About the course
This is a vibrant postgraduate community, with strong international links. Our research partners are global, from UK universities to institutions in southern Africa, Denmark, Iceland, Australia and the USA. Our teaching is invigorated by work from several interdisciplinary research groups, like the Sheffield Centre for International Drylands Research, the Urban and Regional Policy Research Institute and the Sheffield Institute for International Development.
How we teach
Our staff are active researchers at the cutting-edge of their fields. That research informs our masters courses. As well as the usual lectures and seminars, there are practicals, lab classes, field trips and research projects.
Facilities and equipment
A new £1m Sediment-Solute Systems lab enables geochemical analysis of aqueous and solid phases, especially in the context of biogeochemistry. We have equipment for chromatography, UV spectrometry and flow injection/auto analysis.
Our sample preparation facilities enable digestion, pre-concentration by evaporation under vacuum, and tangential flow filtration. There are alpha and gamma counters, a laser particle sizer and a luminescence dating lab. Field equipment includes automatic water samplers, weather stations, data loggers and environmental process characterisation sensors.
We have high-quality petrological microscopes for examining geological samples. We have labs for spectrometry and for palaeontological preparation, and you’ll also have access to specialist facilities in other departments at the University.
Laptops, camcorders, tape recorders and transcribers are available for your fieldwork. Our postgraduate computer labs have networked workstations for GIS research and climate modelling, ARC/INFO, ERDAS software and specialist software for remote sensing. GIS facilities are also provided by the £5m Informatics Collaboratory for the Social Sciences.
Our new postgraduate media GIS suite has facilities for Skype, video conferencing, web design, video editing and creative media.
Fieldwork
Most of our courses involve fieldwork. The MPH, MSc and MA International Development take students on a 10-day field trip where they put their research skills into practice. Recent classes visited the West Pokot region of Kenya, urban and rural areas of Nepal, the suburbs of Cairo and India.
Core modules
Ideas and Practice in International Development; Research Design and Methods in International Development; Understanding Environmental Change; Key Issues in Environment and Development; Professional Skills for Development; Dissertation with Placement; International Development field Class, currently in either Kenya or Nepal.
Examples of optional modules
Data, Visualisation and GIS; Living with Climate Change in the Global South; The Political Economy of Natural Resource-led Development in the Global South; Using Policy to Strengthen Health Systems; Cities of Diversity; Cities of ‘the South’: planning for informality.
Teaching and assessment
There are seminars, lectures, workshops and reading groups. You’ll be assessed on your coursework assignments and a dissertation.
Visit the
MSc Environmental Change and International Development
page on the University of Sheffield website for more details!
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