Environmental Change and Management (Taught)

The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2024). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas.

The MSc aims to give you a broad appreciation of the major processes of environmental change and of the people and institutions involved in environmental management. The course seeks to produce environmental leaders who are interdisciplinary and analytical in their approach to environmental issues, and competent and aware decision makers.

Course objectives
The overarching aims of the course are to:

examine the nature, causes and impacts of major types of environmental change. How do these changes operate and interact on global, regional and local scales? How do they relate to critical social and ecological systems?
examine the economic, legal, cultural, and ethical underpinnings of environmental responsibility and systemic solutions, including mitigation, adaptation, remediation, enhanced resource stewardship and other sustainable responses to environmental change at different scales and within different organisational contexts
empower environmental leaders to address the world’s most pressing environmental problems through an understanding of and training in the key analytical and practical skills, and in a broad appreciation of earth systems and societies in relation to environmental change.
Course structure

The course is structured and assessed through three themes:

Methods and Techniques for Environmental Management
Understanding Environmental Change
Responding to Environmental Change

It is organised and delivered through eight core modules:

The Earth System
Global Change and the Biosphere
Human Dimensions of Environmental Change
New Environmental Economic Thinking
Energy Systems and Mitigating Climate Change
Sustainable Responses to Environmental Change
Governing the Anthropocene
Research Skills.

Teaching takes place through lectures, seminars, workshops and field courses which provide in-depth exploration of key issues. The elective modules offer a tutorial-style teaching and discussion environment within smaller groups, based on a suite of contemporary research themes that reflect the specific interests of core faculty, research staff, and visiting scholars. The teaching aim is to foster knowledge, critical thinking, discussion and debate in an integrated setting, and to identify and explore theory, methods and practice in an academic space that encourages collaboration and critical dialogue.

During term time, each week will compromise of core module and elective teaching, with additional supported learning on occasional field trips. Additionally, you will be expected to undertake considerable self-directed learning to further and deepen your knowledge of the material introduced during class. You will also work on a research dissertation project with the support of a specialist supervisor. You will develop ideas for your dissertation during the first two terms and undertake the majority of the work in the third term and over the summer months.

Fieldwork and external visits are an important part of the teaching programme and, indicatively, these currently include Slapton Ley National Nature Reserve, the Centre for Alternative Technology, and the Lake District National Park. All field trips are subject to change.

Dissertation
An independent and original dissertation is an integral component of the course. In order to equip you with the necessary skills to undertake high quality research, a suite of training activities is offered to develop key transferable skills in order for you to be able to execute high quality independent and original research, and expose you to applied research methods used widely in academic and professional research.

For the full description, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas