A topic of global importance since the late 1980's, 'sustainable development' refers to "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (Brundtland Report, 1987). It encompasses responsible utilisation of environmental resources and the establishment of social and economic relations which enable that. Sustainable development is at the heart of global policies such as Agenda 21, which emerged from the UN Earth Summit in 1992 and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals enshrined in a UN resolution since 2015.
Quality of governance is increasingly recognised as central to sustainable development, which requires achieving just and legitimate outcomes in major global socio-economic and environmental issues such as poverty, climate change, food security and biodiversity loss.
As sustainable development now constitutes a significant global policy goal,intergovernmental, and governmental agencies, as well as private sector companies urgently need professionals that possess the kind of knowledge and skills required to ensure that it is enacted in practice. This master's degree aims to provide you with the analytical skills and enhance your knowledge with respect to global governance issues, approaches and instruments so that you can become such a professional.
You will explore various approaches to how intergovernmental and national strategies, policies and projects pertaining to these global governance issues are formulated, implemented and evaluated. The critical case study approach used in teaching will enable you to develop the skills required for working in the private sector or with global and national public or third sector agencies leading and managing change in a global environment.
Our staff, including renowned development and gender expert Professor Sarah Bradshaw and environmental policy specialist Dr Meri Juntti are experts in their respective fields who use their impressive research portfolios to inform their teaching.
You will have an opportunity to apply to gain work experience through two different work placement modules offered as options through the programme. One short term-time placement option undertaken in any London based work place and another longer option that may replace the research dissertation and can be taken over the summer period, in any organisation in the UK or abroad. Both placements are secured by the student, with support from our Careers Services and staff.
Our international mix of students exposes you to a range of different cultural and national viewpoints, offering valuable insights and a genuine basis for informed discussion.
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Four core plus two optional modules are completed over the autumn and winter/spring terms with a dissertation period over the summer. Depending on your entry point to the course, you will submit a final dissertation or a work based project report in the October or January of the year following your entry.
Each module is typically worth 20 credits, except the Dissertation and Work Integrated Learning modules which are worth 60 credits each. The Work Integrated Learning may be chosen to replace the Dissertation with prior agreement if you have secured a suitable placement with an external organisation.
As well as the optional modules listed below, students can choose to study from a range of law modules in terms one and two.
This core module aims to provide you with skills and knowledge to understand and critique the notion of sustainable development and the many manifestations it takes in policy and governance starting with the global blueprint of Agenda 21. An increasingly popular term, global governance refers to the collaborations of state and non-state actors in advocating, making laws and policies for and undertaking practical actions to address issues that have global scope in terms of impact and/or causality. This module will help you to understand new and emerging theorisations of governance, power and evidence as well as the normative and institutional premises of governance for sustainable development. You will gain a critical understanding of a range of global governance issues such as food security, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and healthy cities.
In this module you will be asked to consider the implications in International Relations of the forces of globalisation, looking at international political processes and institutions at the level of politics, economics and culture. You will analyse the relevance of international organisations, and look at transnational politics and issues of global importance. Additionally, you will explore theoretical debates surrounding these issues and learn to critically evaluate the effectiveness of international policy. The aim of this module is to provide you with a platform to work constructively in groups, gain leadership skills and formulate arguments and coherent debates in a diverse international environment.
This module prepares you to complete either a dissertation or an assessed work placement or a work based learning project. You will attend a series of lectures and workshops and online exercises address research methodologies, skills and employability. You will undertake a series of formative and summative assessments developing your critical and practical skills and leading to either; i) the production of a research proposal or ii) a critical review of the work of the organization you are to be placed with or work with. The satisfactory completion of the module will then allow you to proceed to writing a dissertation of 10-12,000 words or to embark on a work placement assessed by production of a project report / paper and exercises reflecting on your experience.
This module will help you critically explore the key institutions and frameworks that govern human rights at the international level and of the international policy context that promotes sustainable development, to examine how the two interact. You will examine the notion of rights as competing, contested and co-opted and question their ability to function in crisis situations. It focuses on issues of inclusion/exclusion and reflects on how the rights and ‘development’ of three ‘marginalised groups’ have been promoted. You’ll focus in particular on indigenous peoples, the caste system and gender inequality. The aim of this part of your studies is to question if current legal approaches to human rights are sufficient to bring sustainable development to groups currently marginalised.
The module aims to enable you to undertake a substantial academic research project focussed on a key issue within your programme. It requires you to apply methodology, research design and method to the practical processes of undertaking a chosen research topic and presenting the findings. The dissertation requires you to draw upon the prerequisite module Research and Practice Skills but encourages you to demonstrate independence and self-discipline in researching a topic of interest and relevance to you and manage an extended project from conception to completion.
The module enables you to apply theoretical knowledge and research to anticipate and respond to challenges in a selected workplace experience. The workplace experience may be undertaken as an internship that you negotiate yourself or in your current workplace or an existing voluntary role. It also aims to foster sustainable long term learning by requiring you to take responsibility for your own learning, design and negotiate learning goals and make informed judgments about your performance across the programme of study. The module asks you to engage as an active subject in the assessment process, thus enhancing your capacity for transformative learning. By selecting a topic of interest grounded in your own workplace experience you’ll be called upon to demonstrate reflexivity, self-regulation and self-assessment in your journey towards personal and professional development.
This module will provide students with an in-depth understanding of environmental governance and the central theoretical approaches on which its principles are based. The module introduces the idea of the governance spectrum ranging from a coercive mode and legal instruments to approaches that rely on the agency and knowledge of environmental resource users themselves.
The aim of this module is to analyse foreign policy practices as crucial sites of political agency and choice in the contemporary geopolitics of international relations. This course will draw on the advanced classical and critical theories of international relations and geopolitical perspectives applied to the study of the foreign policy traditions, strategies and practices of the key actors and cases in global politics. The module is designed to encourage and qualify an international group of postgraduate students who may wish to further their specialised study of foreign policy analysis and or employment in fields related to governance, business, politics and diplomacy. The overall aim of this module is to create a multidisciplinary, multicultural learning environment that is reflected on the teaching practice and research of the module leader and receptive to the diverse needs and views of students.
This module analyses changes in the global security agenda since the end of the Cold War, both empirically and theoretically. The meaning of security is explored and competing theoretical perspectives in the discipline are compared. The transformation of military security threats is then analysed with particular emphasis on the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and the significance of global terrorism. The module then explores the rise of non-military issues of human security including environmental change, crime, disease, poverty, and disasters.
In this module you will look at the relationship between migration, politics and policies from a comparative and European perspective. This relationship is both ‘top down’, with migration becoming an object of contention amongst political parties and migration policies being largely shaped by political divisions, and ‘bottom up’, with the growing presence of NGOs campaigning for migrant rights and migrant activism. First, you will be asked to comparatively examine migration policies, their regulatory role in the attempt to manage and control migratory flows, and how they have been affected by political debates over migration.
Secondly, you will look at the growth of anti-immigration politics and how anti-migrant mobilisations have become a constant feature at European level, not only for marginal groups but also for mainstream government parties. During this part of the module you will also investigate the growing conflicts between migrants and natives over the uses of space and the distribution of welfare resources. Thirdly, you will look at different forms of migrant participation in the public sphere, from self-organized migrant protest around issues such as freedom of circulation, citizenship rights and labour rights to more institutionalized forms of participation through unions and NGOs.
This module will introduce you to key debates about political violence and contemporary terrorism. You’ll be required to consider a range of perspectives emerging from the study of the different forms of political violence, including terrorism and war. It also adopts a critical approach to theoretical and contextual debates on the use of the term terrorism as shorthand for a range of issues relating to political violence. Both institutional and anti-institutional violence will be discussed, along with critical analysis of the controversies surrounding the definitions of violence and terrorism in the different epochs. In the module you’ll examine in detail the contributions of the major schools of thought, along with the most recent sociological-criminological analysis of authorised and unauthorised political violence. The module requires you to critically examine theoretical concepts and practical considerations in contemporary political violence and terrorism discourse drawing on a range of case studies.
This module aims to provide students with a systematic understanding of the rules and principles of International Law and International Relations to the extent that these are relevant towards explaining the legal personality and activities of International Organisations. Special emphasis will be placed on defining the role of International Organisations in the settlement of international disputes including in relation to their involvement in armed conflicts. The course will provide advanced conceptual insights into the legal, political and structural issues that underpin dispute resolution at international level within International Organisation through a thematic focus on issues such as labour, trade, title to territory, and international peace and security. The module will enable students to think strategically about different means of settlement of disputes and their applicability to existing or potential conflicts.
The Bhopal disaster, the tragedy of the Niger Delta and the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory are all examples of what appears to be systematic corporate human rights abuses which are not being adequately prevented or remedied. This module enables students to understand how the sub-discipline business and human rights challenges State-centred architecture of international human rights law and delves into the responsibility of non-state actors such as multinational corporations in the area of human rights. It also challenges the idea that only individuals can commit international crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes looking into corporate criminal and civil liability for human rights violations
This module will examine the international legal framework for international trade provided by the World Trade Organization (WTO). The importance of the WTO has dramatically increased in the last two decades, shaping the global trade regimes and regulatory governance. This module is designed to provide students with a thorough understanding and knowledge of global trade regimes: an overview of globalisation and contemporary international economic relations; the regulation of international trade through the WTO; and the relationship among international trade, harmonisation of the law and trade-related issues. This course aims to deepen students understanding of the origins, structure, rationale and scope of the global trading system. Its objective is to enable students to demonstrate their legal and multidisciplinary knowledge, analytical skills and understanding through extended writing in a cogent and appropriate writing style.
See the course specification for more information about typical course content outside of the coronavirus outbreak:
Optional modules are usually available at levels 5 and 6, although optional modules are not offered on every course. Where optional modules are available, you will be asked to make your choice during the previous academic year. If we have insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, or there are staffing changes which affect the teaching, it may not be offered. If an optional module will not run, we will advise you after the module selection period when numbers are confirmed, or at the earliest time that the programme team make the decision not to run the module, and help you choose an alternative module.
Students' cognitive skills are developed through interactive lectures, workshops, seminars, directed reading and coursework. More practical skills are acquired through workshops, interactive learning, and the preparation for and delivery of presentations. Students will also get the opportunity to gain skills in computer-based data analysis.
Dissertations and work based learning projects are supported by workshops and personal research supervisors are allocated to all students undertaking a research dissertation. Those students who choose to take a work placement and produce a project report will have further opportunity to enhance their practical skills.
Students' knowledge and understanding is assessed by a variety of assessment methods including essays, reports, evaluations and a research proposal.
We have developed new approaches to teaching and learning for the 2022/23 academic year.
We've learned a lot about how to give you a quality education - we aim to combine the best of our in-person teaching and learning with access to online learning and digital resources which put you more in charge of when and how you study. We will keep you updated on this throughout the application process.
Your timetable will be built around on-campus sessions using our professional facilities, with online sessions for some activities where we know being virtual will add value. We’ll use technology to enhance all of your learning and give you access to online resources to use in your own time.
The table below gives you an idea of what learning looks like across a typical week. Some weeks are different due to how we schedule classes and arrange on-campus sessions.
Outside of these hours, you’ll be expected to do independent study where you read, listen and reflect on other learning activities. This can include preparation for future classes. In a year, you’ll typically be expected to commit 1200 hours to your course across all styles of learning. If you are taking a placement, you might have some additional hours.
Learning structure: typical hourly breakdown in 2022/23 | ||
Live in-person on campus learning | Contact hours per week, per level: | 7 hours |
This degree will enhance your knowledge and skills with respect to global governance approaches and instruments focused on environmental sustainability and social justice. Graduates of this master's can expect to be suitable for employment in national and global NGOs as well as private and public sector institutions delivering on social and environmental policy targets.
As well as access to the University's Employability Service, students are offered guidance by the Programme Leader and other contributors to the course teaching, including on how to enter and pass recruitment processes for national and international organisations. Staff members teaching on the programme include world-renowned scholars who combine instruction in core topics with the fruits of their current research. Students will benefit from their networks of contacts, notably as regards internship opportunities in national and international organisations such as the United Nations.
Dr Meri Juntti has a track record of research in European environmental policy and she has undertaken case studies on policy implementation and sustainability in a number of European countries. She has authored a range of publications on the role of evidence and the representation of environmental values and problems in environmental policy and planning. Her recent funded research includes developing an evaluation framework for the environmental impact of corporate investment in rural land resources, and developing the notion of 'experienced quality' of urban environments so that it can be integrated into the ecosystem services approach in environmental assessment.
We’ll carefully manage any future changes to courses, or the support and other services available to you, if these are necessary because of things like changes to government health and safety advice, or any changes to the law.
Any decisions will be taken in line with both external advice and the University’s Regulations which include information on this.
Our priority will always be to maintain academic standards and quality so that your learning outcomes are not affected by any adjustments that we may have to make.
At all times we’ll aim to keep you well informed of how we may need to respond to changing circumstances, and about support that we’ll provide to you.
Start: September 2023, January 2024
Duration: 1 year full-time, 2 years part-time
Code: PGM110
Start: September 2023
Duration: 1 year full-time, 2 years part-time
Code: PGM195
Start: September 2023
Duration: 1 year full-time, 2 years part-time
Code: PGB919