Programme Contents

The NOHA programme contents are divided into four periods. 

(1) NOHA Intensive Programme (5 ECTS): An initial inter-university joint course that brings together all NOHA students, introduces them to key principles and concepts underlying humanitarian action and main actors in the field of humanitarian relief, their policies and strategies, as well as contemporary issues and challenges facing humanitarian actors.

Location: Warsaw, Poland
When: Beginning of September
Language of instruction: English

(2) Common courses (25 ECTS): Jointly developed NOHA modules which provide a space to debate the essentials of humanitarian action and its current trends: World Politics, Legal Dimensions of Humanitarian Action, People & Culture, Management, Public Health.
The content of the modules, their layout and the complementary capacity building and problem-solving activities aim at providing the required knowledge and skills in a complex interdisciplinary and international learning framework respecting the different historical teaching background and variety of expertise in the NOHA partner universities.

Location: Home university
When: September-January
Language of instruction:

English:
• Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), Germany
• University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland
• Uppsala universitet, Sweden
• Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RUG), The Netherlands
• Uniwersytet Warszawski (UW), Poland
• L'Università ta Malta (UM), Malta

French:
• Aix Marseille Université (AMU), France

Spanish:
• Universidad de Deusto (UD), Spain

Upon successful completion of the Foundation Period at their home universities, students follow the Specialisation Period (Semester II) in another NOHA university of their choice. It allows students to get deeper knowledge and competences in specific aspects of humanitarian action and to strengthen the areas of a particular importance to them. Each university offers 20 ECTS of courses based on their unique expertise which are supplemented by a set of common courses: Advanced Management and Methodology & Research Methods in Humanitarian Studies.

Location: Any of the NOHA universities (Host university)
When: February-June

•    Humanitarian Policy and Practice: From Delivering Aid to Ending Needs - Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), Germany
•    Law and Practice of Protection in Difficult Geopolitical Contexts - Aix Marseille Université (AMU), France
•    Societies in Transition - University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland
•    Forced Migration and Human Security - L'Università ta Malta (UM), Malta
•    Humanitarian Analysis and Intervention Design - Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RUG), The Netherlands
•    Armed Conflicts and Humanitarian Action - Uniwersytet Warszawski (UW), Poland
•    Protection in Humanitarian Action - Universidad de Deusto (UD), Spain
•    Conflict, Peace-building and Religion - Uppsala Universitet (UU), Sweden

In Bochum: Thematic specialisation: Humanitarian Policy and Practice: From Delivering Aid to Ending Needs

In the last ten years, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance has more than doubled. Continued violent conflicts have displaced millions of people. Tens of million people had to flee their homes due to violent conflicts. The World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) in 2016 made it clear that the humanitarian system needs no less than a paradigm shift in order to meet the humanitarian challenges the world is facing today. In this semester, students will be introduced to a number of important building blocks for the needed paradigm shift. It aims at equipping students with the knowledge and know-how that future leaders in humanitarian action will need in order to successfully transform the system.
The semester is organized along three important commitments of the WHS, namely to uphold the norms that safeguard humanity, leave no one behind and a new way of working. The first two modules of the specialization phase will focus on the normative perspective and broaden the knowledge of students on the legal foundations of humanitarian action. This will be complemented with a strong emphasis on the  practical and political opportunities that result from these legal foundations for humanitarian actors and provide students with tools that allows them to plan humanitarian advocacy campaigns or negotiation processes. The third module deals with the paradigm shift that is needed in the ways the humanitarian community is working and deals with three challenges: anticipatory humanitarian assistance, localization of humanitarian assistance and the nexus between humanitarian action, development and peace. The last module, finally, equips the students with know how about project design and programming that includes the most vulnerable and thus leaves no one behind.

Courses include:

• Advanced Management
• Methodology and Research Standards in Humanitarian Action
• Human Rights, Refugee Rights, and Humanitarian Advocacy
• International Humanitarian in Practice
• Towards a Paradigm Shift: Innovation in Humanitarian Action
• Including the Most Vulnerable in Project Design and Programming

During the Contextualisation Period (Semester III) the student can choose between two options:

a) Regional training  (30 ECTS):
This component introduces students to humanitarian action approaches in regional contexts, gives them the opportunity to cooperate, function and work in a different cultural setting, and help students to develop and adapt their research project to the regional context in preparation for the students’ project in the fourth semester
Regional training is offered at the following partner universities (more information soon):

•    Asia-Pacific: Deakin University (Australia)
•    Latin America: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia)
•    South-East Asia: Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia)
•    East Asia: International Christian University (Japan)
•    Middle East: German-Jordanian University (Jordan)
•    Middle East: Université Saint-Joseph (Lebanon)
•    Post-Soviet States: Vilniaus universitetas (Lithuania)
•    Eastern Europe: Uniwersytet Warszawski (Poland)
•    South Africa: University of Western Cape (South Africa)
•    North America: Fordham University (USA)

b) Work Placement (30 ECTS)
Students follow a training module on Career Development and a supervised, mentored and monitored placement which are jointly designed with the partner organisations and formalised through individual written traineeship agreements.
•    Career Development Training (10 ECTS)
•    Placement (20 ECTS)

Note: List of available placements will be published at a later stage.

Location: Home university / Partner university / Humanitarian organisation
When: September-January

In the context of international humanitarian action new professionals must be:

•    able to select and analyse research material;
•    trained to confront new problems in their multiple dimensions;
•    able to understand reality and to elaborate innovative solutions; and
•    accustomed to assessing their results.

The aim of the Research Period (Semester IV) is to provide key competences required to research the humanitarian action context and ensure that interventions are based on systematic information collection, analysis and synthesis. The Master thesis must be assessed by at least two examiners. In principle, the examiners should be a member of the first semester university and the second semester university of the student or the partner university or institution. Supervision and assessment is to be conducted in line with the joint Master Thesis Guide.
Location: Home university
When: February-June