Core modules
Global Carbonisation: Causes and Consequences of Climate Change (PG Cert, PGDip, MSc)
The changes to global climate being brought about by human activity present one of the greatest challenges to confront humanity and are likely to have a profound effect over the working lives of today's humans. Understanding these climate changes requires a comprehensive understanding of the causes and consequences of global carbonisation, and responses require an approach spanning multiple disciplines. This module will equip students to understand and address climate change by providing a grounding in the central scientific, economic and political issues surrounding climate change in the past, present, and potential futures.
Nature-based Solutions and Carbon Capture (PG Cert, PGDip, MSc)
Global environmental challenges have necessitated using different approaches to solving the climate crisis. Nature-based solutions and carbon capture are actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems. They address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits. Nature-based solutions and carbon capture approaches and technologies can contribute to delivering sustainable environmental management. Students will acquire the skills to identify, evaluate, and perform feasibility designs of different nature-based solutions and carbon capture approaches and technologies
Food Systems (PG Cert, PGDip, MSc)
A stable and reliable supply of food is essential for human wellbeing and survival. Our global food systems are under immense pressure from population growth, climate change and socioeconomic factors such as war. We need to produce and distribute food in a system that is equitable and environmentally sustainable. Our global and regional food systems currently contribute to escalating carbon emissions. Therefore, it is vital that we strive to decarbonize our food system. However, the food system is complex and presents many challenges as well as opportunities for improvement.
Interdisciplinary Research Skills (PGDip, MSc)
Successful completion of university level research requires student to have made a ‘substantial contribution to knowledge’ and that this is communicated to an appropriate research community. There are many aspects involved in undertaking original research, including the student’s own ability to think and to be creative. In addition, students need to have a range of skills that will enable them to use their intrinsic academic ability and scientific creativity to produce world-class research. Some of the skills are technical, e.g. how you use a particular piece of equipment or a method to collect data, but many of them transcend the details of a particular project.
Interdisciplinary Research Project (MSc)
Twenty-week individual project including approximately 4 weeks write up, carrying out research on a specialised topic under the direction of an academic or industrial supervisor and their team.
Optional Core Modules
Climate Justice and the Transition to a Sustainable World (PG Cert, PGDip, MSc)
What is the fairest way of mitigating climate change? What is the fairest way of moving to a low carbon society? What is a just transition? This module explores these fundamental ethical questions and analyses how the burden of mitigating climate change should be distributed; who is duty bound to bring it about; what a just renewables policy would be; what role practical considerations about political feasibility should play in our theorizing; whether there is a trade-off between effectively mitigating climate change and fairness; and whether the existing political architectures at the state, regional and global levels, can be improved to better realize climate justice.
Climate Change and Development (PG Cert, PGDip, MSc)
Global warming is perhaps the single biggest contemporary problem facing humanity. This module addresses the science and economics of climate change as the basis for analyses of the limits and potential of the law in addressing the problem. We will discuss the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement, relevant principles of international environmental law, and national and regional strategies for dealing with climate change. We will debate the ethics of climate justice – which rich countries, rapidly developing countries and less developed states should do what, and why – the geopolitics of global warming, and the ethics and legal framework for possible geoengineering solutions.
Circular (Eco) design and Life Cycle Management (PGDip, MSc)
There are increasing pressures on engineers to maintain and conserve materials within society. Landfill and incineration are widely becoming disfavoured with governmental organisations and society pushing for products to be made in a more circular fashion. This pressure is only going to increase and be more prominent during the careers of today's students. This module examines the need for significant change in the design philosophy employed in product and process design through the application of circular eco-design principles. It also goes on to critically analyse the responses to those pressures including consumer behaviour, legislation and alternative design practices. All of this is performed in the context of being able to metricise the improvements that are being made to a given system through the application of life cycle engineering; understanding the environmental, economic and social impacts of circular eco-design and communicating them to wider stakeholders.
Optional modules (MSc, PGDip)
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- Public Engagement
- Design Thinking for Social Impact
-
Thinking Water
- Humanitarian Law
- Habitability in the Universe
