MSc Environment, Politics and Development
London, United Kingdom
DURATION
1 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
GBP 25,320 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* for overseas student fees | home student fees: GBP 12,220 per year
Introduction
The MSc Environment, Politics and Development programme addresses these pressing questions through a combination of critical political ecology and interdisciplinary approaches. The programme is taught by leading political ecologists who have research and practitioner experience at various scales and locations across the Global South.
The programme's teaching engages with the most important global thinkers and considers power structures and relations along the lines of race, gender, class and caste in global political ecology. The course offers a critical analysis of key issues including extractivism, water, forestry, climate, fisheries, agricultural production, biodiversity, and energy transition.
Perhaps most importantly, you will analyse and assess proposed solutions to ecological crises, including loss and damage compensation, market-based solutions, degrowth, green new deals, and climate reparations.
The master asks important questions including:
- How can we analyse structural socio-ecological injustice between the Global South and North
- Will systemic change proposals like Green New Deals, Degrowth, and Climate Reparations work for the most marginalised
- How does the environment intersect with global poverty, wealth and questions of inequality
- Can Carbon trading offer a solution to managing climate change
- How do ‘race’ and racism influence the climate crisis
- 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
- How can we organise the global economy in a just and sustainable way
Why study MSc Environment, Politics and Development at SOAS?
- We are ranked 3rd in the world for Development Studies (QS World University Rankings 2024).
- You will have the opportunity to take work placements as part of your degree, and we offer internships in the department and in partner organisations. This year MSc students were offered placements in the International Organisation for Migration, the London International Development Centre and international NGOs
- Get placement in a partner organisation working in international development with our International Development Placement module (virtual delivery)
- Our staff specialises in a range of thematic areas including sustainability and climate change, migration and displacement, conflict, humanitarian action, labour, political ecology, and aid and institutions.
Gallery
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
Students must take 180 credits per year comprised of 120 taught credits (including core and optional modules) and a 60-credit dissertation.
Open modules: Students can choose up to 30 credits from other Departments as open options.
Core Courses
- Dissertation in Development Studies
Compulsory
- Political Ecology of Development
Development Studies Guided Options
- Political Economy of Violence, Conflict, and Development
- Migration and Development
- Civil Society, Social Movements, and the Development Process
- Gender and Development
- Development Practice
- Issues in Forced Migration
- Fundamentals of Research Methods for Development Studies
- War to Peace Transitions
- Borders and Development
- Global Commodity Chains, Production Networks, and Informal Work
- Aid and Development
- Migration and Policy
- Labour, Activism, and Global Development
- Global Health and Development
- Cities and Development
- Feminist Political Economy and Global Development
- Global Approaches to Peace
- International Development Placement
Guided Options - List A (30-90 credits from List A)
- Theory, Policy, and Practice of Development
- Political Economy of Development
- Energy Transition, Nature, and Development in a Time of Climate Change
- Environment, Governance, and Development
- Law and Natural Resources
Dissertation
In addition to the taught part of the master's programme, all students will write a 10,000-word dissertation. Students develop their research topic under the guidance and supervision of an academic member of the Department. Students are encouraged to explore a particular body of theory or an academic debate relevant to their programme through a focus on a particular region.
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
A degree from the Department of Development Studies at SOAS will further develop your understanding of the world and how society is organised, with a specific focus on violence and conflict, the role of aid, refugees and forced migration. Graduates leave with a range of transferable skills, including critical thinking, analytical skills and cultural awareness.
Recent graduates have been hired by:
- Amnesty International
- BBC World Service
- British Embassy Brussels
- Department for International Development
- Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)
- Embassy of Japan
- Government of Pakistan
- Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office
- International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
- International Labour Organization (ILO)
- KPMG LLP
- Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
- National Health and Medical Research Council
- Overseas Development Institute
- Oxfam
- Royal Norwegian Embassy
- Save the Children UK
- The World Bank
- Thinking Beyond Borders
- US Department of State
- UN World Food Programme
- UN High Commissioner for Refugees
- WaterAid
Program delivery
Our teaching and learning approach is designed to support and encourage students in their own process of self-learning, and to develop their own ideas, responses and critique of international development practice and policy. We do this through a mixture of lectures, and more student-centred learning approaches (including tutorials and seminars). Teaching combines innovative use of audio-visual materials, practical exercises, group discussions, and weekly guided reading and discussions, as well as conventional lecturing.
Program Admission Requirements
Show your commitment and readiness for Grad school by taking the GRE - the most broadly accepted exam for graduate programs internationally.