Climate Change: Environment, Science and Policy

Course detail Description

The Climate Change: Environment, Science & Policy MSc is a flexible course allowing you to study either a Policy or a Science pathway. Our course will provide you with an in-depth understanding of the processes and the nature of environmental changes occurring in the Earth’s terrestrial, hydrological and atmospheric environments. You will also develop essential research, analysis and critical-thinking skills that will help you to understand and interpret scientific evidence and also respond to the problems associated with global and regional environmental changes in the Earth’s system.

The study course is made up of optional and required modules and you must take the minimum of 180 credits for the course. If you are studying full-time, you will complete the course in one year, from September to September. If you are studying part-time, your course will take two years to complete. You will take the required combination of required and optional modules over this period of time, with the dissertation in your second year.

Teaching

We will teach you through a combination of lectures and seminars, and you will typically have 20 hours of this per module. We also expect you to undertake 180 hours of independent study for each module. For your 12,000 word dissertation, we will provide four workshops and five hours of one-to-one supervision to complement your 587 hours of independent study.

As part of a two-year schedule, part-time students typically take 40-credits of the required taught modules and 40 credits of optional module in year 1. They will then take a 60 credit dissertation module and 40 credit optional modules in year 2. Typically, one credit equates to 10 hours of work.

Assessment

Performance on taught modules in the Geography Department is normally assessed through 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.

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Structure

Year 1

Courses are divided into modules. You will normally take modules totalling 180 -210 credits.

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 this course page for updates.

You are required to take the following module:

• Dissertation in Climate Change: Environment, Science & Policy (60 credits)

Policy pathway

If you choose the Policy pathway, you are also required to take the following modules:

• Practising Social Research (20 credits)
• Fundamentals of Climate Change (20 credits)
• Environmental Science and Policymaking (20 credits)

Science pathway

If you choose the Science pathway, you are also required to take the following modules:

• Methods for Environmental Research (20 credits)
• Fundamentals of Climate Change (20 credits)
• Environmental Dynamics in Anthropocene (20 credits)

If you are taking the course part-time, you should plan to take the required modules Practising Social Research or Methods for Environmental Research (depending on pathway) as well as Fundamentals of Climate Change in Year 1 and the Dissertation in Climate Change: Environment, Science & Policy.

In addition, you are required to take 60–90 credits from a range of optional modules.

Policy pathway

If you choose the Policy Pathway, optional modules may typically include:

• Globalisation & the Environment (40 credits)
• Environmental Internship (20 credits)
• Environmental Actors & Politics (20 credits)
• Environmental Science & Policymaking (20 credits)
• Community, Vulnerability & Disaster Risk (20 credits) (prerequisite: Disasters & Development either through taking the module fully or through auditing)
• Water, Security & the Environment (20 credits)
• Climate: Science & History (20 credits)
• Disasters & Development (20 credits)
• Risk Governance (20 credits)
• Risk Communication (20 credits)
• Environmental Processes and Management (20 credits)
• Water Resources & Water Policy (20 credits)
• Environmental Processes and Management (20 credits)

Science pathway

If you choose the Science pathway, optional modules may typically include:

• Environmental Remote Sensing (20 credits)
• Modelling Environmental Change (20 credits)
• Monitoring Environmental Change (20 credits)
• Environment Internship (20 credits)
• Environmental Science and Policymaking (20 credits)
• Climate: Science and History (20 credits)
• Environmenal Processes and Management (20 credits)
• Environmental GIS (20 credits)
• Environmental Research Design & Application (20 credits)

You will then take further modules to bring your total amount of credits to 180 from a wide range of optional modules that may typically include:

• Any of the prescribed modules listed above
• Any Level 7 (master’s) modules offered in the Department of Geography
• Up to 20 credits from Level 7 (master’s) modules offered across the university, subject to approval.