MSc Sustainability (Environmental Politics & Policy)

Octavio Valezquez, 08/09 PhD student, University of Leeds

MSc Sustainability (Environmental Politics & Policy)

"An inspiring, challenging and truly comprehensive programme on environmental politics and policy! The course addresses key issues and trends which are at the core of on-going academic and policy debates on how to plan, design and implement effective policies for dealing with pressing environmental dilemmas facing humanity at different scales. Framed within the broader context of sustainability research, the programme embraces a genuine inter-disciplinary conception of environmental politics, drawing insights from a number of disciplines from both the natural and the social sciences. The programme successfully transcends the conventional division of policy and science which has pre-empted the effective integration of environmental and social concerns in sustainability decision-making and led to poor environmental performance across social scales.

Whether you want to make a career in politics or in the academia, the programme equips you with a range of methodological, theoretical and practical tools which can be applied in a variety of working environments. My personal experience as a recent graduate of the programme has been particularly successful. Shortly after graduation, I managed to get a job as a policy officer in an important international non-governmental organisation in Mexico, and some months later I was admitted as a PhD student at the School of Earth and Environment (I am back again!), where I expect to fully exploit my research potential in the environmental politics field."