MSc in Future Governance

A new, interdisciplinary degree with the 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 new MSc programme in the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) explores and analyses the challenges and opportunities that big data 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 EFI 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 in the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI). EFI supports interdisciplinary teaching, learning and research that is focussed on complex global and social challenges.

Our programmes are all taught by academic experts from many different subject areas. As an EFI student, you will 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 EFI will give you the skills and understanding you need to become a creative, confident and critical citizen in a fast-changing world. These will include:

• core data skills
• data ethics
• the ability to interrogate issues of global scope
• the creative and analytic approaches to knowledge that are vital for building better futures

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

Our Ethos

At the Edinburgh Futures Institute, we challenge, create, and make change happen. We are focused on tackling today’s increasingly complex issues and shaping a better tomorrow through education and research with a difference. We bring people and disciplines together to spark the unexpected. We are creating a curious, open-minded, thought-laboratory in order to make better futures possible.

Purpose

The purpose of the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) is to pursue knowledge and understanding that supports the navigation of complex futures. EFI’s distinctiveness stems from our approach to research, education and engagement – an approach that combines multi-disciplinarity with co-production. Working with industry, government and communities (at home and abroad) we will build a challenge-led and data-rich portfolio of activity that has demonstrable ethical, social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts.

Our ethos is:

Critical: Be critical and challenge with kindness, humility and persistence. Nothing should be taken for granted. No assumptions left unprobed. We are working on pressing social issues that need deep and novel ways of thinking: this is not a practice run. We are open, curious, provocative, constructive and mindful of a University’s role in confronting uncomfortable questions.

Participatory: We invite people at all stages of life and from across all disciplines to work hand-in-hand and bring their ways of working and ideas together. Importantly, we also extend this participation and collaboration to industry, the public, and the government.

Future-facing : EFI is a place to embrace the untraditional, the untried and the unexpected. A place where invention and innovation are part of daily life. Here, we define challenges, co-create, envision, experiment, prototype, and evaluate from new perspectives, to make better futures.

Why EFI now?

The biggest challenges facing societies globally are complex and interconnected. Our approach recognises that insight and innovation can come from bringing the arts, humanities and the social sciences into contiguity with data science, engineering, the natural sciences and medicine. And our ethos and commitment to co-production stem from the University’s historic principles of the ‘democratic intellect’ updated now in Strategy 2030. These principles focus on the civic responsibilities of the University is working with and for its wider communities, and the importance of opening up education to all who can benefit.

Our first programme – Data-Driven Innovation

One of EFI’s first major programmes is focused on the challenges and opportunities posed by the revolution in data, digital and artificial intelligence. EFI is a key component of the University’s Data-Driven Innovation contribution to the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal. This multi-million-pound investment by the UK and Scottish Governments aims to increase the provision of data and digital skills in the workforce and secure economic prosperity for all.

EFI’s data-driven innovation programme links to four key sectors: financial services (including fintech); creative industries; tourism and festivals; and public services (data civics). Additionally, it has two cross-cutting themes: the ethical implications of data analytics and artificial intelligence; and the future infrastructure needed to drive social, economic, environmental and cultural inclusion.

Application and innovation

We will apply innovation from our data-rich activities to the futures of:

• Democracy – exploring the changing patterns of, and preferred futures for democracy, governance and policy.
• Society – addressing the challenges posed by increasingly internetworked yet divided societies.
• Education – future-making through education policy, philosophies and the ways we teach.
• Creativity – understanding and utilising creativity as narrative, product, political agenda and practice.
• Justice – critically engaging with ethics and justice against a backdrop of rapid change and complex global dynamics.
• Health – driving action-oriented research and practice to promote urban and planetary health.
• Sustainability – reconciling the resources that populations consume and the carrying capacity of the planet.
• Economy – scoping futures for finance, policy and infrastructure and their social and economic impacts.
• History – building futures on and from our archives, heritage and culture.