Cities and Sustainable Futures

Entry requirements

An upper second class degree in any degree, or equivalent international qualification.

A personal statement should describe your interest in Cities and Sustainable Futures and any relevant experience or study.

Months of entry

September

Course content

The urban world is transforming. Cities are being reshaped by a series of instabilities and crises. Climate change, intensifying inequalities and vulnerabilities, global migration, war and conflict, technological transformation, new patterns of work and living, and geographical sprawl are generating a sustained period of turbulence. How in the face of overlapping crises, insecurity and uncertainty, can human and non-human life survive and thrive in the city? How can sustainable urban futures be cultivated in the midst of changes in global cities?

The MSc in Cities and Sustainable Futures addresses these urgent questions by focusing on how global cities are being made and remade in relation to climate change and other challenges, different experiences of city life amid crisis, and a range of urban alternatives and experiments. You’ll learn about how cities around the world are adapting to a range of challenges, including climate change, in the context of wider efforts to generate sustainable futures. You will also develop a series of research skills and gain experience of working with partners, alongside the leadership and engagement and communication skills necessary to help create sustainable cities.

The course is designed to equip students for a wide range of jobs at the intersection of cities and sustainability. Students will exit the programme understanding the forces that are shaping and remaking cities, learning from how urban residents are living with crises across different global cities, and equipped with the skills to research, evaluate, propose, communicate, and lead solutions and alternatives that help create sustainable urban futures.

See more on our Geography Taught Masters course pages.

Your modules will introduce you to fundamentals of social science research on sustainable transitions and transformations, investigate how global urban life is changing amidst a range of intersecting contemporary crises, including climate change, explore emerging solutions, and leave with detailed knowledge of how the very nature of urbanism is profoundly connected to the challenges of sustainability and responding to climate change. You will also develop practical skills of leadership, public engagement and dissemination alongside designing and executing an extended piece of independent research on a particular urban sustainability problem.

Year 1 modules

Sustainable Futures (30 credits)

The module introduces the causes of a range of complex global crises, and explores emerging solutions around the promise of ‘sustainable futures’, building from the Sustainable Development Goals.

Global Urban Life (15 credits)

Drawing on case studies from global cities, the module explores how urban life is changing amidst a range of intersecting contemporary crises.

Research Methods for Global Challenges (15 credits)

The module will provide advanced training in the use of research skills and techniques, with the aim of developing a range of transferable skills relevant to researching sustainable futures amid global challenges.

Cities and Climate Change (15 credits)

The module explores how the very nature of urbanization is profoundly connected to the challenges of sustainability and responding to climate change.

Sustainable Transitions and Transformations (30 credits)

This inquiry led module explores practical urban experiments that attempt to generate sustainable transitions and transformations in cities around the world. It involves visits to local sites and a fieldtrip to a UK city.

Knowledge for Action and Leadership (15 credits)

The module will develop practical skills of leadership, public engagement and dissemination relevant to creating sustainable futures.

Dissertation or Vocational Dissertation (60 credits)

The Dissertation allows students to design and execute an extended piece of research on a particular urban problem, challenge, or issue. The Vocational Dissertation option is based on working with a non-academic urban partner.

Information for international students

International students who do not meet direct entry requirements for this degree might have the option to complete an International Foundation Year.

Fees and funding

More information is available here: Tuition fees - how much are they - Durham University