MSc Sustainability

Why choose the MSc Sustainability at ARU?

• Develop your academic knowledge and apply it to real-world sustainability challenges.
• Study online and through five in-person 'residentials' in Cambridge and the Eden Project, Cornwall.
• Practice and explore your sustainability leadership competences through a Professional Development Placement.
• Learn from a cohort of like-minded individuals and from lecturers and tutors via experiential and active learning.
• Customise the research area of many assignments, and develop deep sustainability-related knowledge on a topic of your choice.
• Receive free student membership and access to ISEP materials, with eligibility to progress to Graduate Membership when you complete the course.

During this Masters degree you will learn about key sustainability challenges. You will explore how to address and manage the complexity and uncertainty inherent in them to make the best possible practical and policy decisions. In webinars and during the residentials you will meet inspirational leaders who are already doing just that.

The course can be undertaken full-time (over 1 year) and part-time (over 2 years) and is open to graduates from all disciplines.

You will join a cohort of like-minded individuals of all ages, cultural backgrounds and research interests. This diversity is one of the course’s greatest strengths, leading to opportunities to learn from each other and contribute your own expertise to discussions and activities.

This MSc is hybrid, meaning it is predominantly online with weekly interactive live sessions over lunchtimes, and online material to work through at a time that suits you. You also have five one-week residentials at ARU in Cambridge, and in Cornwall at the Eden Project where you will learn from experts in their field alongside your cohort of students. You'll also undertake a 165-hour Professional Development Placement, either at your existing workplace or somewhere new.

Our MSc Sustainability is structured around the UNESCO Sustainability Competences, eight key sustainability competences that are essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and are designed to be cross-cutting, interrelated, and applicable across disciplines. Through mapping systems, understanding complexity, and levers for change, you will have the space to develop key competences related to sustainability and critical thinking. You will practise and apply these competences within individual and group assignments, within a Professional Development Placement, and an independent research project.

When our students graduate they take up a wide variety of careers. Some use their prior experience and return to the business or sector they were familiar with, working with their new sustainability perspective to change it from the inside.

Others use the MSc Sustainability as an opportunity to start a new career or as the bridge to a change in career, becoming sustainability leaders in business, charities, governments and education.

Several of our past students have used this Masters as a stepping stone to set up or grow their own sustainable business.

Given the variety of the backgrounds of individuals joining the course, MSc Sustainability graduates move onto very diverse careers in all sectors such as policy, consultancy, research, business, and many others.

Examples of careers post-MSc are:

• Climate Officer in local government
• Programme Managers in large sustainability-related organisations
• Sustainability Consultants in large organisations
• Sustainability Officers in large organisations
• Research Fellow at research institutes
• PhD researchers at universities

Graduation doesn’t have to be the end of your time with us. You could choose to continue your academic career with a PhD in Sustainability at ARU. Take advantage of our Alumni Scholarship and save £400 on your fees.

While you’re studying here and after you graduate, you can access support through our dedicated Employability Service.