Course summary
Feed the world whilst protecting our planet Society is dependent on our ability to produce sufficient, nutritious food through agriculture. However farming practices have detrimental impacts on our environments, global biodiversity and climate. The increasing importance of sustainable agriculture and food production is driven by the triple threat of growing global population, rising pressure on our environment and a changing climate. This is a multidisciplinary programme, which builds on key strengths in sustainable agricultural research within our faculty and taps into the diverse expertise available across the wider University and beyond, including the Global Food and Environment Institute.Teaching will be both interdisciplinary and research-led to ensure that you are aware of the issues throughout the field of both agriculture and food production. You’ll be taught the fundamentals of sustainable agriculture and food production from a wide range of perspectives, before moving on to cutting edge research topics. This will include an array of agricultural innovations, including environmental management and monitoring, sustainable livestock production, genome engineering and crop biotechnology. As well as being exposed to the latest research in sustainable agriculture, with a significant component of practical work, field skills and training in relevant techniques, you’ll build a wealth of transferable research skills. This will prepare you for your advanced research project, working under the supervision of a world-leading academic or industrial expert. We also encourage work-embedded research projects with food production-related organisations globally. The programme will prepare you for both PhD study and employment in a large range of industries that support agriculture and food production, propelling you into roles such as consultancy, policy, scientific monitoring and biotech, to name just a few. More generally, your skills would align strongly with a wealth of opportunities in business and government around sustainability, climate mitigation, decarbonisation and circular economies. Course highlights
- Be empowered to research and change agricultural practices through innovative and environmental solutions
- A significant proportion of the teaching on this course is provided by academics from the Centre for Plant Sciences, a cross-faculty research centre of excellence in plant sciences
- Learn and undertake research within the University of Leeds and the Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock (CIEL) specialist facilities including the research farm, which houses the £11million National Pig Centre
- Gain an in-depth understanding of the social and political aspects of sustainable agriculture and food production
Modules
In your first semester, you will start by focussing on the fundamental, global issues in sustainable agriculture and the food production systems that support humanity. You’ll engage with a number of existing and innovative solutions to these issues across a broad range of topics, from sustainable protein production to field management systems. Both crop and livestock production will be covered in depth, alongside developing the research and data skills you’ll need to recognise the problems in agriculture and begin to apply scientific ideas to finding potential solutions. In your second semester, you’ll build on this knowledge to gain depth of knowledge and develop a range of skills to prepare you for your future career. You’ll focus on applied research in a wide range of agricultural disciplines, including breeding, biotechnology, agricultural policy and economics. Field skills in agricultural research and environmental monitoring will develop your research capabilities. In your third semester, you will undertake your individual advanced research project under the supervision of an expert in the field of sustainable agriculture. You’ll be given the opportunity to work with academic supervisors and in some cases industrial supervisors, where possible. You will plan, design and implement a practical, work-based, fieldwork or data-based project, and present your results and analysis in the form of a scientific report and presentation.
Assessment method
The course is 100% coursework assessed. There are a range of authentic assessments in different formats for example practical work, data handling and problem solving exercises, group work, coursework essays, research proposals, posters and oral presentations. The assignments will focus on your ability to demonstrate key intellectual, research and technical understanding, rather than the ability to produce lengthy pieces of written work. Assignments will be flexible where practicable, allowing you to work on topics that you are interested and engaged with. Assessments are designed to develop skills relevant to a future career in the agricultural, academic or scientific sector. Choose your independent advanced research project from a wide list of topics, which are designed to offer you an immersive individual research experience, as well as the opportunity to contribute to science in an area you are passionate about.
Entry requirements
2.1 Honours in relevant discipline
English language requirements
| Test | Grade | Additional details |
|---|---|---|
| IELTS (Academic) | 6.5 | with no less than 6.0 in each component skill |
| TOEFL (iBT) | 92 | with no less than 21 in listening, 21 in reading, 23 in speaking and 22 in writing |
| PTE Academic | 64 | with no less than 60 in any component |
Please click here for further details of our English requirements
https://www.leeds.ac.uk/international-admissions/doc/entry-requirements
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
Fees are listed on our website: https://courses.leeds.ac.uk/
Provider information
University of Leeds
Woodhouse Lane
Leeds
LS2 9JT