Environment, Politics and Development MSc

Our Environment, Politics and Development MSc provides an advanced theoretical understanding of the relationship between development problems and environmental issues. You will explore these relationships from the perspectives of political ecology, development geography and environmental governance. To illustrate these relationships, we use relevant case studies drawn from across the globe.

Key benefits

• Learn and interact with academic staff that have first-hand experience of development problems and environmental issues in contexts from around the globe.
• Appreciate critically the distinct disciplinary approaches to a dynamic and contested body of knowledge on development, politics and the environment.
• Develop awareness of contemporary development issues, problems and policies through engagement with development theory.
• Enhance your understanding and problem-solving abilities at the interface of environment and development by applying theoretical and practical knowledge from political theory, political ecology and an environmental justice lens.
• Gain critical analytical skills to uncover reciprocal relationships between changing natural environments and dynamic livelihood strategies, or the nature of power, difference and inequality within economic, social, physical and cultural environments.
• Develop interdisciplinary understanding of the ways in which the human and physical world is revealed through representations of space, place and landscape.
• Access opportunities to carry out original fieldwork either in the UK or overseas for your dissertation.
• Take part in excellent tutorial support, extensive module specific interactive teaching and regular classroom discussions.

Course essentials

Our Environment, Politics and Development MSc offers you a demanding and stimulating programme of study that focuses on the role of the environment in human development, with a particular focus on the global south. It teaches a lot of critical theory, with applied aspects. You’ll learn to look behind the headlines and strengthen your critical approach to developmental strategy and finance. It places an emphasis on developing knowledge and critical understanding. This is complemented with the development of a broad suite of intellectual and practical skills such as: - Assessing the relative merits of contrasting theories, explanations and policies - Conceptualising problems and identifying possible methods for their solution - Critically evaluating evidence - Critically analysing qualitative and quantitative data - Planning, designing and executing an individual piece of research, including the production of a thesis/report - Undertaking effective fieldwork as part of dissertation, if suitable - Employing a variety of social survey and interpretative methods for analysing information from the human world.

Base campuses

Strand Campus

Located on the north bank of the River Thames, the Strand Campus houses King's College London's arts and sciences faculties.

Waterloo Campus

Waterloo campus is home of the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery and facilities for other faculties

Regulating bodies

King's is regulated by the Office for Students

Entry requirements

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Teaching & structure

Teaching methods - what to expect

Lectures

Seminars

Self-Study

Curious to find out more? Access on-demand content including taster lectures and talks, and meet our current staff and students on our subject hub page.

We will use a delivery method that will ensure students have a rich, exciting experience from the start. Face-to-face teaching will be complemented and supported with innovative technology so that students also experience elements of digital learning and assessment.

We will teach you through a combination of lectures and seminars, typically have 20 hours per module. We also expect you to undertake 130 hours of independent study for each module.

Module	Lectures, seminars and feedback	Self-study
Per 15-credit taught module	16-30 hours.	120-134 hours (some modules may involve lab work or e-learning which would require less self-guided learning).
Dissertation module	Usually 5 contact hours of one-to-one or group consultation with supervisors.	595 hours of self-study and project work.

Typically, one credit equates to 10 hours of work.

Assessment

• Coursework
• Written Examinations
• Practical Examinations
• Essays
• Oral Presentations
• Lab Work
• Examinations
• Dissertation

Your performance will be assessed through a combination of coursework and written/practical examinations. Forms of assessment may typically include essays and other written assignments, oral presentations, lab work and occasionally by examination, depending on the modules selected. All students also undertake a research-based dissertation of 12,000 words.

Structure

Required modules

Programmes are divided into modules. You will take modules totalling 180-190 credits as outlined below. King’s College London reviews the modules offered on a regular basis to provide up-to-date, innovative and relevant programmes of study. Therefore, modules offered may change, and not all optional modules given below are offered every year. You are required to take the following modules:

Dissertation (60 Credits)

Environmental Justice and Governance (15 credits)

Fundamentals of Environment, Politics and Development (15 credits)

Practising Social Research (15 credits)

Research Design and Project Management (15 credits)

Optional modules

Please note that for international students, UK Government guidelines are currently more restrictive for those holding part-time visas than full-time visas. If you hold a student visa for a part-time programme, you will not have the right to undertake any work, paid or unpaid, in the UK. Therefore, the Internship (Environment & Society) module is only available to full-time overseas students but not part-time overseas students, as the UK government considers it unpaid work. The Internship module is also available to full- or part-time home students. In addition, students are required to take 60-70 credits from a range of optional modules which may typically include:

Climate: Science and Society (15 credits)

Environment, Livelihoods and Development in the 'South' (15 credits)

Environmental Science and Policymaking (15 credits)

Environmental Science for Sustainability (15 credits)

Geopolitics of Natural Resource Disputes (15 credits)

Resilience, Adaptation and Development (15 Credits)

Risk Management and Governance (15 credits)

Risk Perception, Communication and Behaviour Change (15 credits)

Security and the Global Natural Environment (15 credits)

Sustainability in Practice (15 credits)

Tourism and Development (15 credits)

Tourism, Conservation and the Environment (15 credits)

Vulnerability, Development and Disasters (15 credits)

Water Sustainability, Society and Governance (15 credits)

Other Optional Modules Available to Students on this Programme:

• Any Level 7 (Masters) modules offered in the Department of Geography, including those listed above. For students with a physical geography or STEM background, or who wish to specialise in aspects of environmental science or interdisciplinary work, we also recommend the following choices:

Earth Observation and Remote Sensing for Sustainability (15 Credits)

Environmental Dynamics in the Anthropocene (15 credits)

Fundamentals of Climate Change (15 credits)

GIS and Spatial Data Science (15 Credits)

Modelling Environmental Change (15 credits)

Risk Analysis: Science and Applications (15 Credits)

• Any Level 7 (Masters) modules offered in the King’s Lau China Institute on the MSc China and Globalisation, subject to approvals.
• Up to 20 credits of Level 7 (Master’s) modules from any King’s Departments or Institutes outside of Geography, subject to approvals.

 

Part-Time Students

Part-time students are advised to take 75-90 credits of taught modules in their first year, including Fundamentals of Environment, Politics and Development and Environmental Justice and Governance, thereby allowing enough time to focus on the dissertation in their second year. Students are normally advised to take Practising Social Research in their second year, but that can be taken in the first year, should students have strong reasons to do so and have the agreement of their Programme Director.

Research Design and Project Management should be taken in the second year.

King’s College London reviews the modules offered on a regular basis to provide up-to-date, innovative and relevant programmes of study. Therefore, modules offered may change. We suggest you keep an eye on the course finder on our website for updates.

Please note that modules with a practical component will be capped due to educational requirements, which may mean that we cannot guarantee a place to all students who elect to study this module.

Careers

Employability

On completion of the Environment, Politics and Development MSc programme you will have attained a range of knowledge and skills appropriate to careers in research, management and consultancy in organisations engaged in the environment and development field in developing countries, as well as generic skills opening the way to more general employment opportunities for M-level graduates.  Many of our graduates have gone on to undertake further graduate study and work as research assistants for international development agencies. There are also good career opportunities with government agencies, international and national non-governmental organisations and academic research institutes.

Fees & Funding

Tuition Fees

UK:

Full time: £11,040 per year (2022/23)

Part time: £5,520 per year (2022/23)

International:

Full time: £24,660 per year (2022/23)

Part time: £12,730 per year (2022/23)

These tuition fees may be subject to additional increases in subsequent years of study, in line with King’s terms and conditions.

Deposit

When you receive an offer for this course you will be required to pay a non-refundable deposit to secure your place. The deposit will be credited towards your total fee payment.

The UK deposit is £500.

The INTERNATIONAL deposit is £2,000. 

• If you receive an offer on or before 31 March, payment is due by 25 April 2022.

• If you receive an offer between 1 April and 30 June, payment is due within one month of receiving the offer.

• If you receive an offer between 1 July and 31 July, payment is due within two weeks of receiving the offer.

• If you receive an offer between 1 August and 21 August, payment is due within one week of receiving the offer.

• If you receive an offer from 22 August onwards, payment is due within three days of receiving the offer.

If you are a current King’s student in receipt of the King's Living Bursary you are not required to pay a deposit to secure your place on the programme. Please note, this will not change the total fees payable for your chosen programme.

Please visit our web pages on fees and funding for more information.

Additional Costs

In addition to your tuition costs, you can also expect to pay for:

• Books if you choose to buy your own copies 
• Clothing for optional course related events and competitions
• Library fees and fines 
• Personal photocopies
• Printing course handouts
• Society membership fees
• Stationery 
• Travel costs for travel around London and between campuses
• Graduation costs
• Some modules include the option to undertake other short day-trip fieldwork. These fieldwork options will enhance the modules, but they are not assessed as part of the module. The additional costs for short day-trip fieldwork would typically not exceed £50 per year. 
• Costs may be incurred for dissertation work if fieldwork and/or laboratory materials are needed for the chosen study topic, but such work is not mandatory and would not impact academic success if an alternative approach to dissertation research is taken.

Funding

• Course essentials
• Entry requirements
• Teaching & structure
• Careers
• Fees & Funding

Our Environment, Politics and Development MSc offers you a demanding and stimulating programme of study that focuses on the role of the environment in human development, with a particular focus on the global south. It teaches a lot of critical theory, with applied aspects. You’ll learn to look behind the headlines and strengthen your critical approach to developmental strategy and finance. It places an emphasis on developing knowledge and critical understanding. This is complemented with the development of a broad suite of intellectual and practical skills such as: - Assessing the relative merits of contrasting theories, explanations and policies - Conceptualising problems and identifying possible methods for their solution - Critically evaluating evidence - Critically analysing qualitative and quantitative data - Planning, designing and executing an individual piece of research, including the production of a thesis/report - Undertaking effective fieldwork as part of dissertation, if suitable - Employing a variety of social survey and interpretative methods for analysing information from the human world.

Base campuses

Strand Campus

Located on the north bank of the River Thames, the Strand Campus houses King's College London's arts and sciences faculties.

Waterloo Campus

Waterloo campus is home of the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery and facilities for other faculties

Regulating bodies

King's is regulated by the Office for Students

Loading...

Teaching methods - what to expect

Lectures

Seminars

Self-Study

Curious to find out more? Access on-demand content including taster lectures and talks, and meet our current staff and students on our subject hub page.

We will use a delivery method that will ensure students have a rich, exciting experience from the start. Face-to-face teaching will be complemented and supported with innovative technology so that students also experience elements of digital learning and assessment.

We will teach you through a combination of lectures and seminars, typically have 20 hours per module. We also expect you to undertake 130 hours of independent study for each module.

Module	Lectures, seminars and feedback	Self-study
Per 15-credit taught module	16-30 hours.	120-134 hours (some modules may involve lab work or e-learning which would require less self-guided learning).
Dissertation module	Usually 5 contact hours of one-to-one or group consultation with supervisors.	595 hours of self-study and project work.

Typically, one credit equates to 10 hours of work.

Assessment

• Coursework
• Written Examinations
• Practical Examinations
• Essays
• Oral Presentations
• Lab Work
• Examinations
• Dissertation

Your performance will be assessed through a combination of coursework and written/practical examinations. Forms of assessment may typically include essays and other written assignments, oral presentations, lab work and occasionally by examination, depending on the modules selected. All students also undertake a research-based dissertation of 12,000 words.

Structure

Required modules

Programmes are divided into modules. You will take modules totalling 180-190 credits as outlined below. King’s College London reviews the modules offered on a regular basis to provide up-to-date, innovative and relevant programmes of study. Therefore, modules offered may change, and not all optional modules given below are offered every year. You are required to take the following modules:

Dissertation (60 Credits)

Environmental Justice and Governance (15 credits)

Fundamentals of Environment, Politics and Development (15 credits)

Practising Social Research (15 credits)

Research Design and Project Management (15 credits)

Optional modules

Please note that for international students, UK Government guidelines are currently more restrictive for those holding part-time visas than full-time visas. If you hold a student visa for a part-time programme, you will not have the right to undertake any work, paid or unpaid, in the UK. Therefore, the Internship (Environment & Society) module is only available to full-time overseas students but not part-time overseas students, as the UK government considers it unpaid work. The Internship module is also available to full- or part-time home students. In addition, students are required to take 60-70 credits from a range of optional modules which may typically include:

Climate: Science and Society (15 credits)

Environment, Livelihoods and Development in the 'South' (15 credits)

Environmental Science and Policymaking (15 credits)

Environmental Science for Sustainability (15 credits)

Geopolitics of Natural Resource Disputes (15 credits)

Resilience, Adaptation and Development (15 Credits)

Risk Management and Governance (15 credits)

Risk Perception, Communication and Behaviour Change (15 credits)

Security and the Global Natural Environment (15 credits)

Sustainability in Practice (15 credits)

Tourism and Development (15 credits)

Tourism, Conservation and the Environment (15 credits)

Vulnerability, Development and Disasters (15 credits)

Water Sustainability, Society and Governance (15 credits)

Other Optional Modules Available to Students on this Programme:

• Any Level 7 (Masters) modules offered in the Department of Geography, including those listed above. For students with a physical geography or STEM background, or who wish to specialise in aspects of environmental science or interdisciplinary work, we also recommend the following choices:

Earth Observation and Remote Sensing for Sustainability (15 Credits)

Environmental Dynamics in the Anthropocene (15 credits)

Fundamentals of Climate Change (15 credits)

GIS and Spatial Data Science (15 Credits)

Modelling Environmental Change (15 credits)

Risk Analysis: Science and Applications (15 Credits)

• Any Level 7 (Masters) modules offered in the King’s Lau China Institute on the MSc China and Globalisation, subject to approvals.
• Up to 20 credits of Level 7 (Master’s) modules from any King’s Departments or Institutes outside of Geography, subject to approvals.

 

Part-Time Students

Part-time students are advised to take 75-90 credits of taught modules in their first year, including Fundamentals of Environment, Politics and Development and Environmental Justice and Governance, thereby allowing enough time to focus on the dissertation in their second year. Students are normally advised to take Practising Social Research in their second year, but that can be taken in the first year, should students have strong reasons to do so and have the agreement of their Programme Director.

Research Design and Project Management should be taken in the second year.

King’s College London reviews the modules offered on a regular basis to provide up-to-date, innovative and relevant programmes of study. Therefore, modules offered may change. We suggest you keep an eye on the course finder on our website for updates.

Please note that modules with a practical component will be capped due to educational requirements, which may mean that we cannot guarantee a place to all students who elect to study this module.

Employability

On completion of the Environment, Politics and Development MSc programme you will have attained a range of knowledge and skills appropriate to careers in research, management and consultancy in organisations engaged in the environment and development field in developing countries, as well as generic skills opening the way to more general employment opportunities for M-level graduates.  Many of our graduates have gone on to undertake further graduate study and work as research assistants for international development agencies. There are also good career opportunities with government agencies, international and national non-governmental organisations and academic research institutes.

Tuition Fees

UK:

Full time: £11,040 per year (2022/23)

Part time: £5,520 per year (2022/23)

International:

Full time: £24,660 per year (2022/23)

Part time: £12,730 per year (2022/23)

These tuition fees may be subject to additional increases in subsequent years of study, in line with King’s terms and conditions.

Deposit

When you receive an offer for this course you will be required to pay a non-refundable deposit to secure your place. The deposit will be credited towards your total fee payment.

The UK deposit is £500.

The INTERNATIONAL deposit is £2,000. 

• If you receive an offer on or before 31 March, payment is due by 25 April 2022.

• If you receive an offer between 1 April and 30 June, payment is due within one month of receiving the offer.

• If you receive an offer between 1 July and 31 July, payment is due within two weeks of receiving the offer.

• If you receive an offer between 1 August and 21 August, payment is due within one week of receiving the offer.

• If you receive an offer from 22 August onwards, payment is due within three days of receiving the offer.

If you are a current King’s student in receipt of the King's Living Bursary you are not required to pay a deposit to secure your place on the programme. Please note, this will not change the total fees payable for your chosen programme.

Please visit our web pages on fees and funding for more information.

Additional Costs

In addition to your tuition costs, you can also expect to pay for:

• Books if you choose to buy your own copies 
• Clothing for optional course related events and competitions
• Library fees and fines 
• Personal photocopies
• Printing course handouts
• Society membership fees
• Stationery 
• Travel costs for travel around London and between campuses
• Graduation costs
• Some modules include the option to undertake other short day-trip fieldwork. These fieldwork options will enhance the modules, but they are not assessed as part of the module. The additional costs for short day-trip fieldwork would typically not exceed £50 per year. 
• Costs may be incurred for dissertation work if fieldwork and/or laboratory materials are needed for the chosen study topic, but such work is not mandatory and would not impact academic success if an alternative approach to dissertation research is taken.

Funding

Application closing date guidance