Dr Filia Garivaldis discusses Monash University's Master of Behaviour and Systemic Change
In an era marked by systemic challenges and uncertainties, the importance of innovative thinking and change competencies has never been more pronounced. Meeting this pressing need, Monash University is pioneering change in the southern hemisphere with its Master of Behaviour and Systemic Change (MBSC) program.
The new Masters course will deliver a unique combination of system and behaviour change curriculum, making it the only course of its kind currently available in Australia. The MBSC will empower students to understand systemic complexities, design applied, innovative solutions to major challenges, and plan for the evaluation of these solutions to facilitate the change we need.
For Course Director Dr Filia Garivaldis (please remove link), integrating system and behaviour change mindsets and toolkits is vital to enabling the mitigation of contemporary problems with longevity.
There are a lot of reasons why we want to invest in helping people do things better and changing behaviours,” explains Dr Garivaldis. “We need to consider both lenses, and learn to zoom in and out between systems and behaviour perspectives”.
Accordingly, the MBSC provides a range of core units that merge behaviour and system change content to facilitate an in-depth understanding of theory with the application of foundational and advanced change tools.
The course also presents opportunities for students to gain specialised knowledge through selecting from a range of new and established units from Monash’s other courses. These units include Climate change and public health, Future food supply and security and Understanding development: Discourse, practice and power among others.
The new MBSC is intentionally interdisciplinary in design, and includes inputs from Business and Economics; Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences; Science; and Arts.
Dr Garivaldis, with over twenty years of experience in higher education across multiple disciplines, emphasises the importance of delivering an interdisciplinary curriculum.
The course is innovative because it brings practitioners together from many disciplines, and realises the need to address change from these different perspectives at the same time. It's exciting for us to stretch our thinking in this space.”
Renowned for their expertise in transdisciplinary education, Monash University's Sustainable Development Education team is uniquely placed to facilitate the MBSC, which extends on its Leadership specialisation within the existing Master of Environment and Sustainability.
The 1.5 year degree offers a range of flexible pathways to suit a diverse cohort of students. This includes capacity to undertake a double degree, explore research pathways, or take alternate exits. Across each available pathway, the MBSC hones critical change tools and competencies that extend beyond simply providing content.
Whether students are working professionals looking to upskill, career changers, or recent graduates, Dr Garivaldis says the course is for students “who are disillusioned with the current systems that they're working and learning within, and who want to be leaders in change.”
When asked why she’s excited about the course, Dr Garivaldis says, “it ticks all of my values… I'm involved in delivering something that is going to make my children's lives better - and not just mine, but all future generations.”
I think this course is the realisation of what a university sets out to achieve, and the role of education – to create more equitable and sustainable societies. This course really gets to the heart of that.”