Overview
The certificate focuses on knowledge enhancement in migration and mobilities research through interdisciplinary thinking and engagement. Regardless of your degree program, if you have an interest in migration as a field of research or professional practice, a certificate in Migration Studies can significantly enhance your graduate education and career prospects.
As a broad-based research field, migration studies have evolved at the intersection of various disciplines such as sociology, political science, anthropology, geography, law, economics, education, history, demography, cultural studies, and health studies. The new certificate program adopts a multi- and interdisciplinary approach, encouraging exploration beyond departmental confines to enrich students’ understanding of migration studies. Rooted in decolonizing approaches, it fosters critical inquiry and invites engagement with diverse perspectives.
The Graduate Certificate in Migration Studies is open to graduate students at UBC who are enrolled in any master’s, doctoral, or professional degree program. It provides students with the opportunity to pursue a migration studies credential alongside their graduate degree program.
The certificate pursues three distinct objectives:
- Provide multi- and interdisciplinary training in migration and mobilities research;
- Provide knowledge about pathways to non-academic employment in the migration and immigrant integration sector;
- Foster an inclusive, engaged, and interdisciplinary community.
What makes the program unique?
An academic credit certificate program that allows graduate students enrolled in any UBC graduate program to gain a specialization in migration and mobilities studies.
Program Structure
To complete the certificate, students must complete 10 credits:
- 9 credits of graduate course electives from a list of approved courses. The 9 credits may be completed any time during the student’s graduate degree. 3 of the above 9 credits must be taken outside of the student’s home department. Where departments open up 400 level courses to graduate students, certificate students may take 3 of the required 9 credits at the 400 level.
- Any number of these elective credits may also be applied to the requirements for their graduate degree program of study at the discretion of the student's degree program.
- ASTU_V 505 (1 credit) Interdisciplinary Research and Professional Practice in Migration Studies. Students are generally expected to complete this research seminar in their first year of the certificate program.
- Upon completion of the 10 credits, students are required to submit a 5-7 page paper reflecting on their curricular learning.
If a student does not maintain continuous registration in or is withdrawn from their degree program before they complete the certificate requirements, they will be simultaneously withdrawn from the graduate certificate program. However, if a student has already completed all certificate requirements at the time they are withdrawn from the degree program, they may be awarded the certificate.
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Specialization
Migration Studies promotes collaborative, interdisciplinary, and transformative research that advances our understanding of the causes, consequences, and experiences of human mobility, both within and across borders.
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