MSc Social Innovation

Available as a One Year Masters or a Two Year (with Professional Practice) Masters.

Social innovation – or the development of new ideas, services and models to better address social issues – is a concept that has become known world-wide over the last couple of decades. Social innovation often involves the empowerment of disadvantaged groups and the restructuring of power relations in the ways they are implemented. Social innovation often emerges from civil society to disrupt or pose an alternative to the status quo, such as in the form of microfinance initiatives or social enterprises, and can imply new forms of collaboration that encourage new and less hierarchical relationships between government, civil society and citizens.

Designed to develop your knowledge and expertise in this exciting field of study, the MSc Social Innovation from Glasgow Caledonian University shares its home with the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health - GCU's world-leading research centre - and is delivered by the award-winning Glasgow School for Business and Society*.

Those encouraging, facilitating and delivering social innovation, whether in the private, public or third sectors, are looking for the right mix of critical, intellectually curious and entrepreneurial scholars and practitioners who are armed with the knowledge and mindset needed to tackle some of the world's most pressing problems.

Assessment methods

A range of coursework assessments are used such as individual and group-based projects and reports, the use and application of creative technologies, group presentations and self and peer review exercises.

Graduate opportunities

The MSc in Social Innovation attracts a wide range of students who share our commitment to social justice and want to explore aspects of social innovation from a critical perspective. This includes governmental employees seeking to develop a flourishing environment for social innovation, to those working in NGOs looking to improve their understanding of the changing environment for international aid, to aspiring social entrepreneurs. Graduates have gone on to academia, to local or central government, and found work in social innovation institutions worldwide.