Sustainable Development MSc

Program Overview

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The Sustainable Development MSc from the University of Sussex is an online program designed to provide students with the interdisciplinary skills needed to develop solutions for sustainability challenges. The program covers complex global issues, including climate change, conflict, and health, and focuses on critical analysis, practical skills, and real-world impact. Students will learn from renowned academics in the fields of science policy, global studies, and development studies.

Program Outline

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Degree Overview:

The Sustainable Development MSc (online) is a 100% online Masters program designed to equip students with the interdisciplinary skills and insights needed to develop solutions for sustainable transformation in their business, sector, and society. The program focuses on tackling complex global sustainability challenges, including issues of conflict, security, health, climate, and environmental change.

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Key Objectives:

• Explore urgent threats to humanity, including issues of conflict, security, health, climate, and environmental change.
• Unearth the root causes of complex global sustainability challenges and the interconnected nature of environmental, social, political, and cultural issues.
• Critically assess the international development sector and scrutinize current systems and solutions like net zero, the circular economy, the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the biodiversity protocols proposed at COP26.
• Gain practical skills and apply academic concepts to real-world challenges, empowering students to make a tangible impact at a local or global level.

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Program Description:

The program is delivered 100% online and is flexible, allowing students to complete it in as little as two years, with the option to extend it to four years if needed. The curriculum evolves to reflect the findings and insights from research centers at the University of Sussex, including the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), School of Global Studies, and Institute of Development Studies (IDS).

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Outline:

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Modules:

The Sustainable Development MSc (online) requires students to complete all 11 core modules plus one optional module. Students should allow for 20 hours per week study time.

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Core Modules:

• Sustainable Development: Politics and Policies: This module provides an overview of the politics and policies of sustainable development in different parts of the world.
• Science, Technology and Innovation: This module provides students with a grounding in economic and non-economic frameworks for studying issues of science, technology, and innovation, and their relationship to energy production and policy.
• Policy Analysis: This module equips students with the concepts and tools to understand and analyze specific energy policy problems, identify relevant goals, develop evaluation criteria, identify alternative policy options, assess the likely impact of those options, and provide practical policy recommendations.
• Understanding the Policy-Making Process: This module introduces students to the nature and operation of the policy process in modern societies, examining the different stages of the policy process and assessing competing explanations of that process.
• Key Perspectives in International Development: This module provides the epistemological foundations of development studies, mapping the historical evolution of key ideas and the political, socio-economic, and cultural influences on them.
• Democratising Science and Technology: This module explores the entanglement of modern sciences and technologies with social power, highlighting the importance of democratic scrutiny in techno-scientific developments.
• Globalisation and the Environment: Capitalism, Ecology and Power: This module examines the relationship between the global political economy and processes of social and environmental change, focusing on the key pillars of the global economy and the political economy of key issues like climate change, energy, food, and water.
• Perspectives, Methods and Skills: This module provides students with the basic building blocks for the production and use of social scientific research, focusing on interdisciplinary research and developing students' abilities to understand, critically evaluate, conduct, and communicate research.
• Innovation for Sustainability: This module explores the role of innovation in sustainable development in industrialized and developing countries, examining barriers to the diffusion of sustainable innovations, the role of innovative green niches in systems transformations, and the challenges of international coordination and regulation.
• Decolonising knowledge for Sustainable Development: This module examines the ways in which the current development apparatus is rooted in colonial history and ways of knowing, and how the politics and practices of sustainability both reinforce and challenge coloniality.

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Optional Modules:

• Critical Issues in Sustainability: Environment, Agriculture, Health: This module examines key policy issues and debates relating to sustainability and global development in the domains of agriculture, health, and the environment.
• Sustainability in Business Operations and Supply Chains: This module provides students with knowledge and understanding on how sustainability principles are embedded in business processes, products, and services by exploring real-world case studies in different sectors.

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Assessment:

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Assessment Methods:

The program uses multiple assessment methods to judge students' knowledge, competence, development, and engagement through individual and group-work exercises, such as:

• Written reports
• Simulations
• Essays
• Project reports
• MCQs
• Portfolios

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Assessment Criteria:

Assessments will take place throughout each module and must be completed within the module teaching period for students to progress through the course/to the next module.

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Teaching:

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Teaching Methods:

The program combines independent study with live seminars and group work.

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Faculty:

Students will learn from academics across Sussex's Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), School of Global Studies, and Institute of Development Studies (IDS).

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Careers:

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Potential Career Paths:

The program prepares students for a variety of sustainability roles across sectors, including:

• NGOs
• Government institutions
• Public and private businesses

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Opportunities:

The program provides students with highly valued skills in policy analysis, research methods, and critical thinking, enhancing their employability in various sustainability-related fields.

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Outcomes:

Graduates of the program will be equipped to:

• Develop joined-up solutions to complex global challenges.
• Access a variety of sustainability roles across sectors.
• Make a tangible impact at a local or global level.

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Other:

• The University of Sussex is ranked 1st in the world for Development Studies (QS World University Ranking 2017-2024).
• The program offers a 20% alumni discount for graduates of the University of Sussex.
• The program is designed to be flexible and part-time, allowing students to upskill and earn a career-enhancing qualification without having to give up work or other important commitments.

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Course fee: £12,660 (£1,055 per module) Students must pay the first module fee of £1,020 to secure their place on the course. Course fees will remain fixed for 24 months from your initial course start date. Thereafter, the course fee will rise at a rate of 2.5% per calendar year (subject to rounding for administration purposes).