Taught course

Environment and Development

Institution
University of Edinburgh · School of Geosciences
Qualifications
MSc

Entry requirements

A UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent.

We may also consider a UK 2:2 honours degree, or its international equivalent, with relevant work experience, a strong personal statement and supportive reference.

Months of entry

September

Course content

Are you ready to explore some of the world’s most pressing challenges?

Understand the link between the environment, development agendas and global inequalities, for today and for the future.

Issues such as climate change, diminishing natural resources, biodiversity conservation, water, food, ‘waste’, energy, disaster risk, vulnerability and adaptation, gender and social equality, and urbanisation are inherently trans-boundary, multi-generational and multi-faceted.

The MSc in Environment and Development enables you to critically evaluate the multiple dimensions of the inter-relationship between development and the environment, with an abiding concern for social and environmental justice.

This MSc highlights the contested, political and ideological nature of environment and development issues, foregrounding society and nature as inherently linked, historical contexts as highly relevant to current debates, and global capitalism as an underlying force of change. Issues will be explored across a range of geographical scales, seeing the local and global as necessarily inter-related. It will consider the increasingly diverse set of actors, practices and processes driving environment and development issues, and question the power of these to direct agendas and actions.

In an inherently dynamic and diverse world, this MSc has relevance in both the ‘Global South’ and ‘Global North’, drawing attention to relationships of inequality and marginalisation as they occur for particular environments and sections of society around the world.

The MSc encourages you to reflect upon your own roles, as both researchers and as professionals, in transformations towards social and environmental justice, considering the ethics of engagement in an unequal world.

The MSc provides you with a unique critical perspective as it draws on expertise from across the University especially from development geography, social and political sciences, and environmental studies. You can explore society and environment issues through different theoretical and conceptual lenses, examining the interplay of sociocultural perspectives, economics and governance, development debates and ecological dynamics.

You will be taught by world-leading researchers, who will challenge you to cultivate research thinking that is cross-cutting and globally relevant, and provide insights to real-world applications. There is much diversity in what you can study and conduct research on, enabling you to develop your interests at an advanced level in an area you are most passionate about.

The MSc will suit a range of students, including those who have practical experience in the broad field of environment and development, either as practitioners, volunteers or activists. It is suitable for students from a wide range of undergraduate disciplines, from the environmental and natural sciences to the social and political sciences and humanities. We are lucky to attract a wide range of students from around the world and we celebrate that diversity and the opportunities for learning that brings.

Qualification, course duration and attendance options

  • MSc
    part time
    24 months
    • Campus-based learningis available for this qualification
    full time
    12 months
    • Campus-based learningis available for this qualification

Course contact details

Name
Programme Contact, Teaching Office
Email
postgrad.geos@ed.ac.uk
Phone
+44 (0)131 650 2543