Oxford Brookes University has won a prestigious award from the Queen for its pioneering degree course for humanitarian aid workers, writes Madeleine Pennell.

It is the first time Oxford Brookes has won the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education.

Universities and colleges are only allowed to submit one course or piece of research for the award each year and this time Brookes has come up trumps with its post graduate MSc in Development Practice.

Judges said: "The university has gained an international reputation for pioneering education and training for humanitarian aid workers its unique emphasis on educating humanitarian practitioners for work in war, political violence and disaster is a model for others."

The Queen will present the prize a gold medal and an illuminated certificate at a Buckingham Palace ceremony in February.

Oxford Brookes is among about 20 winners chosen on merit by the Royal Anniversary Trust.

Set up ten years ago, the course prepares humanitarian aid workers for coping with war zones, political conflicts and natural disaster areas.

Although it is a post-graduate course, it takes students who do not necessarily have a first degree, such as nurses or soldiers, but who want to change their career and work on the front line as humanitarian aid workers.

Prof Nabeel Hamdi, who set up the course, said of the award: "The exciting thing for us is that it raises the profile of this business. It legitimises it as a profession and it gives us status, provides us with an international profile and it translates into attracting students and grants."

Six years ago the MSc changed direction and became more geared towards emergency situations with the arrival of Hugo Slim, as co-director.

An Oxford graduate, he became an aid worker in his early 20s with nothing but a degree, plus some experience of merchant banking and the Italian fashion industry.

He joined Brookes because he wanted to build the course he had never had.

He said: "We re-shaped the course because we realised that most of the areas development workers go to are places where there has been a war or conflict."

The course, which covers international law, global politics and refugee studies, has a practical emphasis and includes a trip to an area which has either been or is currently a scene of conflict, such as Cambodia and Vietnam. Graduates go on to key positions such as project managers and emergency co-ordinators in international aid agencies.

Sebastian Fouquet, 28, of Summertown, Oxford, who is on the current course, spent 14 months in Bosnia setting up youth centres, worked for a Swiss charity as regional director for Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania and then researched aid projects in Asia.

He said: "I wanted to consolidate on what I had been doing in the field.

"It is real recognition that the charity world is changing and needs competent staff. It is a good course. It is nice to meet other practitioners. They are good tutors."