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MA Community Development and Youth Studies

MA Community Development and Youth Studies

Award

MA

Start Date

27/01/2025

Duration

24 months

Mode

Part-time

Location

University of Bolton

Are you an ambitious graduate seeking to take your professional understanding of the youth and community sector to a higher level? Our Master’s in Community Development and Youth Studies offers you the opportunity to develop greater professional insight and expertise, along with essential career-enhancing knowledge of leadership, management and research.

Apply Now Download Prospectus Programme Specification

Course Overview

The growing social and economic challenges to young people and adults in communities mean the need for highly trained, passionate and creative professionals in the areas of youth and community work have never been greater. The University of Bolton’s MA in Community Development and Youth Studies is designed to prepare future leaders for this sector, ready for a career changing lives by challenging discrimination and oppression through informal social inclusion.

This course aims to extend your already considerable professional skills and knowledge with specialist modules that deepen your understanding of areas such as equality and diversity, community learning, and global community development and sustainability. Our expert team will help you gain critical reflection, analysis and evaluation skills that support your ability to determine the impact of professional interventions on the community and young people.

Combining this knowledge with the principles and techniques of academic research and investigation will help develop your evidence-based practice and grow your skills in evaluating options and formulating creative solutions to complex problems. Studying leadership and management styles, theories and frameworks will support you to become more actively involved in the planning, delivery and transformation of services and interventions.

Overall, we aim to help you gain the professional and transferable skills to move forward in your career, empowering young people and adults in communities.

Highlights

Key Features

Entry Requirements

Where changes are made to material information contained in this course description or a decision is taken to suspend a course between the offer of admissions and enrolment, we will inform applicants at the earliest possible opportunity and will outline the various options available to the applicant.

Career Opportunities

As a graduate of our MA in Community Development and Youth Studies, you’ll have the skills and knowledge needed to lead and manage complex work with young people, adults and community groups. The course is ideal if you’re already working in the sector and wish to extend your knowledge, move into a more senior role or plan to embark on a career working with people in communities.

Community development and youth work seek to actively engage communities to make sense of the issues that affect their lives, helping them to set goals for improvement and respond to problems and needs through empowerment and active participation. Qualified workers are in demand across a wide range of public settings.

What can I do with this qualification?

Graduates of the University of Bolton's MA in Community Development and Youth Studies can choose to work in management or senior-level positions in a wide range of settings. These can include schools and colleges, youth and community centres, local government, charities, faith groups, uniformed services, youth training schemes, housing associations, outdoor centres, substance and alcohol misuse support organisations, youth offending teams, LGBT groups, community-based groups, environmental groups, international and sustainability projects, as well as residential settings such as care homes.

Alternatively, you could pursue further training, such as the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), which would qualify you to work as a teacher.

Alternative career options

Graduates can also use the qualification as a stepping stone into a range of other careers. For some of these roles, relevant experience and/or postgraduate study may be required. They include:

  • The Arts
  • Mentoring
  • Teaching and education
  • Journalism/writing
  • Health promotion
  • Behaviour management
  • Learning support
  • Work with refugee and asylum seekers
  • Advice work
  • Community education
  • Family support
  • Probation
  • Social work
  • Careers advice
  • Prison service
  • Outdoor education/activities
  • Residential care
  • Volunteer co-ordination
  • Youth offending
Fees & Funding

Home/EU Fees

No fee information is currently available, please contact the University of Bolton’s Academic Fees team by emailing AcademicFees@bolton.ac.uk for more information.

International Fees

No fee information is currently available, please contact the University of Bolton’s Academic Fees team by emailing AcademicFees@bolton.ac.uk for more information.

Bursaries

Click here for more information on our Master's Bursaries.

Important note regarding tuition fees for the 2024-25 academic year: EU nationals who meet residency requirements (have settled or pre-settled status) may be eligible for 'Home' fee status. If you do not meet these residency requirements, overseas fees will apply. Irish citizens living in the UK or Ireland will be eligible for 'Home' fee status under the Common Travel Area arrangement. Please read the student finance for EU students web page on www.gov.uk for information.

The fees for a student's course of study will be set for the normal duration of that course subject only to inflationary increases – measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) recorded in March each year to take effect for subsequent start dates.

How to apply

Home Applicants

You may apply directly to the University using the University's online application form. Please select your chosen start date from the list below:

You should have to hand:

  • Details of the educational establishments you attended and dates

  • Your certificates for the qualifications you are using to gain entry to the course – you will need to enter the completion date and upload copies

  • Details of any employment history including name, address, dates and role

  • Personal statement – this can be either input into the relevant field or uploaded separately

  • Details including e-mail addresses of two referees, at least one of which should be someone who can provide an academic reference

Please make sure any documents you wish to upload in support of your application are in pdf or jpeg format. Personal statements may be word documents.

Please ensure your data is correct at each stage of the application before you proceed to the next page. If you use the back button at any time during the application, you should check the validity of the data you have already input.

If you experience difficulties during the application process, contact the Admissions Team on 01204 903394 or admissions-team@bolton.ac.uk

International Applicants

International applications are not possible for this course

As an international student you are not allowed to study this course because of the restrictions on your visa.

We offer a wide range of full-time courses in lots of different subjects, many of our courses start in September and January. If you would like to see what courses are available please visit our Course Search.

Teaching & Assessment

The Faculty of Health and Wellbeing works across a range of sectors offering professional and non-professional education and works to balance exposure to subject knowledge, theoretical perspectives and professional/practical skills. This master’s degree is part of a suite of programmes offering a cross-curriculum and multi-professional ethos in the areas of community development and youth work, early childhood studies and health and social care.

We use a wide variety of teaching and learning methods. You can expect lectures, presentations, seminar discussions, small group workshops, small group tutorials and one-to-one tutorials, and using virtual learning environments (VLE) and e-learning packages. You’ll also need to undertake a significant amount of personal study, including general background reading, preparing for seminar activities, working on assignments and revising for examinations.

Assessment methods are also varied, allowing you to develop and demonstrate your learning in a range of ways. For example, assessments may require you to complete essays, reports, presentations, seminar contributions and portfolios.

Modules

The modules listed below may be a mixture of compulsory and optional. You may not have the opportunity to study all the modules shown as part of the course.

  • Postgraduate Preparation for Research Design
  • Critical Reading and Writing Skills
  • Leadership and Innovation
  • Equality and Diversity for Human Services
  • Contemporary Issues, Policy and Practice
  • Dissertation
  • Global Community Development, Youth Work and Sustainability
  • Social Pedagogical Approaches to Community Based Learning and Development

Assessment methods

Level Assessment method
Level 1 Coursework 100%

Learning Activities

Level Activity
Level 1 Guided independent study 76%
Scheduled learning and teaching activities 24%

The university will use all reasonable endeavours to deliver your course as described in its published material and the programme specification for the academic year in which you begin your course. The university considers changes to courses very carefully and the university will minimise any changes. Please be aware that our courses are subject to review on an ongoing basis and changes may be necessary due to legitimate staffing, financial, regulatory and academic reasons. The content of course modules and mode of associated assessments may be updated on an annual basis. This is to ensure that all modules are up-to-date and responsive to employment and sector needs. The published course material and the programme specification contain indicative ‘optional modules’ that may be subject to change due to circumstances outside of our control. For this reason, we cannot guarantee to run any specific optional module.

Programme Contacts

Help Centre

We have the answers to your questions, find all the advice and support in one place.

Part of the University of Bolton Group

Bolton college
Alliance learning
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QQA Scheme Participant

Help Centre

We have the answers to your questions, find all the advice and support in one place.

Part of the University of Bolton Group

Bolton college
Alliance learning
Anderton centre2
QQA Scheme Participant