Master in Global Challenges for Sustainability

Objectives and competences

Objectives and competences

Objectives

• Research and evaluate complex societal challenges from different stakeholder and intercultural perspectives.


• Assess and integrate different disciplinary and transdisciplinary knowledge and research methodologies.


• Demonstrate expertise in the identification and application of the latest technological tools to source, analyse, handle, use and communicate complex bodies of data ethically.





 
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Competences

• Develop creative and critical thinking skills.


• Acquire expertise and communicate effectively on complex issues.


• Formulate an advanced understanding of transdisciplinarity and demonstrate expertise in the facilitative, communicative, reflexive and collaborative skills to support its practice.


• Acquire advanced transversal competencies in problem-solving, entrepreneurialism, innovation, digital skills, and a life-long learning disposition.





 
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Access and admission

Applicant profile and access requirements

Recommended applicant profile

Access requirements and conditions

• Official Spanish university degree.


• A degree issued by a higher education institution within the European Higher Education Area framework that authorizes the holder to access university master's degree courses in the country of issue.


• A qualification issued by an institution outside the framework of the European Higher Education Area. In this case, applicants must request homologation of the degree to its equivalent official Spanish university qualification or obtain express approval from the University of Barcelona, which will conduct a study of equivalence to ensure that the degree is of a comparable level to an official Spanish university qualification and that it grants access to university master's degree study in the country of issue. Admission shall not, in any case, imply that prior qualifications have been recognized as equivalent to a Spanish master's degree and does not confer recognition for any purposes other than that of admission to the master's degree course.

Pre-enrolment

Calendar

Required documentation

Applications with incomplete documentation after the deadline will not take into consideration. It is the applicant's responsibility to make sure that the application form is complete and that all required documents are attached in the appropriate format. Any application sent after the deadline will not be processed.

You must upload in PDF format the following documents in your application file. For admission purposes, all documents must be submitted in English, except for the bachelor's degree or equivalent and the academic transcript. Both documents can be submitted in any of the official languages of the CHARM-EU Alliance institutions that provide the Master (Catalan, Spanish, English, Dutch, Hungarian or French).

1. Valid ID card: For EU students, national ID or passport can be used. For non-EU students, only passport is accepted.
2. Bachelor's degree diploma or recognised equivalent: If the diploma is not available yet, up-to-date transcript will suffice. Non-EU students should submit an additional statement from the university recognising that the qualification is sufficient to apply to a Master's level program.
3. For Applicants with a French Licence: certificate with additional 30 ECTS.
4. Academic transcript: Acceptable transcript formats must include the mean grade updated until the last evaluation period (GPA). If the GPA is not included in the transcript, students should submit an additional statement from the university including the grade point average.
   *In case of students with multiple degrees (Bachelor's or Master's), only the one uploaded will be assessed.
5. English language test scores with a LEVEL C1: Download the accepted English certificates here. English C1 is the required level and must be achieved in all skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking). Applicants with B2 level will be considered in conjunction with other admission criteria but must attain C1 level before programme registration.
   Exemptions: Applicants with the Nationality of an English-speaking country and coming from Education Systems of English-speaking countries or with a previous university degree delivered in English (Bachelor level minimum) are exempt and must provide a document that proves their cause for exemption (passport, certified from the university where they studied in English, etc).
6. Curriculum Vitae. Include clear sections on Intercultural experience (languages, relevant international and additional cultural experiences) and Civic engagement (relevant experiences and practical examples of the candidate's past and current engagement).
7. Product: Choose a specific and local challenge related to sustainability (i.e. the challenge should not be general but specific to your surroundings, city or personal experience).
   Using this challenge, create a coherent and comprehensive product in English summarising the challenge, interrelated issues and potential solutions. Ensure to explain:
   1. why you have selected this challenge
   2. your personal experience with this challenge;
   3. analyse it in a critical way
   4. through the lens of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
   • Format: selected by the candidate, some options but not limited to essay, poster, video, booklet, pamphlet, podcast, mind map.
   • Guideline: length 500'750 words, or 6'8 minutes to listen/watch/read.
   • Disclaimer: the use of artificial intelligence is discouraged for content generation. Any suspicious products may result in the rejection of the application.
8. Video/audio presentation: Download the video/audio instructions. In English. PDF format with the link to the video/audio recording.
9. Inclusion: If you tick the box to be considered for Inclusivity Points, and once you have correctly uploaded your application documents by the deadline, you will be contacted by a member of the DEI Team to provide a relevant rationale and, where appropriate, supporting documentation. If you wish to provide documentary evidence (e.g. medical report confirming disability / document in relation to socio-economic status), please arrange such documentation in anticipation of contact by the DEI Office. These documents will be handled with the utmost sensitivity and solely by the DEI Team for the purposes of the application process only.

Download your checklist here.

Selection criteria

An evaluation rubric will be used to ensure maximum objectivity. The admissions rubric is based on the competencies identified for selection in the CHARM-EU Rules and Regulations: Admissions. Please consult the detailed admission rubrics to align with the requirements and get the highest scores.

1. Academic excellence (10 points)
   10 points will be distributed according to previous degree's finale grade mark, converted in a A-D scale, following the grading equivalence table. If the country of the candidate is not listed in this table, the CHARM-EU Programme Board will decide the conversion to be applied.
   1. 10 points
   2. 8 points
   3. 4 points
   4. 0 points
2. General academic competencies (40 points)
   These competencies will be assessed through the documents and files submitted by the student.
   • Critical thinking (10 points): Quality, originality, coherence, relevance of arguments in the product in relation to the chosen challenge, given different perspectives. Originality and feasibility of ideas and plans expressed in the product.
   • Analytical skills (10 points): The candidate's analytical skills show the thought processes they went through to arrive at a given conclusion and discuss the implications of this, in a structured and clear way, using suitable expressions. Arguments are presented with clarity and clear reasoning.
   • Knowledge SDGs (10 points): Relation of the selected challenge to sustainability, awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals and identified linkage to these.
   • Personal reflection (10 points): Explaining the personal (individual/communal) relation to the selected challenge, including lived experience.
3. Personal competencies (40 points)
   This will be assessed through the documents presented by the student.
   • Intercultural competence (10 points): languages, relevant international and additional cultural experiences.
   • Oral communication (10 points): the applicant makes a convincing video/audio presentation of their commitment and expectations. The applicant makes good use of the allocated time and questions.
   • Civic engagement (10 points): relevant experiences and practical examples of the candidate's past and current engagement.
   • Commitment to programme entry (10 points): clear expectations from the programme, its structure, components and design; willingness to contribute.

4. Inclusion (10 punts)In order to ensure access and inclusion, applicants from under-represented communities (in terms of age, gender, family status, disability, sexual orientation, race and ethnic origin, religion, migration status, membership of the Roma and Traveller communities, and socio-economic background in all aspects of higher education, among others), that wish to be considered for these 10 additional points can indicate this on their application. Once those applicants have correctly uploaded the application documents by the deadline, they will then be contacted by a member of the DEI Team and invited to provide a relevant rationale by way of a short explanation with regards barriers in their educational journey and/or underrepresentation in Higher Education. Where appropriate, applicants can provide supporting documentation (e.g. medical report confirming disability / document in relation to socio-economic status). Ticking the box to be considered for inclusivity points is optional for the applicant.

Notification

Enrolment

As a general rule, at the UB you will be required to enrol online. Remember that you can lose your place if you do not enrol on the day you have been assigned

• Documents required for enrolment
• Procedure to formalize enrolment
• Grants and financial aid (in Catalan)
• Economic information (in Catalan)

Welcome

• Student Support Service
• Grants and financial aid (in Catalan)
• Accommodation

Course curriculum

Subjects and course plans

Distribution of credits

List of subjects

Previous years

• Course plans 2022 - 2023
• Course plans 2021 - 2022

Teaching staff

Placements

Placements in a company or another type of organization are an integral part of university studies, providing first-hand experience of working methodologies in students' chosen professional fields. They offer invaluable practical experience for the transition into work after graduation.

Placements are supervised by tutors and subject to assessment. They are therefore included in the academic record.  There is also an option to complete non-curricular placements of up to 500 hours, which can be extended to 900 hours. For both curricular and non-curricular placements, an educational cooperation agreement is signed between the UB and the company, institution or other organization at which the placement will be carried out.

Institutional information

• Regulations on external placements
• FeinaUB

Career opportunities

What can you work on ?

The master's programme strongly supports student employability, professional-specific competencies, and academic career progression. It strengthens these aspects through identifying multiple career pathways, aligning learning outcomes to business and civil society stakeholder needs, and fostering of a broad industry-ready skillset.

Four potential postgraduate student pathways (i.e., fields of employment) have been identified:

• sustainable policy and communication roles.
• social innovation and action either within existing companies (intrapreneurship) or via generation of new enterprises (entrepreneurship).
• managers with the ability to deal with complex issues from a sustainability perspective and to advise company senior management on sustainability matters.
• progress further along the academic pathway.

Specific roles that graduates might consider are:

• Sustainability Specialist
• Communications Specialist
• Social Innovation Analyst
• Entrepreneur (Environmental Strategist)
• International Consultant (for enterprises, governmental institutions and NGOs).
• Researcher

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