The NOHA Master's Degree

Originally I planned on working with human rights, but by graduation I couldn’t see myself lobbying for human rights reform or diligently attending hearings at the Hague. I imagine that work is better suited to someone more patient and less cynical. But I wasn’t done with the idea of helping (a concept to unpack…another day), and an undergraduate course steered me towards humanitarian aid. I wasn’t qualified for any such job, so I decided to get a degree.

In September 2015 I started a master’s degree in Humanitarian Action through the Network on Humanitarian Action (NOHA), a group of European universities, and their degree caught my attention for the following reasons. First, it was one of the very few that welcomed the experience-challenged (recent graduates). Second, the different topics aligned well with my interests. Third, it has a major travel component, and fourth, the tuition rates were manageable (mundane, but oh so important).

Unlike most careers, the job came before the degree; while humanitarian aid dates back to the 1800s, degrees are a (very) late-1900s phenomena. It seems universities are trying to remedy that by targeting mid-career professionals, while programs catering to recent graduates are still scarce. The “application requirements” section is thus really important to read while screening potential programs.

My second requirement was that the individual classes were of interest. Just like most social science programs, humanitarian aid degrees can lean towards the more practical or the more philosophical. Looking through the lecturers’ backgrounds and the individual courses’ descriptions give really good insight into the program’s profile. Many of the lecturers in NOHA are currently active in fieldwork and applied research; given that I’d like to step into that world, this was extremely important to me. If you’d prefer to study the development of UN legislation relevant humanitarian aid, perhaps another program is more suitable.

I enjoy traveling, to put it mildly; after a year in Mongolia I was ready for something new. This degree encourages students to spend each semester at a different location. The first semester classes are the same at every university; I chose the University College Dublin (UCD) because of its Centre for Humanitarian Action (CHA), and I was craving the convenience of living in an English-speaking country again. The universities all have different specializations in the second semester; I’ll be in the Netherlands, where Groningen Rijksuniversiteit focuses on disaster analysis and intervention design. Other universities focus on religion, geopolitics, law, public health, and transitioning societies. Finally, the universities have different requirements for the third semester of studies; UCD requires a master’s thesis, and encourages an internship. (Much) more on that later.

These reasons all played into why I chose the NOHA program; thankfully it chose me as well. In just a few weeks here I’ve realized that in humanitarian aid, as in most fields, part of getting your dream job (or just getting an interview) depends on who you know. Besides the small group of students (we’re 19 at UCD), the professors insist on a first-name basis and an open-door policy. NOHA alumni return regularly to lecture on their work, and I’m applying to their new mentoring program. If there was ever an enjoyable way of networking my way into a job, this degree might just be it.

So far I’ve only paid for one semester; like I said, this degree was an opportunity to critically assess the sector and whether I’ll be equally disillusioned with the daily realities as I was with human rights law. So far, so good; it seems like NOHA will be seeing me in the Netherlands. 

-SB