 hours of theoretical-practical classes (34h Problem Based Learning; 29h practice; 46h theoretical-practical classes; 51h seminars), 40 hours of tutorial guidance, 256 hours of autonomous student work, in a total of 456 hours, which translate into 16 ECTS.  The study plan will thus offer guidance, understanding, and the necessary skills for a more effective humanitarian practice, in Portugal and in the world. To address these issues, a more professional approach was deemed necessary, combining academic higher education, with the professional skills of Non-Governmental Organizations for Development agents.

For Isabel Palmeirim, director of the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (FMCB), "nature makes a point of reminding us that Man cannot "tame" it and disasters (geological, climatic, biological, sociological or others) are happening at an ever-increasing rate, which makes it imperative to train humanitarian aid teams, whether in Africa or "on our doorstep". In this sense, he says, "the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University of the Algarve has emphatically supported this post-graduation, believing that it will contribute to the creation of a group of professionals better qualified to act and help populations in disaster situations".

What will UAlg's post-graduate course in Humanitarian Action bring?

• Problem Based Learning (PBL) classes
• Synchronous online classes
• Intervention project carried out during the postgraduate course
• Differentiated curriculum in the various areas necessary for Humanitarian Action (Law, Ethics, Anthropology, areas of intervention: health, WASH, nutrition, education), quantitative and qualitative methods; security and logistics, coordination, communication and fundraising and volunteering
• Contact with professionals with extensive experience in humanitarian action
• Talking with (workshops with humanitarian actors in different contexts such as Palestine, Colombia, Mozambique, Kenya, among others)

Applications: until 12 January 2022

More information and online application here