Apply for our Master's Course in Business and Human Rights

Business has significant impacts on human rights. Companies create jobs and pay taxes that provide governments with resources to create the infrastructure needed for people to realize and assert their human rights. However, corporate conduct can also adversely affect the rights of workers, consumers and communities.

Apply for the Master's course here.

Course content

This course provides a better appreciation of the nature of human rights violations that can be linked to corporate activity, regardless of corporate intent. The course does this by examining the ethical and legal standards, duties, and expectations of companies. Focus will be on the dilemmas of operating in a space where local standards and rules may vary from and sometimes contradict global standards or policies. Furthermore, the course will explore emerging initiatives in order to deal with human rights and business, and assess the effectiveness of voluntary corporate codes of conduct.

The course will enable students to develop strategies consistent with international human rights standards and to identify policies and practices that do not undermine human rights.

The course is developed and offered by the Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen, in cooperation with the Rafto Foundation and Institute for Human Rights and Business.

Course schedule and fee

The first and last course weekends will take place in person in Bergen, Norway, with two intervening weekends taking place virtually. 2025 course dates are below:

Week 1: 18th-21st September

Week 2: 10th-12th October

Week 3: 31st October - 2nd November

Week 4: 21st - 23rd November

Cost for 2025 is NOK 35,000. (Cost does not include travel or accommodation - there will be an option to join virtually for those unable to travel to Bergen.)

Sessions will comprise a mixture of lectures, seminars, and group discussions. All lectures are streamed using Zoom.

All relevant materials, including lecture recordings, will be made available throughout the course pages at the student portal - MittUiB.

Requirements and how to apply

This course is available to master's students, professionals and anyone interested in business and human rights.

A bachelor's degree or equivalent and at least two years' work experience is required. The course is with 15 ECTS credit points.

Students will be required to complete a semester paper, assigned at the beginning of the semester, of not more than 4,500 words, to be submitted four weeks after the last weekend gathering (grading scale A-F).

For more details on the course, please contact Andrea Mevold Zakariassen andrea.zakariassen@uib.no at the UiB’s Department of Comparative Politics.