Global Mental Health and Society MSc
Awards: MSc
Study modes: Full-time, Part-time
Funding opportunities
Programme website: Global Mental Health and Society
Global Mental Health - interdisciplinary approaches at Edinburgh
- Do you want to examine how mental health is understood and addressed in varied contexts across the world?
- Are you interested in the social drivers of poor mental health and ways to address these?
- Do you want to play a role in transforming mental health care globally?
Mental health and wellbeing are crucial global health and social welfare policy concerns with significant resources and research devoted to this area.
This interdisciplinary postgraduate programme offers you opportunities to develop:
- critical perspectives on global mental health policy
- practice and research space for creating transformative possibilities for approaches to global mental health care
- tools for conceptual and practice innovation in the global mental health field
Please note this programme is not a professional programme in mental health and does not provide clinical or professional practice training or accreditation.
An interdisciplinary academic discipline
Global mental health is emerging as an interdisciplinary discipline with academic training programmes, journals, textbooks and research consortiums working to explore and address a range of global mental health priorities in diverse global settings.
Much of this activity has been situated in psychiatry and public health disciplines - with a growing body of scholarly work from other professional and social science disciplines including medical anthropology, social work, international development, and clinical psychology.
The role of the social sciences in global mental health is crucial to:
- further critical understandings of how conceptions of ‘distress’ and ‘mental health’ are socially, culturally and politically constructed in different contexts
- theorising the intersections between social and economic development and mental health
- developing effective interdisciplinary approaches to addressing the mental health development interface
Debates in mental health care
There is increasing global and local policy emphasis on ‘standardised’ and ‘evidence-based’ approaches to mental health care, which in doing so, potentially neglect three important dimensions, namely:
- the diversity of understandings of what constitutes ‘mental health’ and ‘mental illness’
- the complex social, cultural and political dynamics that shape psychological distress
- the transformative value of inter- and transdisciplinary ways of thinking about and engaging with mental health
This programme will engage you in these current debates and dilemmas.
It will focus on the culturally, politically and socially situated conceptualisations of mental health, addressing the implications of these multiple understandings for effective policy and practice in other global settings.
Who this programme is for
The programme is aimed at both professionals and graduates with backgrounds in:
- social work
- international development
- public health
- psychology
- nursing
- medicine
- health studies
- social and medical anthropology
- sociology
- other social science disciplines
We welcome applications from people with lived experience and from disciplines not listed above. In your application to the programme, please do focus on how your particular personal and academic background fits with the study of global mental health as a discipline.
The MSc in Global Mental Health and Society is offered as one-year full-time or two-year part-time programme.
The programme consists of 180 credits, comprised of:
- 3 x 20-credit required core courses
- 3 x 20-credit optional courses
- a 60-credit dissertation course
You will complete six courses over two semesters from September to April. Three of these will be compulsory core courses.
Courses
Critical Approaches to Global Mental Health and Social Change
The first core course, Critical Approaches to Global Mental Health and Social Change, enables students to critically engage with key policy and practice debates in global mental health including:
- the framing of global mental health as a policy problem
- social, psycho-social, and biomedical interventions
- marginality and intersectionality including gender and social inequalities
- the role of communities in global mental health
- impact of war and disaster
- poverty and development
This course will draw on interdisciplinary global mental health literature, including from:
- public health
- medical anthropology
- social work
- psychology
- international development
- Mad studies
- transcultural psychiatry
Culture and Mental Health
The second core course, Culture and Mental Health, engages you in theorising and problematising key concepts such as:
- ‘mental health’
- ‘mental illness'
- ‘emotion’
- ‘trauma’
- western diagnostic categories
- ‘healing’
This course will also ask you to examine their cross-cultural applications in practice.
This course will draw primarily on literature from:
- medical anthropology
- psychological anthropology
- transcultural psychiatry
- cross-cultural psychology
Interdisciplinary Approaches to Global Mental Health: Practice, Policy and Research
The third core course, Interdisciplinary Approaches to Global Mental Health: Practice, Policy and Research, focuses on the application of inter-disciplinary approaches to practice, policy and research.
You will develop skills in cross and inter-disciplinary dialogues and gain a clearer understanding of different research paradigms in global mental health.
Optional courses
The other three courses are options. These may be selected from across the University, drawing on the expertise of faculty members within:
- social and political sciences
- clinical psychology
- health in social sciences
- public health
- other disciplines
Dissertation
From May to August, you will complete either a placement-based dissertation or standard research dissertation. Please note that by default most dissertations will involve desk-based research or secondary data analysis rather than primary data collection.
Students also have the opportunity to apply to faculty-led dissertations which are projects on specific topics linked to the research programme of a particular member of academic staff. Please note that placement-based and faculty-led dissertations are by competitive application during Semester 1 and are not guaranteed.
Standard dissertations involve the student pursuing desk-based research into a topic of their choice. Typically, these dissertations involve the conduct of a literature review, or secondary analysis of a pre-existing data-set.
All students are supported by the Programme Directors to develop their dissertation topic. Students are also required to participate in a 6-session dissertation course that provides an introduction to key methods, critical analysis skills, and project management tools essential for successfully completing the dissertation.
Placement-based dissertation
The aim of the placement-based dissertation is to provide students with the opportunity to work on their dissertation within the context of a workplace of their choosing, subject to Programme Director and Placement Adviser approval.
The placements generally consist of eight weeks of research with a host organisation in the UK or overseas, from our network of contacts which includes NGOs, charities, social enterprises, think-tanks and government bodies. Placements can either be in person, hybrid or undertaken remotely. Students are also able to source their own placements subject to university approval.
Please note that a placement-based dissertation is not guaranteed as part of this programme and are by competitive application during Semester 1.
Find out more about the placement-based dissertation option via our dedicated information pages:
Global Mental Health Research Network
The programme will be taught by world-leading experts from Edinburgh's Global Mental Health Research Network, drawing together multiple disciplines, including:
- medical anthropology
- social work
- psychology
- trans-cultural psychiatry
You will also engage with key overseas collaborators of the Network through video, case studies and guest lectures. Where possible, this includes bringing lived-experience expertise into the classroom.
Find out more about compulsory and optional courses
We link to the latest information available. Please note that this may be for a previous academic year and should be considered indicative.
Award | Title | Duration | Study mode | |
---|---|---|---|---|
MSc | Global Mental Health and Society | 1 Year | Full-time | Programme structure 2024/25 |
MSc | Global Mental Health and Society | 2 Years | Part-time | Programme structure 2024/25 |
Graduating from this programme will enable you to:
- critically engage with key conceptual and policy debates in global mental health, applying contextually appropriate perspectives
- apply concepts, theories and methods from a diversity of disciplines (for example, social work, medical anthropology, clinical psychology, psychiatry and development studies)
- independently apply, integrate and critically reflect upon different disciplinary approaches to global mental health
- critically assess complex societal issues from an open-minded, reflexive and reasoned perspective
- communicate effectively with a variety of audiences
- critically apply the knowledge acquired to inform future global mental health programmes, practice, policies and research
Global mental health is a growing field with significant recent and ongoing investment from multilateral development agencies and governments, in both research and implementation.
This qualification will help prepare you for careers in global mental health policy, implementation and research. These may involve working with non-governmental organisations, with governments, or for multi-lateral agencies. By its very nature, global mental health takes place at local, national, and international levels, and this course equips you with core critical thinking and appraisal skills essential for working in a range of fields (health, mental health, education, development, social work or social care, and so on).
You would also be qualified to undertake similar careers with the UK health sector.
The following open access article, co-written by Global Mental Health and Society faculty, provides a useful introductory reading for students interested in the programme:
- Chiumento, A. MacBeth, A. Stenhouse, R. Segal, L. Harper, I. and Jain, S. (2024) : A vision for reinvigorating global mental health. PLOS Global Public Health
If you would like to get ahead with some reading, we would suggest:
- White, R. G., Jain, S., Orr, D. M., & Read, U. M. (Eds.). (2017). The Palgrave handbook of sociocultural perspectives on global mental health. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Kohrt, B. A., & Mendenhall, E. (Eds.). (2016). Global mental health: Anthropological perspectives (Vol. 2). Routledge.
These entry requirements are for the 2025/26 academic year and requirements for future academic years may differ. Entry requirements for the 2026/27 academic year will be published on 1 Oct 2025.
A UK 2:1 honours degree or its international equivalent.
The programme is aimed at both professionals and graduates with backgrounds in:
- social work
- international development
- public health
- psychology
- nursing
- medicine
- health studies
- social and medical anthropology
- sociology
- other social science disciplines
We welcome applications from people with lived experience and from disciplines not listed above. In your application to the programme, please do focus on how your particular personal and academic background fits with the study of global mental health as a discipline.
Students from China
This degree is Band C.
International qualifications
Check whether your international qualifications meet our general entry requirements:
English language requirements
Regardless of your nationality or country of residence, you must demonstrate a level of English language competency which will enable you to succeed in your studies.
English language tests
We accept the following English language qualifications at the grades specified:
- IELTS Academic: total 7.0 with at least 6.0 in each component. We do not accept IELTS One Skill Retake to meet our English language requirements.
- TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition): total 100 with at least 20 in each component. We do not accept TOEFL MyBest Score to meet our English language requirements.
- C1 Advanced (CAE) / C2 Proficiency (CPE): total 185 with at least 169 in each component.
- Trinity ISE: ISE III with passes in all four components.
- PTE Academic: total 73 with at least 59 in each component. We do not accept PTE Academic Online.
- Oxford ELLT: 8 overall with at least 6 in each component.
Your English language qualification must be no more than three and a half years old from the start date of the programme you are applying to study, unless you are using IELTS, TOEFL, Trinity ISE or PTE, in which case it must be no more than two years old.
Degrees taught and assessed in English
We also accept an undergraduate or postgraduate degree that has been taught and assessed in English in a majority English speaking country, as defined by UK Visas and Immigration:
We also accept a degree that has been taught and assessed in English from a university on our list of approved universities in non-majority English speaking countries (non-MESC).
If you are not a national of a majority English speaking country, then your degree must be no more than five years old at the beginning of your programme of study.
Find out more about our language requirements:
Tuition fees
Award | Title | Duration | Study mode | |
---|---|---|---|---|
MSc | Global Mental Health and Society | 1 Year | Full-time | Tuition fees |
MSc | Global Mental Health and Society | 2 Years | Part-time | Tuition fees |
Funding for postgraduate study is different to undergraduate study, and many students need to combine funding sources to pay for their studies.
Most students use a combination of the following funding to pay their tuition fees and living costs:
borrowing money
taking out a loan
family support
personal savings
income from work
employer sponsorship
- scholarships
Explore sources of funding for postgraduate study
UK government postgraduate loans
If you live in the UK, you may be able to apply for a postgraduate loan from one of the UK’s governments.
The type and amount of financial support you are eligible for will depend on:
- your programme
- the duration of your studies
- your tuition fee status
Programmes studied on a part-time intermittent basis are not eligible.
Other funding opportunities
Search for scholarships and funding opportunities:
- Postgraduate Admissions Team
- Phone: +44 (0)131 650 4086
- Contact: futurestudents@ed.ac.uk
- Programme Director, Dr Sumeet Jain
- Contact: sjain@ed.ac.uk
- Graduate School of Social & Political Science
- Chrystal Macmillan Building
- 15A George Square
- Central Campus
- Edinburgh
- EH8 9LD
- Programme: Global Mental Health and Society
- School: Social & Political Science
- College: Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
Applying
Select your programme and preferred start date to begin your application.
MSc Global Mental Health and Society - 1 Year (Full-time)
MSc Global Mental Health and Society - 2 Years (Part-time)
If you are also applying for funding or will require a visa then we strongly recommend you apply as early as possible.
References are not usually required for applications to this programme.
Find out more about the general application process for postgraduate programmes:
Further information
- Postgraduate Admissions Team
- Phone: +44 (0)131 650 4086
- Contact: futurestudents@ed.ac.uk
- Programme Director, Dr Sumeet Jain
- Contact: sjain@ed.ac.uk
- Graduate School of Social & Political Science
- Chrystal Macmillan Building
- 15A George Square
- Central Campus
- Edinburgh
- EH8 9LD
- Programme: Global Mental Health and Society
- School: Social & Political Science
- College: Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences