MSc Environmental Assessment and Management

Prepare for a career in environmental management with this vocational course that focuses on the key skills involved.

You’ll learn from international experts how to properly evaluate the potential impacts of proposed policies, plans or projects, drawing on best practice from around the world. Learn through doing, based on an approach of applying theory in practice on a weekly basis, and through a field course.

This course is ideal for anyone who values the socio-economic environment and wishes to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development.

You will develop your research, communication, teamwork, and analytical skills - giving you the necessary skills for a career in environmental consultancies, decision makers, regulators, statutory consultees, and NGOs, amongst others.

OVERVIEW

On this MSc course you’ll explore why and how we use environmental assessment, the consequences of good and bad practice and what different stakeholders expect from it.

You’ll investigate case studies to clearly illustrate how environmental assessment works to deliver more sustainable outcomes. These include (amongst others):

• Planning a strategy for a new deep coal mine
• Planning a stakeholder engagement strategy
• Working out the likely impacts of a biomass power station
• Conducting a phase 1 habitat survey
• Carrying out a sustainability appraisal of a land use plan

You’ll learn to connect the environmental process with the operational stages of development by examining environmental management plans to ensure the findings are implemented. And you’ll experience the challenges associated with developing and applying practical skills by conducting fieldwork in all weathers, interviewing members of the public, presenting findings in front of your peers, and writing environmental management plans allocating responsibilities and timings.

Whether your background is earth sciences, or social sciences, the course is still relevant. There are no specific prerequisites as the focus is on understanding and improving environmental assessment through the core modules, and a wide range of optional modules that offer additional employability skills associated with specific impact prediction practice.