Masters in People and Organisational Development

Entry requirements

To qualify for entry to the MSc in People and Organisational Development you will need to hold at least a lower second (2.2) UK bachelor’s degree or international equivalent. As this is a professional organisational development masters, you will need to demonstrate that you have at least four years’ relevant business/industrial experience (this need not be in OD). If you do not have these qualifications but believe that this is the course for you, please apply and we will conduct an interview process to ensure that the programme would be right for you. The programme is taught entirely in internationally accessible English, but if English is not your first language you will need to hold a minimum IELTS 6.5.

Months of entry

January, July

Course content

Organisational development professionals put people at the heart of organisations. Together they create a positive and inclusive working environment, encouraging collaboration, removing inequality, increasing performance. OD enables people to thrive. Roffey Park’s masters in organisational development is an established, internationally recognised master’s qualification in the field of organisational development.

The MSc in People and Organisational Development is designed as a practical, experiential OD qualification. The programme is delivered through a mixture of virtually taught components, online materials and self-directed group learning. The latter takes the form of Dialogic Learning Groups in which learners work together, share their experiences, provide each other with feedback and expand their horizons. This form of social learning has been a speciality of Roffey Park Institute for many years and offers a powerful and impactful learning experience. Throughout the masters in organisational development you will be challenged to think critically and creatively about organisations, their people and their role in the wider society.

The programme has recently been reviewed, renewed and converted into an online delivery format. In addition to the thorough grounding in organisational development practice that the masters has long delivered, the new version allows us to open the programme to fully international cohorts, allowing for global networking among experienced OD professionals and diversity of opinions and perspectives

We are an associate partner of the University of Sussex who act as validating authority for our MSc in People and Organisational Development.

This organisational development master’s programme is for you if you are…

• An HR professional wanting to deepen your practical skillset in organisational development.
• A learning and development and talent manager looking to interpret the requirements of culture change and organisational transformation.
• A transformation officer/CTO/change lead looking for the maximum guarantee of project success.
• A CEO or senior director/partner in need of the full picture of the organisational change process.
• An independent or internal consultant in organisation development and change, now or in the future.

You’ll walk away with

1. A masters in organisational development, an internationally recognised qualification, which will boost your impact and career as an OD professional

2. A thorough knowledge of organisational development theory and its evolution

3. The skills, tools and practice to lead transformational OD initiatives that put people first

4. Greater connections with an international network of OD professionals

Benefits for you

You will graduate with a masters in organisational development, an internationally recognised qualification, which will grow your impact and career as an OD professional. You will:

• Express a thorough knowledge of organisational development theory and its evolution.
• Critically analyse change dynamics within an organisation
• Function as a professional OD practitioner
• Lead the application of group dynamics and dialogic methods as key OD tools
• Critically analyse and demonstrate the relationship between organisational development and organisational design
• Develop and critically evaluate plans for OD interventions
• Generate and integrate a variety of media and materials to build a reflective OD portfolio.
• Build an international network of OD contacts.

Programme Modules:

Year One:

Academic reading and writing

People and Dialogic Practice

Mapping the field of OD

Change Expertise

Values and Influence

Organisational Consulting

Year Two:

Case Study 1.

Case Study 2.

Research and methods ethics

Dissertation

Dialogic Learning Groups

Dialogic Learning Groups are a key element of the masters in organisational development. Dialogic practice is also a key OD methodology so practising it over the extended period of the programme is important experiential training. Activity within the DLG will be monitored and course mentors will periodically check in on the group but most DLG meetings will be learner-led. This is an important element to the master’s programme as the DLGs will become strong professional networking hubs for learners. Each DLG is given access to course mentors, which enables them to access advice and guidance from the faculty team when they need it, but without comprising the autonomy of the DLG itself.

Do you have any questions about our MSc? Join our next live Q&A webinar

Fees and funding