Global Sustainable Development launches new postgraduate programmes
We are excited to be opening our doors for the first time to postgraduate students as we launch our new MASc in Global Sustainable Development and MPhil/PhD in Global Sustainable Development.
MASc in Global Sustainable Development
- Master of Arts and Sciences (MASc)
- One year full-time course
- Unique capstone summer project
Our new Master’s course is set up as an MASc, offering a combination of an Arts (MA) and Sciences (MSc) award. Based in the School for Cross-faculty Studies, our academic home is a natural place to offer a combination of these awards, and we’re one of the first Master’s courses in the UK to be doing so.
The MASc in Global Sustainable Development is designed to combine academic learning with practical application to help students tackle complex global challenges. We welcome applicants from all academic backgrounds.
A series of core modules will support students’ development as intellectual leaders of positive change. We’ll offer an understanding of the core global challenges facing our world today, working on response development and advocacy. In parallel, students will develop their critical and reflective intellectual skills, as well as their technical methodological skills. Beyond the core modules, students will take a selection of optional modules from within our School and across partner departments, allowing the course to be tailored to specific interests.
An exciting, unique aspect of this course is the capstone summer project. Students will have a choice of three projects: research, practice-based, or work-based. Combining prior learning from our methodology and praxis modules, students will develop the academic and practical skillsets most suited to their future career goals.
We will be welcoming students to our MASc in Global Sustainable Development from September 2021 onwards.
“At the heart of our new Master’s course is the foundation we provide to help students engage with problems in sustainable development from their first day of study. We’re facing so many urgent issues - climate change, inequalities, lack of social cohesion, poverty and malnutrition - that we don’t have time to wait before we try to make a difference. We want our students to develop their own agendas and become thought leaders who can challenge the current normative models of sustainable development with intelligence and skill. We hope together we can make a difference and we would love you to join us!"
Dr Mandy Sadan, Co-Director of Graduate Studies
MPhil/PhD in Global Sustainable Development
- Four years full-time or seven years part-time programme
- Co-supervision and interaction with an external mentor
- Vibrant research community
Our new PhD programme is directed towards providing research training for the next generation of research leaders in sustainability science who are able to understand global challenges and create bespoke research designs and solutions.
Researchers on this programme will be equipped to investigate sustainability issues from interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives, crossing boundaries between sciences, social sciences and humanities. They will be supervised by academics from different backgrounds within our School and across the University. Alongside internal supervision, PhD researchers will also work with a mentor from an external organisation, uniting academic and professional knowledge.
PhD students will profit from Warwick’s rich research environment and ongoing research projects, in particular drawing on the transdisciplinary research expertise of the Institute for Global Sustainable Development (IGSD) and the School for Cross-faculty Studies.
PhD projects will be aligned to the following research themes:
- Climate resilience and socio-environmental justice;
- Sustainable urbanisation, health and wellbeing; and
- Sustainable economies and the food-water-energy nexus.
We welcome research proposals which may not fall directly into one of the above clusters.
The PhD in Global Sustainable Development welcomes students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. For researchers joining us who haven’t studied our MASc, we will offer a core module in the first year designed to deepen understanding of the key global challenges facing our world today and transdisciplinary approaches to tackle them. Students will also establish a personal development plan in consultation with their supervisors, and have access to wider-university skills development support.
“The global challenges we face today don’t fit within disciplinary boundaries. We need an integrated approach to have transformative impact on global change. Research on this programme is not only about connecting different disciplinary perspectives, it’s also about connecting to real-world challenges, addressing perspectives outside of academia too."
Professor João Porto de Albuquerque, Director of Postgraduate Research and IGSD
For more information on our postgraduate programmes please see here.
Get in touch
Find out more about our postgraduate programmes and related events by registering your details with us.
We encourage you to get in touch with the GSD Department if you have any questions about our new courses: PGGSD at warwick dot ac dot uk
If you’re interested in making an application to one of our postgraduate programmes and you have a question specifically about admissions, please use the postgraduate admissions enquiry service.