Social Protection (M.Sc.)
MSc Social Protection Insights: March 2025
March 2025: Social Protection Insights
📢Admission for students not requiring a visa open until May 31, 2025
The application window for international students requiring a visa is now closed and will reopen on December 1, 2025. Those who do not require a visa can submit their application until May 31, 2025. Interested applicants are encouraged to submit their documents through our online application portal, Apollo. For more information, please visit our website: https://www.h-brs.de/en/sv/study/master/social-protection
📢Ms. Inken Barjenbruch has joined us as a new program coordinator!
We are pleased to welcome Inken Barjenbruch as our new coordinator! She will support our department in the program coordination, focusing on student affairs together with Mr. Brian Mathebula. We wish Inken all the best for her start!
Inken succeeds Darleen Kolbe who recently joined Oxford Policy Management as a consultant for poverty and social protection. Ms. Barjenbruch holds a Master's degree in Intercultural Communication and European Studies and brings valuable expertise in project management and international cooperation from her previous role with Senior Expert Service (SES) gGmbH.
Many thanks to Darleen for her tireless, warm and efficient commitment over the past three and a half years, which has contributed significantly to the further development of the degree programme and the department. The team, lecturers, partners and students will miss her!
📝 Current Courses: Module 5 and 7
After one month of winter semester break, students are back to begin with their summer semester. Currently, they have started with modules 5 and 7, which cover techniques for managing social protection programs and factors that influence government size, public spending patterns, and funding structures in different countries.
▶️Module 5.1 Actuarial Practice // Dr. Charles Crevier
In this module, students will learn with Dr. Charles Crevier, a leading expert in social protection and governance at the International Training Centre of the ILO. This course provides a comprehensive understanding of actuarial principles and methodologies applied in social protection and pension systems. Participants will gain expertise in demographic and labour force projections, pension system sustainability, actuarial valuation, and contributory pension projections. The course also covers long-term financing strategies for social protection schemes. More especially, students will learn to develop technical expertise in social protection financing methods for effective design, management, and monitoring and evaluate social protection reform strategies.
▶️Module 7.2 Delivery of Social Insurance // Prof. Dr. Markus Loewe
This module explores key considerations in the design and implementation of social insurance schemes. By the end of the module, participants will be able to identify the essential decisions involved, evaluate different policy options, and assess their impact on target groups and the country as a whole. They will also understand what it takes for these schemes to achieve their objectives and how their design can be improved to enhance social protection.
Get to Know Our Students, Lecturers & Alumni
Alumni Spotlight
Name: Lamiya Rzayeva-Ahmadli
Batch: 2019
Country of Origin: Azerbaijan
Current Role: Co founder, Social Solutions
Master's Thesis Topic: Social Protection of Labour Migrants: Case of Azerbaijan
About the program, she says:
„It was an enriching and insightful journey that shaped my professional aspirations. My favorite part of the program is that it's not solely theoretical; it's fully practical with professors and instructors coming from the field with up-to-date knowledge and experiences. Proud to be an H-BRS alumna.”
Lamiya Rzayeva-Ahmadli - Batch 2019
Meet our Lecturers
Name: Prof. Dr. Markus Loewe
Position: Honorary Professor
Teaching in the programme since: 2024
Course(s) in 2024/25: M2.4 Poverty and Risk Assessment, M3.1 Contributory Systems and M7.2 Delivery of Social Insurance
Expertise: Social protection, inclusive growth, poverty reduction, industrial policies, small and medium enterprise development, demographic development, concept of the social contract
„Personally, I find it more important for students to be able to take a position and explain it well and well-informed than to have detailed factual knowledge in all areas. I very much appreciate the great interest and commitment of the students on the Master's programme, their very diverse experiences, their different geographical and social backgrounds and their great willingness to discuss important topics critically.”
Prof. Dr. Markus Loewe
Resources, Events and Publications
Events
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Third Global Disability Summit (GDS) from 2nd–3rd April, 2025, in Berlin
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Register for the dialogue series on Talking Interoperability in the social protection sector by the Digital Convergence Initiative (DCI)
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Register for a 4-day seminar on Vom Gen zum Teller: Nachhaltigkeit und Ernährung im Klimawandel organised by Crop Trust in Zusammenarbeit with Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung starting on 15.05.2025.
Resources
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Read article on Inclusive urban planning: leveraging citizen science for community well-being by Johannes Klement, Andreas Rienow, Christian Daniel, and Wiltrud Terlau
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Read the ILO Social Protection platform working paper on What role can health mutuals and community-based health insurance play in social health protection systems? Review of experiences
CONTACT US!
We are always interested in creating partnerships with those of you working in the field! We would love to hear from you if are interested in
- being a #ThesisSupervisor,
- providing #Internship opportunities to our students,
- publishing a paper in our #WorkingPaper series, or
- visiting our university as a #GuestSpeaker
Your feedback and suggestions to improve the newsletter are also very welcome.
📩 msc-socialprotection@h-brs.de
🌐 Master's of Science in Social Protection | Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg (H-BRS)