MPhil/PhD in Global Sustainable Development (2025 Entry)
Find out more about our MPhil/PhD in Global Sustainable Development degree at Warwick
Our MPhil/PhD in Global Sustainable Development (GSD) offers you the opportunity to cross disciplinary boundaries to address complex challenges of global sustainable development. Working with experts from Warwick’s GSD Department and the Institute for Global Sustainable Development (IGSD), you will deliver impactful, lasting sustainable development research.
Course overview
There is a global need for researchers who are skilled in challenge-led, transdisciplinary methods to help close knowledge gaps around research and practice related to the sustainability of human-environment interactions.
Our Global Sustainable Development MPhil/PhD is for those driven to develop innovative approaches to complex challenges of sustainable development. With the support of a supervisory team, you will work on a transdisciplinary project addressing a sustainability challenge.
Through structured training, you will be equipped to integrate methods and perspectives from different academic and practice fields to address current and future sustainable development challenges. In the first year, you will have the opportunity to undertake postgraduate module(s) and establish a personal development plan in collaboration with your supervisors.
Throughout the programme, you will have the opportunity to gain methods training designed to broaden your research approach. Collectively, this training will prepare you to co-produce transformative, transdisciplinary research projects.
We are excited to welcome students with diverse backgrounds and skills to this programme.
Teaching and learning
Students on this programme will be trained to have competence in a subject area that spans at least two disciplinary perspectives. You will be trained in transdisciplinary methods, enabling you to draw on skills from multiple disciplines to work effectively and equitably with non-academic partners.
In the first year, you will have the opportunity to study postgraduate module(s) in GSD and/or from across the University totalling 20 CATS. You will discuss which module(s) you would like to take with your supervisors in the early stages of your research.
You will also agree a tailored personal development programme with your supervisors for your first year of training. For instance, your development programme may include taking other postgraduate modules from across the University to develop specific skills required for your research.
You may also decide to take researcher development training courses and workshops facilitated by the University’s Doctoral College as part of your development programme.
Research environment
You will join a community of postgraduate students, early career researchers, and academics in GSD and IGSD conducting cutting edge transdisciplinary research on global sustainable development, committed to tackling global challenges and enabling transformative change of human-environment interactions. At Warwick positive research culture is one of our key priorities fostering an inclusive, collegiate and dynamic research environment where all researchers and research enablers can be themselves and thrive to produce the best quality research.
Throughout your degree you will be encouraged to engage actively in research activities by forming reading groups, participating in workshops, masterclasses and guest lectures, and taking part in our annual GSD Symposium.
You will have opportunities to engage with research across the University, including research led by Warwick’s Interdisciplinary Research Spotlights and other cross-cutting research centres across the University, such as the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies (CIM), the Warwick Institute for the Science of Cities (WISC), the Warwick Interdisciplinary Research Centre for International Development (WICID), and the Centre for Digital Inquiry (CDI).
General entry requirements
Minimum requirements
2:1 undergraduate degree and a Master’s (or equivalent) in a related subject.
English language requirements
You can find out more about our English language requirementsLink opens in a new window. This course requires the following:
- Band B
- IELTS overall score of 7.0, minimum component scores of two at 6.0/6.5 and the rest at 7.0 or above.
International qualifications
We welcome applications from students with other internationally recognised qualifications.
For more information, please visit the international entry requirements pageLink opens in a new window.
Additional requirements
There are no additional requirements for this course.
Our research
Much of the research on this programme is currently organised around the following clusters:
Climate resilience and socio-environmental justice
This cluster draws on Warwick’s expertise in areas such as complex systems modelling, geographic information, and critical research on environmental justice, enabling students to investigate transformations of human-environment interactions towards resilience to climate change and environmental risks.
Sustainable urbanisation, health and wellbeing
This cluster concentrates on research for transforming urban human-environment interactions, investigating the interlinkages between the built environment, human behaviour and health and wellbeing outcomes.
Sustainable economies and the food-water-energy nexus
This cluster draws on Warwick’s research excellence in sustainable materials, critical data studies, business strategy and food supply systems, in order to enable students to study transformations to the food-water-energy nexus towards sustainable economic and financial relationships.
We also welcome and encourage research proposals in global sustainable development which are outside the above clusters.
Examples of current PGR projects include:
- Sustainable diets and child health, incorporating policy and how policy impacts health inequalities
- Women empowerment and ecotourism
- Measuring the economic, social, and environmental impacts of altering the supply chains of critical raw materials for electric vehicle batteries
- Political ecology configurations of alternative finance enabling the renewable energy transition process in the Global South
- Life experience of Chinese millennial migrants in the UK
Find out more about our current PhD students’ research projects.
Find a supervisor
Please visit our PhD supervisors web page to identify people with your range of interests. Once you have identified an appropriate supervisor, please initiate a dialogue to discuss whether your proposal falls within their area of expertise and if they have the capacity to supervise you.
In order to consider supervising you, they will need a brief outline of your research proposal, a copy of your CV and any relevant transcripts, so please ensure these are sent directly to them. Once supervision is agreed, your application should name the lead supervisor.
Find out more about how to apply via our Global Sustainable Development web page.
You can also see our general University guidance about finding a supervisor.
Supervision
Your supervisors will support your progression to thesis submission. Researchers on this programme will have a supervisory team composed of two or more academic supervisors from different disciplines. You may also receive mentorship from a practice organisation related to your field of research.
The pool of academic supervisors for this programme draws on Warwick’s global sustainable development research community and spans all three faculties at Warwick: Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences and Science, Engineering and Medicine.
Research Proposal
If you would like to apply for our research degree, the MPhil/PhD in Global Sustainable Development, you will be asked to provide an outline of your chosen research topic. This should be a maximum length of 2500 words and include the following:
- What area of research you intend to undertake and why (with reference to the most important relevant bibliography).
- A clear statement on the rationale and significance of the project.
- How you propose to conduct the research and proposed research methods and approach to data collection.
- What background in the subject you already have and any skills you will need to develop further.
- The transdisciplinary context of your research
- Potential intervention, knowledge production and the impact of your research.
Tuition fees
Tuition fees are payable for each year of your course at the start of the academic year, or at the start of your course, if later. Academic fees cover the cost of tuition, examinations and registration and some student amenities.
Find your research course fees
Fee Status Guidance
We carry out an initial fee status assessment based on the information you provide in your application. Students will be classified as Home or Overseas fee status. Your fee status determines tuition fees, and what financial support and scholarships may be available. If you receive an offer, your fee status will be clearly stated alongside the tuition fee information.
Do you need your fee classification to be reviewed?
If you believe that your fee status has been classified incorrectly, you can complete a fee status assessment questionnaire. Please follow the instructions in your offer information and provide the documents needed to reassess your status.
Find out more about how universities assess fee status
Additional course costs
As well as tuition fees and living expenses, some courses may require you to cover the cost of field trips or costs associated with travel abroad.
For departmental specific costs, please see the Modules tab on the course web page for the list of core and optional core modules with hyperlinks to our Module Catalogue (please visit the Department’s website if the Module Catalogue hyperlinks are not provided).
Associated costs can be found on the Study tab for each module listed in the Module Catalogue (please note most of the module content applies to 2022/23 year of study). Information about module department specific costs should be considered in conjunction with the more general costs below:
- Core text books
- Printer credits
- Dissertation binding
- Robe hire for your degree ceremony
Scholarships and bursaries
Scholarships and financial support
Find out about the different funding routes available, including; postgraduate loans, scholarships, fee awards and academic department bursaries.
Living costs
Find out more about the cost of living as a postgraduate student at the University of Warwick.
Global Sustainable Development
Transdisciplinarity is at the heart of our teaching, learning, and research in the Global Sustainable Development (GSD) Department. Global challenges spill over disciplinary boundaries, and our unique academic home reflects this. Based in the School for Cross-faculty Studies, our staff and students have genuine opportunities to transcend disciplinary boundaries, creating new knowledge about the world.
On our innovative courses, you'll contest longstanding inequalities and actively promote change. From your first day, we'll encourage you to make positive interventions with a beneficial impact. Beyond your studies, you’ll have a myriad of opportunities to apply your learnings to the world around you.
By joining our department you’ll be inspired, and challenged, by our passionate tutors. You’ll work together with our team to find responses to pressing problems of global sustainable development.
Get to know GSD better by exploring our departmental website.Link opens in a new window
Our Postgraduate courses
How to apply
Applications are now open for courses that start in September and October 2025.
For research courses that start in September and October 2025 the application deadline for students who require a visa to study in the UK is 2 August 2025. This should allow sufficient time to complete the admissions process and to obtain a visa to study in the UK.
How to apply for a postgraduate research course
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About the information on this page
This information is applicable for 2025 entry. Given the interval between the publication of courses and enrolment, some of the information may change. It is important to check our website before you apply. Please read our terms and conditions to find out more.