Master of Sustainable Development
Leuven, Belgium
MSc
DURATION
2 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
TUITION FEES
EUR 9,493 **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* for non-EEA; June 1st for EEA | for the most recent – and only official – information on application deadlines, please check the KU Leuven webpage
** for non-EEA; EUR 1181.40 for EEA | for the most recent – and only official – information on tuition fees, please check the KU Leuven webpage
Key Summary
About: The Master of Sustainable Development at KU Leuven trains students to become sustainability leaders. The research-driven program is mindful of ethics, gender and diversity and offers an interdisciplinary core with two tracks—Space & Society and Ecology—integrating theory, methods, a Global South field trip, internship, Living Lab and thesis to bridge social, economic, political and ecological sustainability and biodiversity conservation.
Career Outcomes: Graduates can work in sustainability policy, environmental consulting, conservation, community and international development, research or NGOs and private sector. Typical roles include sustainability officer, environmental consultant, conservation scientist, policy analyst, development practitioner. Sectors include government, NGOs and academia.
The Master of Sustainable Development prepares the sustainability leaders of the future. Students are trained to become agents of change who will imagine, trigger and effectuate a sustainable future.
About the programme
The master’s programme is research driven and mindful of ethics, gender and diversity. It offers a transversal core programme on sustainable development and two tracks of specialisation: a Space & Society track and an Ecology track. The distinctive strength of this master’s programme is an interdisciplinary character that bridges societal and ecological sustainability challenges while engaging with real-world settings, localities and communities.
The common core involves the building up and integration of fundamental expertise in sustainable development, including theory, methodology and practical applications in both ecology and social science. It comprises academic levelling training, courses covering different sustainability aspects, the formulation of an individual research portfolio, as well as a field trip in the Global South, an internship and a thesis.
- The Space & Society track focuses on the societal component of sustainability transition, including social, economic, political and cultural dimensions.
- The Ecology track focuses on both the conser vation of biodiversity and the sustainable use of biodiversity at all organisational levels (species, genes and ecosystems). Integration between both tracks will mainly be done through sustainable development practice at the local community level.
A major methodological innovation introduced by this programme is the Sustainable Development Living Lab, a mobile platform through which the ICP community applies sustainability knowledge to problems of the Global South. The Living Lab is designed as a space of dialogue and co-learning between different agents and institutions involved in the creation, implementation, governance and assessment of sustainable development. The lab connects students, staff from the KU Leuven and Global South partner institutions from Africa, Asia and Latin America, but also practitioners and policy-makers, NGOs, representatives of the private sector, among others.
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