Program Overview

Global Sustainable Development (MSc) 2025 entry

Overview

The MSc in Global Sustainable Development is a research-led programme that explores the tensions and synergies between different theories and approaches to sustainable development. Students will engage with sustainable development policy and practice on different scales (local, national, and international), and consider alternative frameworks and trajectories of sustainability.

Course Structure

• Duration: One year full-time
• School: Graduate School
• Fees:
  • UK: £14,850
  • Rest of the world: £29,990

Why Study This Course?

• Introduces different conceptualizations of sustainability and enables students to navigate an urgent and contested field.
• Rooted in critical interdisciplinary social science, this course addresses social and political responses to climate science and offers a remarkable richness and depth compared with conventional single-subject degrees.
• Core courses first use Development and then Nature as entry points into Sustainable Development.
• Our MSc focuses on the relationships between academia, policy, and society, and teaches writing for both academic and policy audiences.

Teaching and Assessment

• Teaching: Delivered through seminars, workshops, lectures, tutorials, and independent study.
• Assessment: A mix of essays, reports, policy briefs, presentations, practical exercises, reflective exercises, and exams.

Modules

• Compulsory:
  • Interrogating Sustainable Development: introduces the origins of the concept, as well as its key critiques and alternatives, using ‘development’ as a broad entry point to a famously vague term.
  • Sustainable development: from principles to practice: examines how doing sustainable development research with non-academic partners challenges us to engage with sustainability as an academic, policy and practical concern.
• Optional:
  • Contemporary Environmental Management
  • Population Change and Sustainable Development: Patterns, Processes and Politics
  • Capitalism, Development and Environment
  • Extractive Environments
  • Green Politics: theory and practice
  • Infrastructure
  • Sustainable Cities
  • Valuing Environments

Project

• The final part of the MSc is the end-of-degree project, which takes the form of a period of supervised independent research where students will explore a sustainable development topic of their choice.
• Students can choose to present their end-of-degree project in one of the following ways:
  • a policy report and policy brief that emphasises their ability to critically assess sustainable development policy and make convincing recommendations for policy changes
  • a written dissertation that emphasises their ability to plan and execute academically rigorous research (open to students with appropriate methodological experience)

Careers and Further Study

• Careers: The University of St Andrews’ global reputation makes its graduates highly valued by employers. The MSc in Global Sustainable Development provides subject knowledge and applied skills for a fast-growing sector.
• Further Study: St Andrews offers a vibrant and stimulating research environment. One of the great strengths of a St Andrews research degree is the collegiate atmosphere which enables access to expertise beyond your formal supervisors and the ability to conduct interdisciplinary research.

Entry Requirements

• Qualifications: A 2.1 Honours undergraduate degree. If you studied your first degree outside the UK, see the international entry requirements.
• English Language Proficiency: See English language tests and qualifications.
• Application Requirements:
  • A CV that includes your personal details with a history of your education and employment to date
  • A personal statement explaining why you have applied for this course, how the course relates to your personal or professional ambitions, and how your academic and professional background show you have the skills needed to work effectively at postgraduate level
  • A sample of your own, single-authored academic written work, such as an extract from a previous project, essay, or undergraduate dissertation (maximum 1000 words)
  • Two original signed academic references on headed paper
  • Academic transcripts and degree certificates

Scholarships and Funding

• GREAT Scholarship
• St Andrews Sanctuary Scholarship
• St Leonard's funding opportunities
• Graduate discount (15% off tuition fees)
• Geography and sustainable development scholarships