Why Global Studies?

Tomorrow's leaders and global citizens need to think about issues transcending national borders and develop perspectives and problem-solving skills that cross disciplinary boundaries.

Global actors like multinational corporations, non-governmental organisations, international organisations, transnational networks, and national governments interact in ways that profoundly shape our local settings. As such interactions are complex and ever changing, it is challenging to understand their impact, or develop appropriate policy responses, through perspectives circumscribed within traditional academic disciplines.

To keep up with a changing world, flexible and interdisciplinary, problem-oriented, training is required.

The Global Studies major provides such training, empowering students with the analytical and research skills necessary to assess contemporary global and transnational issues via a curriculum that has an explicit focus on problem-based learning, with both the exposure course (GL1101E Global Issues) and the fourth-year seminars being organised around issues rather than fields of study like other traditional disciplines.

During the two-course ‘Task Force’ sequence, for example, students investigate and propose policy recommendations for a major policy issue. Such problem-based, interactive, learning cultivates practical and transferable analytic, research, and project management skills students will need in the workforce.

Through this training a degree in Global Studies provides students the skills needed for careers in a variety of fields, such as diplomacy, civil service, international business, intergovernmental organizations, law, non-profits and non-governmental organizations, education, and other exciting fields.