Course summary

The BSc Environment and Sustainable Development degree programme offers an interdisciplinary social science approach to environmental matters. It is increasingly recognised that environmental problems cannot be divorced from challenges to human well-being and development. Understanding and addressing issues such as human-induced climate change and global biodiversity depletion must take into account the uneven production of ecological and social harm. Indeed, social science scholars have usefully questioned how environmental problems are defined and analysed. Who benefits and who loses from environmental projects and practices? Similarly, the negative outcomes of some environmental projects have led many to question how such projects are economically justified and implemented. This degree enables students to benefit from the excellent reputation of the School within both the fields of environmental and, respectively, development studies and economics, challenging students to interrogate pressing real-world problems and proposed solutions. Exposed to state-of-the-art knowledge through research-informed teaching, students learn both about conceptual and applied aspects of environmental problems. Such teaching is designed to develop graduates with analytical and critical competencies for employment or graduate study in environmental policy and studies. Above all, the degree equips students to critically analyse environmental policies on the basis of rigorous social science.