Social Change, Environment and Sustainability

Entry requirements

We require a UK 2:1 honours degree (or overseas equivalent) in Sociology or another Social Sciences subject. Students with a degree in other Humanities disciplines with demonstrable research skills will be considered in exceptional circumstances.

When assessing your academic record, we consider the grades you have achieved and the standing of the institution where you studied your qualification.

Months of entry

September

Course content

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report underscores that profound social change is urgently needed to mitigate climate change and meet other sustainability goals. Understanding processes of social, cultural, socio-economic, and socio-technical change and their dynamic relations to the global environmental and climate crisis is of profound importance and urgency.

The MA in Social Change, Environment and Sustainability responds to these needs by creating a world-leading postgraduate programme to develop a generation of graduates and researchers with the skills, knowledge and confidence to contribute to and lead in these transformational processes.

On this programme, you will explore the contribution of sociological understandings of social change to addressing the global environmental crisis, and the challenges of large-scale transformations towards sustainable societies. You will develop a theoretically sophisticated and empirically grounded understanding of processes of social change, and you will cover substantive knowledge of the relevant topics, issues and controversies from a social scientific perspective, such as:

• Energy use
• Climate change
• The global food system
• Biodiversity
• Green growth versus ‘de-growth’

You will also delve into cutting edge theoretical approaches to socio-economic, socio-technical and cultural change, and benefit from in-depth training in research methods and design.

Upon graduation, you will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to tackle complex problems rooted in the dynamic relationships between our socio-economic and socio-technical systems and the natural environment.

The University of Manchester is one of the UK’s leading universities for Sociology, and one of the world’s top universities for sustainability and global impact. Our Sociology department is ranked 5th in the UK (Times Higher Education, 2024), with its research achieving among the country’s top 3 universities for power and impact (REF 2021). The University is also ranked top in the UK and Europe (and 2nd world-wide) for global impact against the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, 2024).

This MA is hosted in the Sociology department, and the core teaching team are members of the world leading Sustainable Consumption institute. Sociology at Manchester is one of the UK's largest and most prestigious centres for the subject, with over 30 academic staff and 60 postgraduate researchers forming a diverse and rigorous academic community.

Fees and funding

Both home and international students may benefit from scholarships, merit awards, bursaries and loans available at The University of Manchester.

• Home students may be eligible for a postgraduate loan from the government to cover a significant proportion of their tuition fees.
• International students may be eligible for a number of international scholarships, such as the Manchester Humanities International Excellence Scholarship, the Global Futures Scholarship, or the GREAT Scholarship.