Gaia University Master’s degree programs are designed for those making the transition from functioning at an operational level to becoming strategic.  They are also suited to those moving out of a corporate career and into a career in ecosocial regeneration.  Prior hands-on life and field experience is a requirement for admission to a Master’s program.

At the Master’s level, transition and leadership are important threads. You will be exploring your capacities for making personal and pathway transitions while taking on leadership roles and looking for opportunities to challenge yourself using Gaia University’s support structures to process any resistances and fears that may arise.

Master’s Pathways:

You have a choice of three pathways – Integrative Ecosocial Design (IESD), Regenerative Enterprise Design and Development (REDD)  and Open Topic.  The Open Topic pathway allows you to propose a name for your degree based on the work you have done and the skills you have developed during your degree time.

All three pathways assist you in developing transferable and flexible skills much in demand by project leaders, non-profits, and other employers in the world change field. You will explore creating your own business, not for profit, benefit corp, B-Corp or other structure using the entrepreneurial skills you are developing. You will explore ways to finance your livelihood using fund-raising and investment tools from the “New Economy”.  You will enhance your project design, time and management skills, develop your digital documentation skills, expand your leadership abilities, develop additional research capacities, hone your professional and organizational skills, make local and global connections and much more.

The learning design follows the generic pattern of all Diploma and Degree pathways at Gaia University, using a Transformative Action Learning methodology.

Pathway Structure

The Master’s program begins with a series of 7 online courses consisting of readings, activities and live interactive webinars. Upon completing these courses you will be awarded our Certificate in Ecosocial Design.

The courses are:

  1. Creating Regenerative Livelihoods (2 weeks)
  2. Managing Time, Managing Promises (2 weeks)
  3. Learning & Unlearning (2 weeks)
  4. Thinking About Worldviews (2 weeks)
  5. Growing Resilient Communities (2 weeks)
  6. Project & Design Thinking (2 weeks)
  7. Tracking Your Learning Journey (2 weeks)

These courses are followed by 2 intensive learning experiences centered around work documented in an e-portfolio and supported by readings, activities, live interactive webinars, one-on-one mentoring and advising. These experiences make up our Certificate in Auto-Ethnography and Learning Design.

They are:

  1. Life & Career Review (4 weeks)
  2. Learning Intentions & Pathway Design (4 weeks)

These two certificate programs make up the beginning of all of our Diploma and Degree programs. They can also be taken individually or together without enrolling in a full program. For more information click here.

Self -Designed and Directed Project Time:

Following the two content-rich certificate programs (total duration about 6 months), you will focus entirely on your self-chosen project work, making a series of structured project reports (output packets) that you will publish in your e-portfolio. Each report is reviewed by yourself, a peer and your main advisor. This results in comprehensive feedback on your work as you progress along your pathway.

What you decide to focus on for your projects is entirely up to you. Student associates have designed projects on research topics, businesses, volunteer/professional work, land-based designs, personal development, and more. To see some example Outputs Packets click here.

Cost:

In light of the challenging times we are all facing, we have lowered our fees on all degree programs by 15% or more in order to accommodate the increased strain on financial resources. Each learning cycle of the Master’s program is $9850.

Gaia U believes in right livelihood and a sharing economy and makes significant efforts to support those with lower access to capital resources globally while maintaining our ethical policies which result in the rejection of government and corporate economic ties.

To that end we have incorporated a range of financial flexibility offers to help you to access world-class education from anywhere. These include:

  • A range of payment plans (biannually, quarterly or monthly)
  • A 5% discount when paying biannually
  • The ability to work while you study
  • No need to relocate or commute to study
  • The ability to take pauses in your program and request payment holidays should extenuating circumstances arise.
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