MSc in Environmental Policy, Strategy & Leadership
Dublin, Ireland
MSc
DURATION
2 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2026
TUITION FEES
EUR 22,600 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* non-EU students | EUR 9530 - EU students
Fast-track counseling
By contacting the school, you'll get access to free priority counselling for any study and application questions.
Societies, governments, and businesses across the globe are faced with increasingly complex environmental challenges, in areas such as climate change, adaptation, and local environmental quality in our cities and regions. The UCD MSc in Environmental Policy, Strategy & Leadership arms graduates with the capacity to develop environmental policy choices, analyse them critically, and provide guidance in regard to their implementation and evaluation. The programme introduces graduates to research-based economic and environmental tools and insights to enable graduates to be effective change management leaders and environmental and sustainability experts in both the public and private sectors.
MSc in Environmental Policy, Strategy & Leadership has an established international track record as a leading research centre in environmental policy and is in the Top 200 QS World University Rankings by subject area. Students may also choose to undertake either a thesis, an internship, or an academic research project during the Summer trimester.
Also, for professionals who want to balance their passion for the environment while advancing their career, this programme is offered as a two-year part-time degree (W580). The part-time program is scheduled to be completed over two years with one or two modules (10 credits per module) per semester. Part-time students join the full-time students for the classes and hence can meet two cohorts of the full-time MSc programme.
This programme is intended for applicants with a degree in any discipline, such as social sciences and arts, environmental sciences, law, business studies or engineering.
Core Modules
- Environmental & Behavioural Economics Autumn
- Evidence-based Decisions & Communication Autumn
- European Environmental Policy Autumn
- Sustainability Lab Spring
- Applications of Environmental Policy & Regulation Spring
- Sustainable Corporate Strategy
Options
- Environmental Policy Thesis Summer
- Internship - Research Project
- Acknowledge the spatial consequences of policy approaches, and recognize the importance of fairness in environmental policy processes and outcomes.
- Apply their professional knowledge using tools and transferable skills to generate integrated and evidence-based responses to environmental challenges, including climate change, to achieve a more resilient and sustainable future.
- Communicate effectively verbally, graphically, and through written documents, and communicate concepts, knowledge, and conclusions to peers, specialists, and non-specialist audiences within an interdisciplinary environment.
- Demonstrate effective research, policy analysis tools, and evaluation skills, and the ability to develop evidence-based policy proposals.
- On successful completion of the programme, students should be able to: Appreciate environmental policy research, develop skills as autonomous researchers, and recognize the value of research as an input into improved policy making and policy implementation.
- Understand how environmental policy is operationalised within the wider political, institutional, and legal frameworks, and understand the social, economic, and political context that informs approaches to achieve sustainable development.
- Understand the challenges and responsibilities of assessing tradeoffs in their response to environmental challenges and be open to critically assessing, debating, and reflecting on these, and acting in the interests of the common good.
- Work effectively both on their own and as part of a team in an interdisciplinary context.
To date, our graduates have been very successful in gaining employment in environment-related fields in a diverse range of public, private, and NGO organisations.
Past graduates are now working for a number of agencies both nationally and internationally including private (e.g. Samsung Electronics; Wisetek; Citi Bank; AWN Consulting; EnvEcon; Irish Water), public bodies (e.g. Department of Public Expenditure and Reform; Dutch Ministry for Foreign Affairs) and NGO organisations (e.g. Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice; Plant life Economy Foundation; Amazon Environmental Research Institute Brazil; publicpolicy.ie; Global Action plan Ireland), in a range of environmental positions (e.g. environmental consultants; policy officers; researchers; climate officers; environmental justice officers).
Our graduates have also gone on to pursue further study (PhDs).