Key Facts
Why choose MSc in Inequality and Society
Why do inequalities exist? What can we do about them? This innovative and unique MSc offers you the opportunity to explore the nature of inequalities at a local, national, and global level. It will equip you with the sociological knowledge to examine intersectionality and its links to inequalities, such as gender, sexuality, ethnicity, social class, age, and more. Understanding how key groups face inequality, disadvantage, stigma, and marginalisation (and how on the flipside of this, leads to access to power for others), ensures that you can critically examine the depth of our unequal world. Furthermore, your social researcher training will enable you to become an expert in using them to form the basis of your own in-depth study, giving you the capacity to not only examine the inequalities you study, but to also to change them to enact positive social change. Finally, a range of professions facing assessments will ensure that you not only complete traditional academic assignments, but you will have a range of assessments which can be used in practice, such as UN reports, campaign packs, e-resources, and more.
How does the online course work
Students log in to Chevron College’s Virtual Learning Environment and engage with weekly study resources at times that suit their own schedule. There are fortnightly live webinars which most students find very useful. These are recorded to accommodate students who cannot attend the live webinars. Recordings are accessible online after the live sessions. Timely feedback is provided on assessments to support students learning. Additionally, tutors offer 1:1 live support on Teams to students. The schedule of assessments across modules is carefully designed to ensure assessments are evenly spaced out across the semester.
Course Summary:
During the course you will come to understand why inequality exists and what can be done to tackle the causes of inequality. The course is designed to empower you to become an agent of change to help achieve equity and social justice in our world.
The MSc in Inequality and Society has an explicit theoretical and research focus, where you will empirically examine the major causes of inequalities in our world. For example, you’ll explore the nature of intersectionality, by investigating how factors such as gender, ethnicity, age, sexuality and others come together and how certain groups face unique forms of disadvantage. You will develop research skills and develop strategies that can be used to change the unequal world in which we live.
You will be provided with module choices so you can choose which topics you wish to explore. Electives focus on:
- gender
- activism and social justice
- mental and physical health
- sexualities and gender identities
- media exclusions
- childhood inequalities
- socio-economic inequalities
The course is grounded in an ‘internationalising of the curriculum’ approach where topics explored will be from national to global in their outlook. Finally, the modules have been aligned to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
You will be provided with a range of opportunities to develop your own employability skills and depending on your chosen modules, to learn skills such as conference presenting skill, using social research software like Aquad8 and RStudio, writing reports for global organisations such as the United Nations, writing campaign strategies for activist movements, and developing electronic resources such as podcasts, blogs and YouTube clips.
Course Structure:
The MSc in Inequality and Society can be studied on a fulltime or part-time basis. It can be studied fulltime over one year from October to September or part-time over two years. The MSc combines a suite of core and elective modules, with the core aspects of the programme running in semester 1 and semester 3. The electives are delivered in semester 2.
Semester 1 (Core Modules)
- Inequality, Diversity and Intersectionality: Theory and Practice (30 credits)
- Research and Evidence (30 credits)
Semester 2 (Choose 2 Electives)
- Mind, Body and Health Inequalities (30 credits)
- Fear of a Queer Planet? Sexuality and Inequality (30 credits)
- Identities, Inequalities and Exploitation in the Media: Exploring the Digital Divide (30 credits)
- Global Childhoods (30 credits)
- A Troubled World? Activism, Resistance and Social Justice (30 credits)
- Sex, Gender and Sexuality: Citizenship, Choice and the State (30 credits)
- ‘Race,’ Ethnicity and Racism(s) (30 credits)
- Empowerment and Ability: Understanding a Disabling Society (30 credits)
Semester 3
- Inequality and Society Dissertation (60 credits)
Career Opportunities:
The MSc in Inequality and Society affords a number of career pathways. Graduates will possess expert knowledge of equality and diversity with strong research skills including skills in data analysis. These are highly prized by employers. Each graduate will become a specialist in their chosen area of inequality.
Many postgraduate students from this course now work in the fields of human rights, equality, inclusion and diversity, education, the criminal justice system, the private sector and business, local and national government, international development, social justice campaign work, advocacy, and social research. Many graduates also go on to study a postgraduate research qualification, such as a PhD.
Teaching and learning strategy
All students entering this degree programme complete an intensive induction process. This induction prepares the novice learner to transition successfully to study in an online Higher Education environment. Our tailored induction process is comprised of a 1:1 induction meeting and skills session with their personal Studies Advisor. This 1:1 induction session will teach the student how to access our virtual learning environment and how to use zoom. These sessions are tailored to meet the needs of individual students. At Chevron College we are aware that IT skills vary between students. These sessions are therefore designed to meet each student at their own level. By the end of this 1:1 session each student will have learned how to access our VLE and online zoom meetings. All students will therefore have developed the skills to participate in the intensive 4 day class induction sessions.
The four induction sessions for the class group take place during the month prior to course commencement. At these sessions, students will be introduced to their course tutors and their class community. These sessions will teach students the skills required to succeed in an online Higher Education environment where continuous active engagement with resources and formative assessments is required. Students will learn academic writing and presentation skills. They will learn critical reading writing and thinking skills and they will learn how to conduct literature searches. These sessions teach the students the foundational thinking and IT skills required to participate in our blended learning degree programme.
Each semester runs for 12 weeks; students study 2 modules each semester. Students should allocate a minimum of 10 hours per week for each module.The weekly module content is released on the Virtual Learning Environment on a Monday morning at 6am. Each week there is a recorded lecture, a workshop/webinar and an Educational Action to complete for each module.
The lectures function to provide a content overview of the week’s learning and establish the expected aims and learning outcomes as well as the criteria for measuring their achievement. During the lecture key concepts, ideas and theories are introduced and contextualised. This reinforces the relevance of the material for the students with the use of examples
The workshops and webinars function to support students to investigate, question and develop critical thinking skills about the weekly topics. Students are supported to take part in active discovery within their class community. This supports students to develop their Higher Order Thinking Skills and to apply these ways of thinking and practicing to Case Studies, Problem Solving Scenarios and Ethical Dilemmas. The skills required to perform educational actions for example writing skills, analysis, using info-graphics, evaluation of a source etc are also scaffolded during the workshops/webinars.
Each week students are required to complete an educational action. This provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned. If they take part students are provided with feedback and feedforward on performance on the Learning Outcomes and expectations are clarified for demonstrating achievement in the final module assessment.
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