This course will introduce you to the community development ideas and practices used to create and foster community-led change in settings around Australia and beyond.

This course is designed for community work practitioners and graduates with an interest in moving into emerging fields that embrace the ideas and practices of community development, and want to broaden their knowledge substantially through further postgraduate studies.

You'll study real and living community projects that build on cultural strength in remote areas, urban agriculture and sustainability projects, grassroots creative arts projects, activism work and much more. Combine case studies, documentaries, films and other creative digital forms that showcase examples of community work and attend workshops designed to teach creative ways of getting the community involved.

6 reasons to study a Master of Community Development

• Put theory into practice by undertaking a community development internship in a migrant resource centre, state or local government offices, an international development agency or through an alternative education project or community arts project.
• Be taught by leading academics who have themselves worked for community organisations and still carry out research on community-based projects including work with local government authorities, Indigenous Australian groups and in the cultural development, arts and film industries.
• Build a course that suits your career goals by choosing from a range of core units and electives.
• Undertake an independent research project or dissertation under the supervision of experienced researchers, in an area of community practice relevant an important to you.
• Choose full-time, part-time, on-campus or online options to help you fit study into your working life. (If you’re an international student, you’ll need to study full-time to meet your visa requirements.)
• Take advantage of free workshops and seminars to help you with writing, statistics and analysing data, ethics, how to run surveys and research as a postgraduate student.

Develop your skills

Build essential skills and knowledge to meet your career or study goals. Topics you’ll cover include:

• community development in Indigenous communities
• building links between community, industry and local government
• social policy activism and community change
• sustainable and ecological community development
• understanding the dynamics of cultural diversity in the workplace and community.

When you graduate you could work in many industry areas such as community and social services, local government, humanitarian organisations, NGOs, aid work, economic and social planning, sustainable development and Indigenous governance.

Careers could include:

• Community Arts, Development or Service Coordinator
• Federal or State Government Policy Advisor
• International Aid Worker
• Engagement Officer
• Place and Activations Officer.