Contemporary Drug and Alcohol Studies

Entry requirements

You are required to hold an Honours degree (minimum 2:2 classification) within the broad area of the Social Sciences or an Ordinary bachelor’s degree with significant and relevant work experience.

If you do not meet these standard entry requirements, you may be admitted to the MSc at the discretion of the programme Admissions Officer/Programme Leader. However, you must demonstrate that you have sufficient relevant professional or practice-based experience to undertake their chosen programme of study.

Months of entry

September

Course content

Our MSc Contemporary Drug & Alcohol Studies takes a critical social science approach to explore the use of psychoactive substances in society.

You are introduced to a range of cross disciplinary theories, concepts and evidence to analyse:

• the use and effects of psychoactive substances
• patterns of consumption differentiated across social groups
• responses to drug and alcohol-related harms from a range of perspectives, such as criminal justice, treatment, harm reduction, public health, and health inclusion

You will critically examine substance-related harms for individuals, families and communities and how harms are mediated by gender, class, race and ethnicity. You will pay particular attention to the social, economic and political contexts of inequality and risk environments and how issues such as housing, homelessness and welfare state reforms may contribute to harms. Throughout the course, you will assess the influences of the alcohol industry; the drugs economy; and prohibition on policy and practice, and engage with current debates on alcohol and drug law reforms nationally and internationally.