Brighton, United Kingdom
DURATION
1 up to 2 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
01 Sep 2025*
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
GBP 10,500 / per year **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* UK
** £10,500/year for full-time home, Channel Islands and Isle of Man students | £21,500/year for full-time international students
Key Summary
Introduction
This MA highlights the complex relationship between environmental and developmental challenges.
Based in the School of Global Studies, you’ll study in a unique department that encourages you to learn from the Global South as much as from the Global North. You’ll learn to think critically and practically about the effects different theoretical assumptions and policy approaches have on our ability to manage the relationship between environment, economy and society.
You’ll explore a range of critical and practitioner perspectives on environment, development and policy, drawing from the three main subject areas in the School of Global Studies:
- Anthropology
- Geography
- International Relations/International Political Economy.
Our campus is also home to an active student body, hosting frequent debates, lectures, films and social events around global and political issues.
We understand that deciding where and what to study is a very important decision. We’ll make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the courses, services and facilities described in this prospectus. However, if we need to make material changes, for example due to government or regulatory requirements, or unanticipated staff changes, we’ll let you know as soon as possible.
Admissions
Scholarships and Funding
Scholarships
Our aim is to ensure that every student who wants to study with us is able to despite financial barriers so that we continue to attract talented and unique individuals.
Masters Webinar
Mining, Political Ecology & Sustainability
Curriculum
Full-time and part-time study
Choose to study this course full time or part time, to fit around your work and personal life. For details about the part-time course, contact us.
Core modules
Core modules are taken by all students on the course. They give you a solid grounding in your chosen subject and prepare you to explore the topics that interest you most.
Autumn teaching
Spring teaching
Summer teaching
Options
Alongside your core modules, you can choose options to broaden your horizons and tailor your course to your interests. This list gives you a flavour of our options, which are kept under review and may change, for example in response to student feedback or the latest research.
While it’s our aim for students to take their preferred combinations of options, this can’t be guaranteed and will be subject to timetabling. Options may be grouped and if so, students will be able to choose a set number of options from the selection available in any particular group.
Autumn teaching
Spring teaching
- Activism for Development and Social Justice
- Civil and Political Rights: Contemporary Challenges
- Climate Change and Energy Policy
- Climate change: Impacts and Adaptation
- Critical Debates in Environment and Development
- Doing Gender in Theory and Practice
- Global Laboratories: Biotech, Life and Society
- Indigenous and Minority Rights
- Knowledge, Power and Resistance
- Poverty, Vulnerability and the Global Economy
- Socioeconomic rights: economic violence, social justice and human rights law
Summer teaching
Placements
To help you gain experience and increase your employability, you can apply for an optional placement as part of your course. Research placements run for up to 12 weeks in the summer term and vacation. You can also write your dissertation based on your experience. You’ll be responsible for applying for and securing your placement. Our dedicated careers team can help you:
- find an employer
- draft an application
- prepare for interviews.
Find out more about Global Studies postgraduate placements
We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2023/24. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.
We’ll do our best to provide as much optional choice as we can, but timetabling constraints mean it may not be possible to take some module combinations. The structure of a small number of courses means that the order of modules or the streams you choose may determine whether modules are core or optional. This means that your core modules or options may differ from what’s shown here.
Check back in January 2024 for the modules running in the academic year 2024/25.
American Student Loans and Federal Student Aid
If you’re receiving – or applying for – USA federal Direct Loan funds, you can’t undertake your placement/internship in the USA if the number of credits for the placement/internship exceeds 25% of the total credits for your course. Find out more about American Student Loans and Federal Student Aid
Rankings
1st in the world for Development Studies (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023)
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
Our graduates go on to work in national and international development agencies within and beyond government, as well as in NGOs and community organisations.