The objectives are assessed through three themes: Methods and Techniques for Environmental Management; Understanding Environmental Change; Responding to Environmental Change, delivered through eight modules: Welcome to the Anthropocene; The Earth System and its Fundamental Processes; Global Change and the Biosphere; Human Systems and Environmental Change; Environmental Economics and Policy; Energy Systems and Climate Mitigation; Sustainable Responses to Environmental Change; Governing the Anthropocene.
Teaching takes place through lectures, seminars, workshops and field courses which provide in-depth exploration of key issues. The elective modules offer a tutorial-style teaching and discussion environment within smaller groups, based on a suite of contemporary research themes that reflect the specific interests of core faculty, research staff, and visiting scholars. The teaching aim is to foster knowledge, critical thinking, discussion and debate in an integrated setting, and to identify and explore theory, methods and practice in an academic space that encourages collaboration and critical dialogue. You will have approximately ten hours of core module and elective teaching per week during term time, with additional supported learning on occasional field trips. Additionally, you will be expected to undertake considerable self-directed learning to further and deepen your knowledge of the material introduced during class. You will also work on a thesis project with the support of a specialist supervisor. You will develop your ideas for dissertations during the first two terms and undertake the majority of the work in the final term and over the summer months.
Fieldwork and external visits are an important part of the teaching programme and, indicatively, these currently include coastal and marine environmental change sites, local woodlands, Lake District National Park, the Centre for Alternative Technology (renewable energy and sustainability technologies). All field trips are subject to change.
Dissertation
An independent and original dissertation is an integral component of the course. In order to equip you with the necessary skills to undertake high quality research, a suite of training activities are offered to develop key transferable skills in order for you to be able to execute high quality independent and original research, and expose you to applied research methods used widely in academic and professional research.
