Community Development Masters Programs in Europe

Having encountered quite the trouble with finding comprehensive information on where to take a masters on community development in Europe I want to make the information I collected available here. If you have any comments on any of these programs or would like to add a program in another country (especially non-UK) you are more than welcome to email me about it.


United Kingdom:

1. University of Edinburgh - MSc in Community Education - link

2. London School of Economics - MSc in Health, Community and Development - link

3. University of Westminster - Masters in Community Development - link

4. University of Cambridge - Master of Studies in Social Enterprise and Community Development - link

5. London Metropolitan University - MSc in Organisation and Community Development - link

6. Oxford Brookes University - MA in Humanitarian and Development Practice - link

7. Durham University - MA in Community and Youth Work - link

8. Queen Mary College (University of London) - MAs in Cities and Cultures (might not seem directly connected to community development but you can probably focus your thesis on community development in an urban context) - link

9. De Monfort University of Leicester - B.A. Honours in Youth and Community Development and various MAs in Community Development - link 1
link 2

10. University of Glamorgan - MSc Community Regeneration - link

The Netherlands:

8. University of Amsterdam - MSc in Social Policy and Urban studies - link

9. Institute for Social Studies in the Hague - various MAs - link

Germany:

10. University of Applied Sciences Munich - MA in Community Development - link

11. Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin - various MAs - link

12. Koblenz University of Applied Sciences - MA in International Social Work and Community Development Studies - link

Sweden:

13. Lund University - Master in International Development and Management - link

14. Baltic University - Masters course in Sustainable Community Development and Urban Planning - link

France:

15. American University in Paris - Master of Arts in International Affairs, Conflict Management and Civil Society Development - link

Community Development is unfortunately a fairly new academic category in Europe even though all the elements it consists of have been practiced here for ages. However, cultural and academic arrogance might have contributed to making Europeans think they had no need to specifically develop their communities. Tellingly the closest thing to community development one could have studied was "International Development" - the rest of the world might need to develop its communities; Europe had no such necessity. North America on the other hand with its large number of newly founded communities was much more open about combining all the disciplines involved in developing communities into one, thereby reinventing "Community Development".

During the 90's European countries have been waking up to the fact that they were not culturally homogenous, that they were increasingly immigrant societies and countries. Problems of cultural, political, and social integration associated with that development have made the need for an embrace of community development painfully clear. Educational institutions have been reacting slowly to the increase in demand. The UK is probably quite far ahead in terms of the number of established programs, also having the advantage of an already established Bachelor/Masters system. Other countries have been busy introducing that system and on top of that combining several old areas of study to create new "sexy" disciplines. Thus, one encounters the problem of naming - community development will rarely be the title of a program in Germany or the Netherlands. Social work, social policy, social management but also urban studies or rural studies are some of the more likely titles of the programs.