Master of Science - Global Environmental Change and Policy

The pace of change of the climate is staggering, with the climate system strongly influenced by numerous environmental and global feedback processes. Understanding these complex issues, as well as humans role in these processes, is crucial to the development of mitigation and sustainability policies on global and local scales. Effective communication of this knowledge, whether in terms of climate literacy to the public or policy makers, is crucial to match response to the pace of change.

The MSc in Global Environmental Change and Policy is designed to equip the next generation of Earth and Environmental scientists with the multidisciplinary skills needed to tackle the complex global issues associated with climate change, societal challenges and policy development.

The programme provides the highly integrated level of fundamental, applied and communication-based knowledge which is urgently needed to identify, characterise, and effectively find solutions to a range of challenges related to climate change. From a basic understanding of how the planet works as a holistic unit to socio-economic interactions between business and the environment, including the ability to communicate this knowledge to a broad spectrum of academic researchers, policymakers and the public.

The programme has seven core courses in multidisciplinary topics, with the potential for students to widen their studies by choosing an optional course for further specialisation. Students will have the opportunity to perform their dissertation projects in collaboration (through co-supervision) with one of several world-leading Edinburgh based research organisations including:

Dissertation projects may be field, or desk based and will be co-designed to address significant real-world issues aligned with the ongoing research projects undertaken at the Lyell Centre and in collaboration with the different research organisations.