Future Governance (Online Learning) (Taught)

An innovative, interdisciplinary degree with Edinburgh Futures Institute

Technology and data are transforming governance across the globe. How we apply ethical and innovative use of data and technology to society’s most pressing challenges is key to how we govern our future world. This MSc programme in the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) explores and analyses the challenges and opportunities that digital technology brings to the future of democracy.

This is a unique, new interdisciplinary programme offering an innovative approach to study that will help you develop advanced thinking in governance and policy-making for the future. It is for critical thinkers who seek to develop leading-edge knowledge to help them shape the world, and their careers, by driving positive change through policy and decision-making.

You will gain the skills and knowledge required to evaluate and use diverse data sources and emerging technologies to understand, critique and shape the future of governance. The cross-sector, interdisciplinary approach used within the Futures Institute showcases the very best the University of Edinburgh has to offer and includes collaboration with policy and communication experts and decision-makers across the public, private and third sectors.

You will:

• develop a deep understanding of democracy and participation in an era of rapidly developing technological change and data-driven decision-making

• interrogate the challenges and opportunities that new and big data sources bring to the future of governance

• increase your knowledge of ethical decision-making in the context of data-driven policy-making, and your confidence in using new and big data

• learn to identify the most appropriate methods required to address policy issues and learn how to apply a strong, critical and interdisciplinary understanding to the challenge of our democratic futures

Postgraduate study at the Edinburgh Futures Institute

This programme is part of an interconnected portfolio of postgraduate study opportunities at Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI).

The Futures Institute supports interdisciplinary teaching, learning and research that is focused on complex global and social challenges. Our programmes are taught by academic experts from many different subject areas.

As a Futures Institute student, you should be proactive and motivated. You will be supported to develop creative, critical, and data-informed thinking that cuts across traditional disciplinary boundaries. You will have the space to think deeply about questions linked to your own passions and professional goals and will develop a project based on an issue that you care about.

As well as knowledge specific to your area of study, studying at Edinburgh Futures Institute will give you the skills and understanding you need to become a creative, confident, and critical citizen in a fast-changing world.

These skills include:

• core data skills

• data ethics

• the ability to interrogate issues of global scope using perspectives from across disciplines

• creative and analytic approaches to knowledge

You can join us regardless of whether you already have experience or practical skills in the use and application of digital data.