Environmental Hazards and Risk

Program Overview

---

Environmental Hazards and Risk

Overview

Our MA in Environmental Hazards and Risk takes a detailed look at a range of environmental hazards bringing devastation to many parts of the world, analysing the impact on society and studying how risks linked to events such as flooding, landslides, heatwaves and earthquakes, are managed.

Course Structure

Year 1 Modules

Core Modules:

• Understanding Risk: provides an overview of the key theories and concepts that reflect the interdisciplinary nature of risk involving human action and environmental events.
• Research Methods for Global Challenges: introduces students to a selection of social science research methods, such as interviewing, participatory research, thematic mapping, and critical data storytelling.
• Risk Frontiers: is delivered by the Institute of Hazard and Risk Research. This module looks at current risk research and provides training in the generic skills of interpreting, criticising and collating the emerging research.
• Social Dimensions of Risk and Resilience: offers advanced training in topics relevant to understanding the social dimensions of risk and resilience with a particular emphasis on environmental hazard, climate change, security, migration and insurance.
• Dissertation (Research or Vocational): builds on your learning in core and optional modules. It offers the option to develop your independent research skills through a research dissertation in which you carry out original independent research supported by our staff. Alternatively, you can choose the vocational dissertation route which combines research with collaborations or placements with external organisations.

Optional Modules:

• Spatial and Temporal Dimensions of Hazards: is a science-based module that considers issues relating to locations and timings, along with the key physical characteristics, of a variety of hazards.
• Hydro-meteorological Hazards: provides fundamental knowledge of hydro-meteorological hazards, with a focus on flood and drought risk, their causes and the changing environmental conditions that influence them, including projected climate change.

Learning and Teaching

We take an active approach to learning from the start. Teaching and learning on this course take place in a supportive environment in which you will be encouraged to actively engage with tutors and peers from day one, sharing your ideas and experiences.

The course is delivered using a mixture of lectures, seminars, tutorials, workshops and practical sessions, with lectures providing key information and the seminars developing further discussion. You can expect to undertake around eight hours of study during term time, including all assessments.

Assessment

Assessment will be conducted on an ongoing basis including a research-based or vocational dissertation in the final term.

All modules require the completion of coursework, including the traditional tools of assessment such as essays, presentations and reports but also other forms such as podcasts and portfolios featuring a compilation of work.

Entry Requirements

• An upper second-class degree (2:1).
• Band E English language requirements.

Application to the MA Environmental, Hazards and Risk requires:

• Transcripts of your qualifications
• English language test certificates if taken
• Personal statement (if not written directly into the portal)
• Scholarship documentation (if applying)

Alternative Qualifications

• Other UK qualifications
• EU qualifications
• International qualifications

International students who do not meet direct entry requirements for this degree might have the option to complete an International Foundation Year. Home students who do not meet our direct entry requirements, may be eligible for our Foundation Programme which offers multidisciplinary programmes to prepare you for a range of specified degree programmes.

Fees and Funding

Full Time Fees

• Home students: £14,250 per year
• EU students: £28,500 per year
• Island students: £14,250 per year
• International students: £28,500 per year

Part Time Fees

• Home students: £7,900 per year
• EU students: £15,700 per year
• Island students: £7,900 per year
• International students: £15,700 per year

The tuition fees shown are for one complete academic year of study and are set according to the academic year of entry. Fees will be subject to an annual inflationary increase and are expected to rise throughout the programme of study.

Scholarships and Bursaries

We are committed to supporting the best students irrespective of financial circumstances and are delighted to offer a range of funding opportunities.

Career Opportunities

Studying in a department with a global reputation for the quality of research, our postgraduates are well placed to continue research at a higher level or progress into a rewarding professional career.

Taught courses are designed to develop the transferable skills that are highly sought after by employers such as the ability to analyse and communicate complex data and make decisions, and our postgraduates are much valued in areas such as government, non-governmental organisations and the charity sector.

Other roles in which postgraduates make a real difference to people and communities include environmental consultancy, conservation, town planning, geopolitical risk analysis, market research, insurance, development work, health, public policy, social research, logistics, education, energy, utilities, tourism, banking, law, PR, IT.

Department Information

Geography at Durham explores the very real challenges facing the world, be they natural or a consequence of human activity. Through teaching and research in risk, climate, hazards and security, we provide in-depth insight into these problems and how they might be resolved using practical and sustainable solutions.

The Department of Geography is a global academic centre for the study of physical and human geography. Our high-quality research and our industry connections combine to create a learning experience underpinned by the theory and practice to take on the challenges we face as a result of natural events and human activity.

We provide a leading-edge environment in which to study, giving a learning experience that is tailored to suit particular interests. We offer MA and MSc degrees in Climate, Risk and Society and in Environmental Hazards and Risk, and an interdisciplinary MA degree in Risk, Security and Politics.

Our academic staff are experts in their field with research activity in the Department divided into seven clusters comprising Politics-State-Space, Economy and Culture, Urban Worlds, Geographies of Life as well as Sea Level, Ice and Climate, Catchments and Rivers, and Hazards and Surface Change.

The postgraduate community plays a crucial role in contributing to the Department’s research goals, by conducting original research and by learning from research-led teaching about understanding and implementing the process of turning policy into practice. An in-house conference provides the opportunity for postgraduates to present ideas.

Facilities

The Department of Geography is located on the main campus of Durham University at Lower Mountjoy, not far from the historic centre of the city with UNESCO World Heritage status.

Facilities are state-of-the-art after a £1.7 million investment and our laboratories are equipped with an extensive suite of analytical and geotechnical instruments which are overseen and supported by a team of dedicated technical staff.

Also available to postgraduates are a dedicated computer lab, world class library and research facilities, one of the few dedicated cartographic units in the region and field and labwork support.