MSc Environment, Politics and Development
SOAS University of London
Key Information
Campus location
London, United Kingdom
Languages
English
Study format
On-Campus
Duration
1 - 2 year
Pace
Full time, Part time
Tuition fees
GBP 14,270 / per year *
Application deadline
Request info
Earliest start date
Request info
* full-time fees: UK £14,270; Overseas £23,800. Part-time 2 years fees: UK £7,135/year; Overseas £11,900/year. Part-time 3 years fees: UK £4,710/year; Overseas £7,855/year
Introduction
Mode of Attendance: Full-time or part-time
This programme takes a critical political ecology frame and examines environmental policy and its intersections with development from a social justice angle. It is taught and convened by leading political ecologists and offers a critical analysis of key issues including water, forestry, climate, fisheries, agricultural production, biodiversity, conflicts and energy supply.
The master asks important questions including:
- How does the environment intersect with global poverty, wealth and questions of inequality?
- Can Carbon trading offer a solution to managing climate change?
- How does access to water intersect with the dynamics of wealth and poverty?
- Is wildlife conservation implicated in social injustices?
- What role can and do environmental movements play in development?
- Is there a link between environmental change and violent conflict?
- What is the political ecology of forests?
The MSc programme’s emphasis on transferable analytical skills has been of great benefit to the many graduates who have returned to or taken up, professional careers in development in international organisations, government agencies and non-government organisations. Students also benefit from the wide range of modules on offer, both within the Department and across the School, allowing them to create individualised interdisciplinary programmes.
Part-Time
Students can take this programme part-time for over 2 or 3 years. Students usually complete their core modules in Year 1 and their option modules and dissertation in subsequent years.
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Ideal Students
Who is this programme for?
The programme attracts applications from students with a variety of academic and experiential backgrounds. We welcome applications from those who have worked in a broad field of development, but also from students without relevant work experience who can demonstrate a strong interest in, and understanding of, environment-development issues. A good first degree in social science is preferred.
Admissions
Curriculum
Structure
Students must take 180 credits per year comprised of 120 taught credits (including core, compulsory and optional modules) and a 60 credit dissertation.
Dissertation
- Dissertation in Development Studies
Core Modules
A core module is required for the degree programme, so must always be taken and passed before you move on to the next year of your programme.
- Political Ecology of Development
Plus choose one of the below core modules:
- Theory, policy and practice of development
- Political Economy of Development
- Political economy of violence, conflict and development
- Law and Natural Resources
Compulsory Modules
A compulsory module is required for the degree programme, so must always be taken, and if necessary can be passed by re-taking it alongside the next year of your programme.
- Choose modules to the value of 30 credits from the Development Studies modules list below.
Optional modules
These are designed to help students design their own intellectual journey while maintaining a strong grasp of the fundamentals.
Choose module(s) to the total value of 30 credits from:
- Module(s) from the Development Studies list below to the value of 30 credits.
- Open option modules to the value of 30 credits from another department.
- Module from the Development Studies the list below to the value of 15 credits.
- Open option modules to the value of 15 credits from another department.
Non-Assessed Module
All MSc students in Development Studies are eligible to attend the one-term, non-assessed module Economics for Beginners, which introduces students to basic concepts in microeconomics, macroeconomics, development economics, and statistics and econometrics.
List of Development Studies modules (subject to availability)
- Agrarian Development, Food Policy and Rural Poverty
- Aid and Development
- Battlefields of Method: Approaches to International Development Research
- Borders and Development
- Cities and Development
- Civil society, social movements and the development process
- Development Practice
- Environment, Governance and Development
- Energy Transition, Nature, and Development in a Time of Climate Change
- Famine and food security
- Fundamentals of research methods for Development Studies
- Gender and Development
- Global Commodity Chains, Production Networks and Informal Work
- Global Health and Development
- Issues in Forced Migration
- Marxist Political Economy and Global Development
- Migration and Policy
- Natural resources, development and change: putting critical analysis into practice
- Neoliberalism, Democracy and Global Development
- Problems of Development in the Middle East and North Africa
- Security
- The Working Poor and Development
- Migrant Labour in the Global Economy
- Water and Development: Conflict and Governance
- Water Resources: Justice and Governance
Important notice
The information on the programme page reflects the intended programme structure against the given academic session.
Career Opportunities
Employment
An MSc Environment, Politics & Development from SOAS provides graduates with a portfolio of widely transferable skills sought by employers, including analytical skills, the ability to think laterally and employ critical reasoning, and knowing how to present materials and ideas effectively both orally and in writing. Equally, graduates are able to continue in the field of research, continuing their studies either at SOAS or other institutions. An MSc in Environment, Politics & Development is a valuable experience that provides students with a body of work and a diverse range of skills that they can use to market themselves with when they graduate.
At the same time, the MSc provides the opportunity to take a step back and engage in critical reflection on working in the environment and development sector. Interventions led by even the most well-meaning government, civil society or private sector actors can have (well-documented) unintended, sometimes adverse, consequences for the very people they are intended to benefit. Understanding how this might happen is key to learning how interventions might avoid these problems, and what kinds of intervention you would (not) wish to be part of in a professional capacity. Organisations working in this sector, moreover, might in some cases support underlying visions of development – establishing conditions for free markets, including the construction of private property regimes and regulation intended to facilitate market exchange – which, in the view of some commentators, are actually drivers of environmental degradation, poverty and inequality. Knowing where you stand on such questions is necessary for deciding what kinds of change you want to contribute to (or resist), and how best to strategise for such change.
Former graduates have gone on to work for a range of organisations, including Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), DFID, Aga Khan Foundation, The Energy Institute, Green Peace, Deloitte and Mind, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mauritius, Liberty.
Alumni have taken up various kinds of roles, such as Campaigns assistant, Diplomat, Policy and Political Advisor, Programme Manager, Technical Officer, Urban Development Consultant.
English Language Requirements
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