The USS diploma has three taught components at ISS:
- The lecture series Risk, Vulnerability and Systems of Cover, which addresses the nature of risk and vulnerability, and how systems of social protection and social provisioning respond to risk and vulnerability in people’s lives.
- The course Poverty: Concepts and Interventions, which focuses on the conceptualisation, identification, and measurement of poverty, analyses the causes behind poverty, and offers a critical overview of different anti-poverty policies.
- The course Social Policy Analysis: The Politics and Economics of Inclusion, which offers students the tools to understand, critically analyse and design different social policy responses to poverty and vulnerability.
