MSc Environment and Development

About the MSc programme

This programme is based in the Department of Geography and Environment, but it combines courses offered both by this Department and the Department of International Development. It offers the following benefits:

• A high quality academic training in the field of environment and development.
• A unique interdisciplinary approach towards this increasingly important field, drawing on the wide ranging disciplinary expertise and experience of staff in both the Department of Geography and Environment and the Department of International Development.
• The opportunity to select from a range of options allowing you to shape your studies to your needs.
• Studying with an exciting group of international students with a diversity of academic and professional backgrounds.
• Our graduates enter a wide variety of employment opportunities in the public sector, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), international organisations, research, consultancy and international firms.

This programme is in principle open to all students independent of their first degree, but preferably you will have studied within the social sciences. You should have the equivalent of at least a high upper second class honours or, in American terminology, a 3.5 grade point average. We will consider appropriate work experience in addition to a sound academic background.

It is intended for those with a primary interest in the linkage between environment and development, a topic that has become more and more important in recent years. It provides students with a rigorous training in the social science dimensions of environmental policy, management and evaluation within a developing country context. Both environment and development studies are multi-disciplinary by nature, and the programme seeks to integrate key concepts and perspectives from a range of core social science disciplines. The aim is to provide students with an understanding of the issues involved in sustainable development both from a theoretical and practical perspective.

Teaching is mainly through lectures and graduate level seminars. It is possible to study this programme part-time over two years. You will be assessed on a combination of unseen examinations and research essays depending on the courses taken. In general minimum teaching contact for a full-unit course is usually 40 hours, and 20 hours for a half-unit course. 

You have the opportunity to attend a weekly lecture series in the Department of International Development that brings to the School prominent scholars and practitioners involved in research and practice. In addition, there are various visiting lectures offered by the Department of Geography and Environment.

The MSc Environment and Development requires you to take one compulsory core course and three optional courses. Note that not all the optional courses listed here will be available every year.

Course one (compulsory core course)

• Environment and Development

If you choose to do the dissertation as course four, then you will have to submit a 3,000 word essay from a given list of questions, which is due by the end of the Lent term. If you do not choose to do the dissertation as course four, then you will have to submit a 5,000 word essay from a given list of questions, which is due by the end of August.

Course two

(* half unit)

Choose either one full unit or two half units offered by the Department of International Development. These courses normally include:

• Global Environmental Governance*
• Development Theory, History and Policy
• Poverty*
• Economic Development Policy
• Complex Emergencies*
• African Development*
• Global Civil Society*
• Population and Development*
• HIV/AIDS and Other Emerging Health Threats*
• Nationalism, Democracy and Development in Contemporary India*

Course three

Choose either one full unit or two half units from the following list of options from the Department of Geography and Environment:

• Globalisation, Regional Development and Policy
• Globalisation and Regional Development*
• Regional Development and Policy* 
• Urban Theory, Policy and Practice in the Global South 
• Environmental Regulation: Implementing Policy
• Environmental Assessment* 
• Economic Appraisal and Valuation*
• Cities, People and Poverty in the South*
• Urban Ethnography*
• Gender and Development: Geographical Perspectives*
• Climate Change: Science, Economics and Policy* 
• Gender, Globalisation and Development: An Introduction*
• Race and Space*
• Concepts in Environmental Regulation*
• Contemporary Urbanism
• Development, Diaspora and Migration*
• Cities and Social Change in East Asia*
• Cities, Politics and Citizenship*
• Issues in Environmental Governance*
• The Urban Revolution*
• Climate Change: Ethics, Development and International Law*

Course four

Choose any of the full units or two half units listed under the choices for course three or offered by the Department of International Development.

Alternatively, you may choose to write a dissertation, which is due by the end of August and must not exceed 10,000 words. You will develop a detailed proposal for your dissertation on a topic in the field of environment and development, but of your own choosing and design. You will work on your own on the dissertation, but with limited advice from a supervisor.