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FIRST MA IN GLOBAL AFFAIRS STUDENTS COMPLETE THEIR STUDIES

Thursday 27 September 2007

Buckingham's first cohort of Global Affairs students with their lecturers

The University of Buckingham would like to congratulate the first cohort of students who have recently completed their studies for the MA in Global Affairs programme launched in 2006 by the Department of Economics and International Studies.

Students on the programme have taken courses on a wide range of topic areas such as International Law, International Environmental Politics, International Economics, International History and International Negotiating. During their studies students took part in seminars organised by the Department on related subjects such as security, development and economic issues. They also participated in a day-long conference on State Building in the 21st Century at Chatham House in London.

As part of their course work MA students successfully negotiated what came to be known as the "Buckingham Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change". In these negotiations, which were modelled after the ongoing climate change negotiations at the global level, students formed delegations representing key countries involved in the real negotiations on all sides of the issue, and were tasked with trying to reach agreement on the way forward in the post-Kyoto era. Gaining an understanding of some of the actual conflicts of interests and differences in position among the real countries involved, the students' ultimate achievement of agreement, after much struggle and perseverance, was felt by many to be a true highlight of the year.

The beginning of the Buckingham Protocol

The MA in Global Affairs programme continues to go from strength to strength. Intakes have already surpassed expectations, with the programme thus far attracting students from fourteen countries spread across four continents. We wish all graduating students the best of luck in their future careers and hope their experience at Buckingham will not only bring them happy memories but will also help them to achieve their highest ambitions.

Report by Patricia Prada and the Web Team