Develop your career in Global Environmental Change
There is a growing urgency to address the environmental crises driven by climate change, human population growth, land cover and land use change, and pollution. These crises are covered in the media almost it seems on a daily basis, and governments have increasingly promised to take greater action to tackle them at both national and international levels. The Global Environmental Change MSc has been developed in response to the growing urgency and global demand for experts in this field. It will equip you with the knowledge and skills required to understand how these crises develop, and what tools and strategies can be used to work towards effective and sustainable environmental solutions.Overview
- Start dateFull-time: October, part-time: October
- DurationOne year full-time, two-three years part-time
- DeliveryTaught modules 40%, group project (dissertation for part-time students) 20%, individual project 40%
- QualificationMSc, PgDip, PgCert
- Study typeFull-time / Part-time
- CampusCranfield campus
Who is it for?
We welcome students from a variety of academic backgrounds, ranging from economic and social sciences to natural sciences and engineering who have a passion for solving real-world problems and making a positive impact. The course has been specifically designed to support students with a desire to take a more multidisciplinary approach to their learning.
In this respect, you will have the opportunity to select from available module options from across the environment, water, and energy programmes, tailoring these with the help of a tutor, to suit your personal learning ambitions. You will develop a range of personal and leadership skills as you progress through the course, to set you on the path to a rewarding career in becoming part of the solution to the environmental challenges that we face today.
Your career
With the current global focus on finding ways to tackle global environmental challenges, you can expect to be highly sought after by employers. Successful Cranfield students will develop diverse and rewarding careers in consultancies, research and teaching organisations, non-government organisations, along with national and local government departments involved in finding solutions to national and global environmental challenges. The international nature of this course means that career opportunities are not restricted to the UK. Cranfield graduates develop careers around the world and are internationally recognised by employers across the scientific, industrial and educational communities.
Cranfield Careers and Employability Service
Cranfield’s Careers and Employability Service is dedicated to helping you meet your career aspirations. You will have access to career coaching and advice, CV development, interview practice, access to hundreds of available jobs via our Symplicity platform and opportunities to meet recruiting employers at our careers fairs. We will also work with you to identify suitable opportunities and support you in the job application process for up to three years after graduation.
Cranfield supports international students to work in the UK after graduation
Why this course?
The MSc in Global Environmental Change will allow you to become part of the solution to address the environmental crises that we face today by providing you with the skills and knowledge required by both national and international organisations working in the environmental sector.
Informed by industry
The Global Environmental Change MSc is designed to meet the current needs of employers and benefits from a strong input from industry experts. This gives our students the confidence to know that what they are learning is both relevant and beneficial to building a rewarding career.
Course details
Course delivery
Taught modules 40%, group project (dissertation for part-time students) 20%, individual project 40%
Group project
The group project experience is highly valued by both students and prospective employers. It provides students with the opportunity to take responsibility for a consultancy-type project, working within agreed objectives, deadlines and budgets. For part-time students a dissertation or projects portfolio can replace the group project.
Individual project
The individual project is the chance for you to focus on an area of particular interest to you and your future career. These projects provide you with the opportunity to demonstrate your ability to carry out independent research, think and work in an original way, contribute to knowledge, and overcome genuine problems in the energy industry.
Modules
Keeping our courses up-to-date and current requires constant innovation and change. The modules we offer reflect the needs of business and industry and the research interests of our staff and, as a result, may change or be withdrawn due to research developments, legislation changes or for a variety of other reasons. Changes may also be designed to improve the student learning experience or to respond to feedback from students, external examiners, accreditation bodies and industrial advisory panels.
To give you a taster, we have listed the compulsory and elective (where applicable) modules which are currently affiliated with this course. All modules are indicative only, and may be subject to change for your year of entry.
Course modules
Compulsory modules
All the modules in the following list need to be taken as part of this course.
Fundamentals of Global Environmental Change
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Aim |
Human activity is accelerating consumption of natural resources and emissions of pollutants into the environment, destabilising planetary life support systems. This module will introduce you to these processes, identifying the drivers, pressures, changes in state, and impacts on the environment, as well as examining potential responses and solutions. It will cover the physical science-based understanding of our planetary systems, how humankind is modifying these systems, and examine current and future efforts to address these key challenges through science, technology, and policy. |
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Intended learning outcomes |
On successful completion of this module you should be able to:
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Decision Science for Global Environmental Change
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Aim |
The module introduces you to the main decision science approaches used to support decisions on global environmental change issues. It aims to promote an understanding of weight-of-evidence approaches used to inform real-world problems by research, industry, and government. Central to this is an understanding of the strengths and limitations of different approaches, the social, economic, and environmental trade-offs made during decision-making, and how real-world complexity and future uncertainty is accounted for. You will learn how to apply these approaches to evaluate different courses of action in response to environmental challenges related to land, water, and/or energy. |
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Intended learning outcomes |
On successful completion of this module you should be able to:
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Cleantech in Water-Energy-Food Nexus
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The aim of the module is to introduce you to the international priorities under the umbrella of the Water-Energy-Food nexus across sectors and scales. The module is premised on the understanding that environmental resources are inextricably intertwined and therefore there is a need of advancing a nexus approach to enable integrated and sustainable management of water, energy and food systems. You will learn and evaluate a range of innovative technologies that provide significant gains in terms of provision and management of energy, water and food and resources. |
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Intended learning outcomes |
On successful completion of this module you should be able to:
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Sustainable Environmental Solutions
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This module aims to introduce you to the real world environmental solutions that are being developed and in use already, to enable them to enter a number of sectors with up to date knowledge of current approaches. The module will provide you with an overview of the international climate and environmental policy landscape in which countries, sectors and industries are operating, and the scale of action required in order to fulfil current policy goals. You will work on case studies of sustainable solutions (e.g. in aviation, agriculture, transport, waste, etc) and evaluate the potential in these solutions to contribute to global climate or other environmental goals. |
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Intended learning outcomes |
On successful completion of this module you should be able to:
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Elective modules
A selection of modules from the following list need to be taken as part of this course
Pollution Prevention and Remediation Technologies
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Intended learning outcomes |
On successful completion of this module you should be able to:
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Water and Sustainable Agrifood Systems
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Water is an essential factor of production in agrifood systems; whether for growing crops, supporting livestock or food manufacture. Globally, 70% of freshwater withdrawals are used for agriculture, but increasing demand for food means that this figure is likely to increase dramatically in the future. At the same time climate change is affecting supply and other demands on water are increasing. Mismanagement of water for food production has led to social and environmental problems in many places. Water is therefore a significant global risk to sustainable food production. This module will consider the water requirements of crop and livestock systems; the evaluation of the water related impacts and risks in producing locations; and management and technological solutions to minimise water related impacts and risks in food supply chains. |
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Intended learning outcomes |
On successful completion of this module you should be able to:
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Waste Management in a Circular Economy: Reuse, Recycle, Recover and Dispose
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The aim of this module is to provide specialist understanding of the major processes used for municipal waste management and their role within an integrated – circular - waste management system. In particular the module will focus on the bottom three points of the waste hierarchy: recycle, recover and dispose. |
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Intended learning outcomes |
On successful completion of this module you should be able to:
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Land Engineering Principles and Practices
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Natural landscapes and built environments can be engineered to optimise the goods and services delivered to society, including provision of natural resources and the regulation of water and carbon. Technologies that prevent and/or reverse land degradation can be devised and implemented to ensure sustainable use of finite land resources. Environmental engineers and land managers need sound understanding of the environmental properties that determine land capability for any given desired end use, as well as the interrelationships between soil, water, vegetation and built structures. This understanding is grounded in basic soil physics, hydrology, hydraulics, geotechnics and agronomy. With this background, appropriate interventions such as soil erosion control and slope stabilisation can be designed and implemented to improve inherent land quality. The required skills set also informs the management of environmental projects involving land forming, reclamation, restoration and protection, which require selection, design, engineering and maintenance of appropriate structures. |
Syllabus |
Site Assessment: Concept of land capability and land quality Land forming, earth moving and landscape modification. Geotechnics: Slope stability Top and sub soil management |
Intended learning outcomes |
On successful completion of this module you should be able to:
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Technologies for Seeds and Crop Protection
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This module provides a critical appraisal of the role of the main plant-based technologies which can be used to advance sustainable crop production and food security. This includes a consideration of the importance of crop breeding, seed technology and crop protection with particular emphasis on future needs. |
Syllabus |
Seed industry: Agrochemicals: |
Intended learning outcomes |
On successful completion of this module you should be able to:
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Process Emission and Control
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The aim of this module is to provide an understanding of the major air pollutants emitted by key industrial processes, the associated regulatory frameworks, and monitoring and control techniques. A further element of this module is for you to gain an in-depth knowledge of emission control strategies currently applied by industry, e.g. processes modification and implementation of appropriate control mechanisms. |
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Intended learning outcomes |
On successful completion of this module you should be able to:
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Good Ecological Status
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Water bodies are fundamental features of the landscape. Whether they are rivers, canals, wetlands, ponds, lakes, estuaries or the open coast, they are important habitats that support diverse ecological communities and provide essential services to society. Therefore, countries have developed regulations to protect the quality of these water bodies and methods to assess status. Around the world, quality is increasingly being assessed based on a wide set of physical, chemical and biological attributes of the water body. In the UK, quality is assessed based on its ecological and chemical quality under the Water Framework Directive (WFD), which became part of UK law in 2003. This module will provide you with an overview of WFD and other relevant water quality regulation and policy that govern the management and assessment of surface waters. It will also provide you with a background in ecological processes, aquatic communities, and survey design and data analysis to help those working in environmental water management to interpret water quality data in the context of the catchment characteristics and pressures. This module is 20 credits. |
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Intended learning outcomes |
On successful completion of this module you should be able to:
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Managing Flood and Drought Risks
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Extreme weather events are considered top global risks. Every year, many places around the world are affected by droughts and floods leading to severe impacts on people, the environment, agricultural and industrial production, and water supply infrastructure. Climate change will increase the frequency and severity of these natural hazards. Thus, we need to improve our ability to characterise and understand their occurrence, duration and intensity; and to effectively implement management responses to reduce vulnerability and minimise their impacts. This module will focus on droughts and floods, covering their definition, forecasting, impacts and management options. The module focuses on impact and management responses in three key sectors – domestic, businesses (including agriculture) and the environment.
This module is 20 credits.
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Intended learning outcomes |
On successful completion of this module you should be able to:
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Risk Communication and Perception
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The aim of this module to develop an appreciation of the importance of individual and group attitudes towards the perception of risk and how this may influence views, conduct and actions in the face of a range of risks including the development of communication methods to disseminate information about risk(s) to a range of audiences and how to determine its effectiveness. |
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Intended learning outcomes |
On successful completion of this module you should be able to:
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Environmental Policy and Risk Governance
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A critical application of environmental risk management is in the development and appraisal of policy in central government and business. Policies are developed to manage environmental risks and selection of policy options must be informed by risk based tools and techniques. Doing so demands a comprehension of the technical, organisational and human elements of governing environmental risks and developing environmental policy. This module draws these themes together by introducing core concepts and then illustrating these concepts with case studies spanning business and government, and finally application via a group exercise. Core lectures are supported by multiple case studies, a workshop and module assignment. |
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Intended learning outcomes |
On successful completion of this module you should be able to:
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Leading Corporate Sustainability
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Global sustainability challenges are shaping the way business operates in the 21st century. Businesses are under increasing pressure from multiple stakeholders (for e.g. shareholders, customers, employees, society) to manage their positive and negative impacts with clear responsibility and strategic intent. Leading firms are choosing to respond to these challenges by generating sustainable value propositions to ultimately drive competitive advantage. For many this has meant re-engaging at the level of purpose and re-addressing their role in wider society and for human well-being. This module outlines the major sustainability challenges and explores the capabilities organisations require to respond positively to them. It will engage you in gaining a better understanding of how corporate action can be best configured to promote responsible and sustainable business strategies. In doing so, it will demand management students (as future business managers and leaders) to reflect on the long-standing debate about whether or not ‘the business of business, is still business? Watch video: An introduction to the Leading Corporate Sustainability module |
Syllabus |
The content is organised around the sustainability management ‘compass’ below: The course content is structured as follows: Part 1: Setting the context Context setting The role of business Exploring possible futures Part 2: Developing the capabilities |
Intended learning outcomes |
On successful completion of this module you should be able to:
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Evaluating Environmental Sustainability
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The need to quantify sustainability is great, especially in a world in which scarce resources are in increasing demand and the effects of climate change become more apparent. Climate change will change our capacity to meet our demands for any resources. Almost all economic activity causes some negative impacts on the environment, either directly or through goods and services that are bought in. Mitigation methods for reducing unwanted emissions can themselves create other negative environmental impacts as side effects, as well as the positive effects including externalities. This module aims to consider and evaluate the above challenges quantitatively and critically and propose the strategic options to mitigate the negative impact by balancing it with the positive outcomes. |
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Intended learning outcomes |
On successful completion of this module you should be able to:
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Teaching team
The course is taught by members of research and academic staff and industrial representatives.
The Admissions Tutor and Course Director is Dr Anil Graves.
How to apply
Applications need to be made online. Click the 'Apply now' button at the top of this page.
Once you have set up an account you will be able to create, save and amend your application form before submitting it.