Information about who will teach your course is correct at the time of publication. In some cases changes may be necessary and unavoidable, such as staff changes due to illness or leaving the University.
Overview
Top reasons to study with us
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Engage with leading, socially-engaged academics
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Develop critical thinking around a wide range of societal issues and concerns
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World Top 100 QS World University Subject Rankings 2025 (Arts & Humanities)
World leading academics from across Lancaster's Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences share the latest developments in this dynamic field. What does the rapid escalation in AI capabilities and implementation mean to society? What are the major concerns for leaders and organisations at local, national and global level? How can we ensure benefits are realised and pitfalls avoided?
The specialist knowledge you’ll gain on Lancaster’s MA in Artificial Intelligence, Society and Global Challenges will prepare you for a wide variety of roles on both private and public sectors.
Why Lancaster?
- Study AI from a unique interdisciplinary perspective that intersects technology and humanities
- Develop the skills, knowledge and experience to understand, communicate and react to AI’s global impact across diverse industries
- Learn leadership skills that will equip you to navigate difficult decision-making
- Study for a career in a fast-paced industry, where new roles are constantly being created
- Work collaboratively with students across our suite of master’s courses to build your own professional network
- Acquire practical, hands-on-skills to use and work with cutting-edge AI technologies
Leadership in the age of AI
This course is designed for those in or aspiring to leadership roles that require sound knowledge of technological advancements in AI combined with the impact this is having on the world around us.
The acceleration of AI innovation across the globe has triggered fears of loss of control, privacy and human value. How valid are these fears? How may they be countered? What sectors are being impacted? And what ethical considerations should we take into account when evaluating the use of AI in society?
By exploring humanity’s enduring fascination with creating intelligence machines and examining the latest applications across sectors, you’ll gain the skills to tackle AI’s challenges while critically assessing its benefits. Knowledge of critical concepts, theories and practices drawn from across the arts, humanities, and social sciences, will help you to understand the views of different stakeholders and unravel the complexities at the intersection of AI and society.
Collaboration in practice
The School of Global Affairs offers three master’s degrees that share a common ethos and course structure. Each provides distinctive yet interconnected opportunities to develop the skills, knowledge, relationships and partnerships needed to meet the global challenges of our time.
You’ll take part in subject-specific modules designed to build in-depth knowledge of AI technology, society and global challenges. You’ll assess, engage in and create responses to real-world issues.
In studio modules you’ll work on live briefs and develop practical skills in using cutting-edge AI technologies, assessing ethical dimensions, and unpacking the societal costs and benefits.
On leadership modules, you’ll join with students from other master’s cohorts on projects and use generative, collaborative thinking to create innovative solutions that are relevant to diverse external stakeholders.
Working with students from our other cohorts will bring you into contact with those specialising in sustainability and the environment, and health and medical humanities. You’ll experience the benefits that harnessing skills and knowledge from diverse groups and subjects can bring.
You’ll have the opportunity to tailor your final project to draw on your academic, personal or professional experience. A range of innovative assessment types will give you the freedom to represent your chosen topic creatively and persuasively.
A new type of leader
With its dedicated leadership module, this course prepares you for a future as a collaborative change-maker. The course challenges traditional views of leadership. It adopts an understanding of inclusive leadership that is grounded in critical, creative and collaborative skills.
By taking this interdisciplinary approach and engaging in the discourses of leadership ethics in relation to AI innovation, you’ll be equipped to perform a wide array of roles in this rapidly evolving domain.
You’ll benefit from Lancaster’s rich, collaborative academic environment, being able to participate actively in research events and opportunities provided by the Lancaster University.
Flexible study options
Study alongside work and other commitments by taking this course on a part-time basis. Running over two years, you take a selection of the modules each year.
We will liaise with you over your choice of optional modules and your schedule, so that you can successfully balance your work and other commitments alongside the master’s programme.
Careers
Graduate opportunities in the AI field are plentiful, and new roles are constantly evolving. With a higher-level qualification in AI, you can expect to find exciting prospects for your future career. Your future job role may not even exist yet.
Through studying Artificial intelligence, Society and Global Challenges, you will gain a clear understanding of how AI is affecting society. You will develop critical thinking skills and the ability to understand the important role humanities has to play in the development and use of AI globally.
It is likely that many roles across different sectors will, in the future, require an understanding of AI. However, AI specialists may be in particular demand as:
- AI Governance Specialist
- AI Innovation Strategist
- AI Transformation Manager
- AI Diversity and Inclusion Advocates
- AI Compliance Managers
- AI Ethics Consultants
- AI Policy Analyst
- AI Risk Manager
- AI Education Manager
- AI Technology Journalist
- Human-AI Interaction Specialists
- AI Creativity Managers/Producer
- Digital Humanities Researcher
Careers and employability support
Our degrees open up an extremely wide array of career pathways in businesses and organisations, large and small, in the UK and overseas. Our specialist Employability team is ready to support you, whether you are starting out your career after leaving higher education or returning to university to open up new career options.
We provide individual employability advice, application support, career events, development opportunities and resources to help you plan and achieve your career goals. We also run a paid internship scheme specifically for arts, humanities and social sciences students.
The Lancaster Award is available to all postgraduate taught students and recognises work experience, volunteering and personal development alongside your studies. Developed with employers, it helps you reflect on key skills, boost your CV and articulate your strengths with confidence.
Whether you have a clear idea of your potential career path or need some help considering the options, our friendly team is on hand.
Find out more about Lancaster’s careers events, extensive resources and personal support for Careers and Employability.
Entry requirements
Academic requirements
2:2 Hons degree (UK or equivalent) in any subject.
Additional requirements
- A personal statement which should be a 300-500 word reflection on your interest in the programme, the relevance of your experience and what you hope to gain from the programme.
- The department plans to interview all eligible applicants.
English language requirements
We require an IELTS (Academic) Test with an overall score of at least 6.5, and a minimum of 6.0 in each element of the test.
We also consider other English language qualifications and if your score is below our requirements, you may be eligible for one of our pre-sessional English language programmes.
Help from our Admissions team
If you are thinking of applying to Lancaster and you would like to ask us a question, complete our enquiry form and one of the team will get back to you.
We also have more details on our website about:
Pre-master's programmes
Delivered in partnership with INTO Lancaster University, our one-year tailored pre-master's pathways are designed to improve your subject knowledge and English language skills to the level required by a range of Lancaster University master's degrees. Visit INTO Lancaster University for more details and a list of eligible degrees you can progress onto.
Course structure
We continually review and enhance our curriculum to ensure we are delivering the best possible learning experience, and to make sure that the subject knowledge and transferable skills you develop will prepare you for your future. The University will make every reasonable effort to offer programmes and modules as advertised. In some cases, changes may be necessary and may result in new modules or some modules and combinations being unavailable, for example as a result of student feedback, timetabling, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes and new research. Not all optional modules are available every year.
Core
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Develop your project management skills and practice at an advanced level.
In this innovative studio format, you will be given a live brief, and through hands-on learning, you will work with others in a group project to meet this brief. Your task will centre on how interdisciplinary humanities approaches can be applied to contemporary place-based challenges.
You will address these multi-dimensional challenges through a range of approaches, applying learning from your specific topic of expertise such as:
- Artificial intelligence
- Society and global challenges
- Sustainability and environmental futures
- Global medical and health humanities
Projects may be based on academically significant topics that will expose you to areas of contemporary research. Alternatively, they may be linked to ‘real world’ issues and external clients enabling you to develop your abilities in professional practice.
This project-based module will incorporate studio sessions with lectures from a range of disciplinary experts and external stakeholders, workshops to support practical skills and student-led group working in the studio space.
In this second studio format module, you will build on your first applied learning experience. You will move from contemporary place-based challenges to a focus on how interdisciplinary humanities approaches can be applied to global challenges that encompass multiple locales and contexts.
You’ll continue to develop project management and practice at an advanced level working on a live brief. Through further hands-on learning, you will work with others in a group project to meet this brief.
These multi-dimensional challenges will be addressed through a range of approaches as you apply learning from your specific topic of expertise such as:
- Artificial intelligence
- Society and global challenges
- Sustainability and environmental futures
- Global Medical and Health Humanities
Projects may be based on academically significant topics that will expose you to areas of contemporary research. Alternatively, they may be on issues put forward by external clients, enabling you to develop your abilities in professional practice.
This project-based module will incorporate studio sessions with lectures from a range of disciplinary experts and external stakeholders, workshops to support practical skills, and student-led group working in the studio space.
In this module you’ll gain a range of practical skills that are required to lead the development and implementation of innovative solutions to global challenges within education, academia, business and society. You will participate in workshops and work in self-directed Action Learning Sets which meet independently on a regular basis outside of the classroom.
Applying a critical, decolonial lens, you will reflect on your own position, prior learning and experience and connect these with ideas of leadership (and leadership ethics) in a range of contexts.
Our focus is a humanities-led approach to leadership, grounded in critical, creative and collaborative skills. You’ll be encouraged to take a holistic approach to the role of leadership in society, and humanistic thinking.
As well as theories of leadership and followership, you will learn skills for leadership and collaboration, which may include:
- Project and self-management
- Entrepreneurship
- Research and information literacy
- Communication
- Partnership building
The teaching and learning are designed to be flexible and prioritise self-directed study, enabling you to develop your own unique set of leadership skills and traits which will prepare you for a wide range of leadership roles, further study or a range of careers.
Explore and experiment with topics, ideas and methods which you will devise and design. The project will usually be a piece of individual work and can take a number of formats, which may include:
- A long form written dissertation
- A multi-media formatted project
- A creative intervention or a policy document
You will be supported by The School of Global Affairs to work collaboratively and to identify external partnerships through which to develop the project. You’ll be expected to draw on the multi-disciplinary aspects of your programme to devise critical, creative and future facing work.
Optional
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What ethical and political questions can we ask about ‘smart’ digital infrastructures that are typically overlooked by engineers and tech corporations? How can we approach the social connections forged by ‘smart’ digital infrastructures?
In this module, you will consider the forms of power and control underpinning algorithmic cultures and data. You will explore the progression of technology and how it has made the relationship between the digital and non-digital more complex.
You will consider how technology doesn’t always work as planned, whether it affects people differently or leads to unexpected consequences, such as:
- The messiness of datafication
- Algorithmic culture tied up with affective contagion
- Unpredictable ecosystems
- Electronic waste straddling the planet
This module explores futures literacy through specific design approaches. These approaches help anticipate and manage potential societal and environmental changes introduced by emerging technologies and systems.
All designers navigate the unknowability of the future. Artefacts they create today, may well come into use under some future conditions they may neither know nor control. In this module, you will learn how to grapple with unknowability by combining systemic and human-centred perspectives, with creative design approaches and methods such as:
- Speculative design
- Design fiction
- Forecasting
- Backcasting
- Experiential futures
- Defuturing
These approaches will empower you to concretise potential futures. This enables a variety of stakeholders to effectively consider and strategise for the wider societal and environmental challenges that new technologies and systems may bring. The module will help you develop the advanced level of critical perspectives and creative skills needed for such an endeavour, and experience how they may be applied in a variety of organisations.
Intercultural business communication plays a key role in the global economy and world commerce as it considers cultural differences between international business partners and clients. On this interdisciplinary module, you will examine how communication is affected by different values, attitudes and beliefs, in the context of volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environments.
You will learn how to effectively interact, work and develop meaningful relationships with professionals across different cultures and social groups: essential skills in a global workforce.
Drawing on interdisciplinary research,you’ll gain the necessary awareness, know-how and practical skills needed to become more effective at intercultural interactions. You will use various models to analyse your own experiences and develop a personal development plan to address effective interactions at work in the face of significant challenges. Studying intercultural business communication will foster an understanding of your own cultural, linguistic and communication related background. This may benefit future careers that operate within a multicultural context.
Study a language formally in a way that will support your learning. You can enrol either as a beginner or as a more advanced student where you will build on existing knowledge.
In the seminars and workshops, as well as through a series of optional drop-ins offered later in the module, you’ll get the tools you need to approach materials which are relevant to your own academic and work interests.
You will be given opportunities to practise in your chosen target language, building on materials posted on the learning space (flipped classroom videos, self-study links) as well as other events organised for the community of linguists and language learners in the University, such as our weekly lunch clubs.
On this module you will develop transferable communicative skills and reflect on cultural and linguistic challenges which are relevant to your postgraduate studies and beyond.
You may use these skills to research matters relating to intercultural and/or interlinguistic issues, work with archives, develop an international research network, or simply add them to your CV.
Fees and funding
We set our fees on an annual basis and the 2026/27 entry fees have not yet been set.
Additional fees and funding information accordion
There may be extra costs related to your course for items such as books, stationery, printing, photocopying, binding and general subsistence on trips and visits. Following graduation, you may need to pay a subscription to a professional body for some chosen careers.
Specific additional costs for studying at Lancaster are listed below.
College fees
Lancaster is proud to be one of only a handful of UK universities to have a collegiate system. Every student belongs to a college, and all students pay a small College Membership Fee which supports the running of college events and activities. Students on some distance-learning courses are not liable to pay a college fee.
For students starting in 2025, the fee is £40 for undergraduates and research students and £15 for students on one-year courses.
Computer equipment and internet access
To support your studies, you will also require access to a computer, along with reliable internet access. You will be able to access a range of software and services from a Windows, Mac, Chromebook or Linux device. For certain degree programmes, you may need a specific device, or we may provide you with a laptop and appropriate software - details of which will be available on relevant programme pages. A dedicated IT support helpdesk is available in the event of any problems.
The University provides limited financial support to assist students who do not have the required IT equipment or broadband support in place.
Application fees for 2025
For most taught postgraduate programmes starting in 2025 you must pay a non-refundable application fee of £40. We cannot consider applications until this fee has been paid, as advised on our online secure payment system. There is no application fee for postgraduate research applications.
Application fees for 2026
There is no application fee if you are applying for postgraduate study starting in 2026.
Paying a deposit
For some of our courses you will need to pay a deposit to accept your offer and secure your place. We will let you know in your offer letter if a deposit is required and you will be given a deadline date when this is due to be paid.
The fee that you pay will depend on whether you are considered to be a home or international student. Read more about how we assign your fee status.
If you are studying on a programme of more than one year’s duration, tuition fees are reviewed annually and are not fixed for the duration of your studies. Read more about fees in subsequent years.
Find all fees and funding information for students at Lancaster University.
Scholarships and bursaries
Details of our scholarships and bursaries for 2026-entry study are not yet available, but you can use our opportunities for 2025-entry applicants as guidance.
Check our current list of scholarships and bursaries.
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Data, Computing and Communications
- Artificial Intelligence MSc
- Communication Systems MSc by Research
- Communication Systems PhD
- Computer Science MPhil/PhD
- Computer Science MSc by Research
- Cyber Security MSc
- Cyber Security (Online) MSc
- Data Science MSc
- Data Science (Online) MSc
- Financial Technologies and AI MSc
- Health Data Science MSc
- Health Data Science PhD
- Management and Artificial Intelligence MSc
- Statistics and Artificial Intelligence MSc
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Sociology
Meet the Artificial Intelligence, Society, and Global Challenges MA team
Naomi Jacobs
I am a Lecturer in Design Policy and Futures Thinking. My work spans design, computer science, social science, and fan and audience studies to research interaction; between individuals, communities, disciplines or sectors, and between people and technology and the media they consume.
I often use speculative design methods and design fiction, particularly to consider ethical use of new technologies. This includes speculating around policy for how technologies such as IoT and AI are being implemented and governed.
Joseph Lindley
I am a Senior Research Fellow at Imagination Lancaster. As part of my Future Leaders Fellowship, I lead Design Research Works. I specialise in using Design Research to better understand the rapidly changing relationships between society and technology, focusing on emerging applications of Generative Artificial Intelligence and More-Than-Human Design practice.
I've exhibited work at London Digital Design Week, Mozilla Festival, and Electromagnetic Field Camp. I'm also a member of the Responsible AI Licensing Initiative and co-produced the documentary "Permission to Muck About."
Louise Mullagh
My research and teaching centres around what art, heritage and cultural organisations mean in our current and future worlds. I have a background in art history, curatorship, digital innovation, design, and public policy, and I am interested in understanding how technologies and the data-driven society will impact upon arts, design and culture.
In my research I use creative methods including, walking, speculative design, writing and photography.
Important information
The information on this site relates primarily to the stated entry year and every effort has been taken to ensure the information is correct at the time of publication.
The University will use all reasonable effort to deliver the courses as described, but the University reserves the right to make changes to advertised courses. In exceptional circumstances that are beyond the University’s reasonable control (Force Majeure Events), we may need to amend the programmes and provision advertised. In this event, the University will take reasonable steps to minimise the disruption to your studies. If a course is withdrawn or if there are any fundamental changes to your course, we will give you reasonable notice and you will be entitled to request that you are considered for an alternative course or withdraw your application. You are advised to revisit our website for up-to-date course information before you submit your application.
More information on limits to the University’s liability can be found in our legal information.
Our Students’ Charter
We believe in the importance of a strong and productive partnership between our students and staff. In order to ensure your time at Lancaster is a positive experience we have worked with the Students’ Union to articulate this relationship and the standards to which the University and its students aspire. Find out more about our Charter and student policies.