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Environmental Change and Management at University of Oxford - UCAS

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2024 - 20252025 - 2026
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Course summary

The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2023). 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. This MSc/MPhil course aims to give you a broad appreciation of 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. The MPhil is a two year course. The second year is devoted to researching and writing a thesis (either as a single monograph or two academic papers). In the first year, you will take the coursework associated with the MSc in Environmental Change and Management. This course has three overarching aims, 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 objectives are assessed through three themes: Methods and Techniques for Environmental Management; Understanding Environmental Change; Responding to Environmental Change, delivered through eight 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; and 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. You will have approximately ten hours of core module and elective teaching per week during term time, 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 thesis project with the support of a specialist supervisor. You will develop your ideas for dissertations during the first two terms and undertake the majority of the work in the final term and over the summer months. Fieldwork and external visits are an important part of the teaching programme and, indicatively, these currently include coastal and marine environmental change sites, local woodlands, Lake District National Park, the Centre for Alternative Technology (renewable energy and sustainability technologies). All field trips are subject to change. For the full description, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas

Entry requirements

For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please see the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas

Fees and funding

Tuition fees

No fee information has been provided for this course

Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .

Additional fee information

For complete and up-to-date information about fees and funding for this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas.
Environmental Change and Management at University of Oxford - UCAS