Understand complex sustainability challenges and develop the interdisciplinary skills needed to developsolutions for your business, sector and society.
Delivered 100% online
1st in the world for Development Studies (QS World University Ranking by Subject 2017-2023)
Start dates in January, March, May, July, September and October
The world’s biggest challenges can only be tackled with innovative, inclusive, and system-wide solutions.
Our 100% online Masters will equip you with the interdisciplinary skills and insights you need to develop these solutions, and lead sustainable transformation in your business, sector and society at large.
On this action-focused course, you will:
explore urgent threats to humanity including issues of conflict, security, health, climate and environmental change
unearth the root causes of these complex global sustainability challenges and the interconnected nature of environmental, social, political, and cultural issues
critically assess the international development sector and scrutinise current systems and solutions like net zero, the circular economy, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the biodiversity protocols proposed at COP26, for example
gain practical skills and apply academic concepts to real-world challenges, empowering you to make a tangible impact at a local or global level.
Ranking 1st in the world for Development Studies (QS World University Ranking 2017-2023), the University of Sussex is renowned for its research and teaching in sustainability.
As a Masters student, you’ll benefit from this unrivalled expertise, learning from academics across Sussex’s Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), School of Global Studies and Institute of Development Studies (IDS). The course curriculum evolves to reflect the findings and insights from these research centres, so you’ll graduate with an awareness of the very latest developments in the sector.
Our online Sustainable Development Masters is a flexible, part-time course that can be completed in as little as two years, with the option to extend this to four if you need to pause your studies.
Meet some of our inspiring distance learners, hear their reasons for choosing oursustainability course at Sussex, and discover how they fit their studies into their busy lives.
Read the transcript
Hi. I’m Helen, and I’m studying online for a Masters at the University of Sussex for Sustainable Development.
I think studying online was a really good option to kind of keep my full-time job and really study when it works for me.
The most important thing for me is really that my career has a positive impact on the world and on environmental issues in particular. So, the Sustainable Development course is giving me some great insight on the, kind of, complexity of sustainability issues and teaching me the practical skills that I’m going to need to work as an environmental professional and that could be in policy, consulting, NGOs, anything like that.
What I’ve really felt on this online course is that the learning materials are such a high quality. And there’s a really, really great online learning platform. They prepare, kind of, really consumable content for us on what we should be learning and what the key kind of concepts, issues, solutions are that we need to be aware of.
So I really appreciate all the effort that they’ve put in, you can definitely notice it. And yeah, they’re very engaged in the workshops that they offer. They often invite in guest lecturers from around the University who might not be teaching an online course so that we can get kind of more access to those world-leading academics who are all amazing.
I’m always shook when I’m writing a paper about something and I realise that the academic who wrote that theory works in my department, so that’s always really cool.
And I definitely feel like once I finish the course I’ll be in a place where I can really confidently walk into that job interview and say I deserve this job, and it’ll really be true as well.
Read the transcript
The online experience allows you to continue your studies while at work or whatever family commitments you’ve got. And definitely Sussex has got a good reputation, particularly within SPRU and International Development, and I think that was reflected in the experience we had as students.
A couple of anxieties I had before I started the course was, how does it all work? But it was all very simple. Within the first week you go on there, it’s all very easy to use and navigate. Any questions I had, I was able to ask the Student Success Team and they get back to you very promptly.
What I’ve really felt on this online course is that the learning materials are such a high quality and there’s a really, really great online learning platform. They prepare, kind of, really consumable content for us on what we should be learning.
Different methods of learning definitely helped. I found that podcasts for me were really helpful to get information in because often just reading a lot of information is quite difficult to get in but listening and visual aids really helped.
I found it great if I’m watching videos and lectures to be able to fast forward them, pause them, rewind them and to have all those materials there to refer to as and when you need them.
I think it’s really great that the cohort is international for the online course so I’ve made amazing professional connections with people working in Canada, Asia, all over Europe, as well as all over the UK.
Modules
To graduate from this sustainability course, students must successfully complete all 11 core modules plus one of the optional modules below. All have been designed to deepen your expertise in sustainable development, combining independent study with live seminars and group work.
Each module lasts for seven weeks with the final module assessment deadline usually on the Monday of Week 8. Students should allow for 20 hours per week study time.
Assessments will take place throughout each module and must be completed within the module teaching period for students to progress through the course/to the next module.
The course uses multiple assessment methods to judge students’ knowledge, competence, development and engagement through individual and group-work exercises, such as written reports, simulations, essays, project reports, MCQs, and portfolios.
An indication for the likely assessment methods of each module is given, though this may be subject to change.
This module provides an overview of the politics and policies of sustainable development in different parts of the world. From increasing inequality to toxic wastes and climate change, the challenges facing our world are daunting. Arguably then, the urgency of realising transformations to sustainability has never been greater.
The mission of the module is to provide students with a grounding in a variety of economic and noneconomic (systems) frameworks for studying issues of science, technology and innovation, and their collective relationship to energy production and policy. The module gives students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds the knowledge and shared concepts for their studies, enabling them to communicate with each other and with the wider industrial, academic and policy communities concerned with innovation. The module aims to provide deep understanding of the processes of technical change and their relationships to organisations, markets and regulations.
Module teaching team: Paul Nightingale/ Joshua Moon
This module will provide students with the concepts and tools to understand and analyse specific energy policy problems, identify relevant goals, develop evaluation criteria, identify alternative policy options, assess the likely impact of those options against the evaluation criteria and provide practical policy recommendations. The approach will be interdisciplinary and applied, drawing in particular upon ideas from welfare economics and public choice theory. Students will apply these ideas to contemporary challenges within energy and climate policy.
This module will introduce students to the nature and operation of the policy process in modern societies. The module will examine the different stages of the policy process and assess competing explanations of that process, drawing upon ideas from policy studies and political science. The aim is to provide students with an understanding of how political systems are organised in different countries, how problems are constructed and brought onto the policy agenda, how policies are formulated, adopted, implemented and evaluated, how and why changes in policy occur, and how policy processes at different levels of government interrelate. Particular attention will be paid to international cooperation between nation states and the nature, operation and importance of the institutional arrangements that result (e.g. the UNFCC and the Paris agreement). These ideas will be illustrated with practical examples and exercises from energy and other areas.
Module teaching team: Caitriona McLeish/ Alex Mankoo/ Katerina Psarikidou
This module provides the epistemological foundations of development studies, mapping the historical evolution of key ideas and the political, socio-economic and cultural influences on them. It highlights the deeply contested nature of development and the different insights that academic disciplines such as economics, gender studies, anthropology, sociology, geography and political science have contributed to the evolution of development thinking. Students will reflect on their own motivation and positionality and how these influence their interpretation of the meaning and goals of development.
Modern sciences and technologies are deeply entangled with social power. Techno-scientific developments such as gene editing and climate geoengineering are political issues, embroiled not only in controversies among scientists and engineers, but also subject to wider public debates. These debates highlight the importance of continuous opening up of the techno-sciences to democratic scrutiny, in order to achieve a greater diversity of knowledge, artefacts, ecologies and cultures necessary for achieving transformations to sustainability.
Module teaching team: Katerina Psarikidou/ Andrew Stirling/ Saurabh Arora
This module explores the central relationship between the organisation of the global political economy and processes of social and environmental change. It examines the key pillars of the global economy in terms of production, trade and finance as well as looking at the political economy of key issues such as climate change, energy, food and water. These issues are studied in terms of the economic origins of socio-ecological impacts, their governance and contestation and struggles for alternatives.
This module provides students with the basic building blocks for the production and use of social scientific research, giving special consideration to interdisciplinary research. The aim is to develop students’ abilities to understand, critically evaluate, conduct, and communicate research. Module contents are relevant to students interested in pursuing careers in public and private sectors, and in research. The module will help students develop more sophisticated interpretative lenses, a strong understanding of methodological approaches used in the social sciences, and effective communication abilities. These skills are highly applicable to academic and non-academic tasks.
Module teaching team: Marie Claire Brisbois/ Katerina Psarikidou
This module will explore the role that innovation can play in sustainable development in industrialised and developing countries. A number of ideas will be used to provide a framework for experiential learning, including: include past and current theory on sustainability, growth and competitiveness (with specific reference to the role of technology); understanding and influencing directions of innovation – both in terms of green industrialisation and grassroots innovation; and the governance of socio-technical transitions. Specific topics will be explored to illustrate the utility of each idea, such as: the barriers to the diffusion of sustainable innovations; the role of innovative green niches in systems transformations; and the challenges of international co-ordination and regulation within the multilateral trading system. These topics will be illustrated with reference to real world case studies in a number of different sectors.
This module examines the emergent place and problems of market-based approaches for achieving sustainability and will cover topics such as payments for ecosystem services, carbon and biodiversity markets, offsetting and banking, and no net loss approaches. It probes questions of equity, justice and efficacy in treating nature as ‘capital’ and financialised commodity.
This module is offered jointly with the School of Global Studies.
Module teaching team: Lucila Newell/ James Fairhead
This module examines the ways in which the current development apparatus is rooted in colonial history and ways of knowing, and how the politics and practices of sustainability both reinforce and challenge coloniality. We will explore non-Eurocentric forms of knowledge production focussing on the global South (such as feminist and critical race theory and practices, environmental and indigenous movements) that critique coloniality, rework the meaning of sustainability and offer visions for socio-ecologically just transformations.
This module examines key policy issues and debates relating to sustainability and global development in the domains of agriculture, health and the environment. A case study approach is used to explore real-life policy dilemmas, through topics such as agricultural transformation, carbon politics, the commodification of nature, the governance of infectious diseases, resource extraction, and climate change.
This module is offered jointly with the Institute of Development Studies.
This module provides the student with knowledge and understanding on how sustainability principles are embedded in business processes, products and services by exploring real world case studies in different sectors. The module introduces a variety of frameworks and operational practices to develop a deep understanding of how the fundamental principles of sustainability can support the improvement of operations and supply chains, including product design, manufacturing, and logistics.
Module lead: Maria Holgado
Assessments:
Essay – (30%)
Report – (70%)
Entry requirements
A lower second-class (2.2) undergraduate honours degree or above from any UK university or international equivalent.
Applicants whose first language is not English (and whose first degree was not taught in English) need to supply evidence of IELTS (Academic) high level (6.5 overall, including at least 6.0 in each component).
Fees and funding
Sustainable Development MSc (online) course fee: £12,660
Cost per module: £1,055
Fees can be paid at the start of the course or on a module-by-module basis. Students must pay the first module fee of £1,055 to secure their place on the course.
Course fees will remain fixed for 24 months from your initial course start date. Thereafter, the course fee will rise at a rate of 2.5% per calendar year (subject to rounding for administration purposes).
If you have previously graduated from an undergraduate, postgraduate or PhD course at the University of Sussex, you will be eligible for a 20% discount on this online course. (Terms and conditions apply.)
Sussex is 1st in the world for Development Studies, and thanks to our pioneering research and academic team, we have held the top spot for seven years running (QS World University Ranking by Subject 2017–2023).
Our interdisciplinary curriculum covers science, technology, economics, social sciences, and innovation studies, helping you to develop joined-up solutions to complex global challenges.
The comprehensive focus of the course will give you a broad knowledge base and skill set in sustainability, helping you access a variety of sustainability roles across sectors.
Through various practical exercises, you’ll engage with real case studies, giving you hands-on experience of analysing sustainable development policies and strategies for varied organisations.
You’ll meet international students from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds, benefitting from their unique perspectives in group projects, and forging valuable connections that could open doors to new career opportunities.
You’ll develop highly valued skills in policy analysis, research methods, and critical thinking, and enhance your employability in NGOs, government institutions, public and private businesses.
You’ll study 100% online and part-time, allowing you to upskill and earn a career-enhancing qualification without having to give up work or other important commitments.