Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford
Related material
Course information
Why apply for ECM?
About the students
Meet the teachers
How to apply
Scholarships and funding
Frequently asked questions
Student perspectives
Reflections from former students
The Alumni Atlas of Action. Find out where our alumni are working
Stories from the field. A student led field trip blog
Current students
External links
Course structure
The ECM programme is a 12 months taught masters which runs from October each year. The teaching component of the course is spread across three 8-week terms (starting October, January and April). The teaching comprises seven core modules, electives courses, fieldtrips and hands-on workshops which provide specialist training. The assessment process is by termly essays, three examination papers in the 3rd term linked to the core modules and a summer dissertation project.
Course Structure
October to January
Group Projects | Essay: Understanding environmental change
January to April
Essay | Group Projects: Responding to environmental change
April to October
Exams | Disseration: Methods and techniques for environmental management
Reading Groups
- Environmental Law
- Adaptation policy
- Marine fisheries
- Ecological seminars
Field Courses
- Climate change and land use
- Marine science and policy
- Alternative energy
- EU environment policy
- National Parks and cultural landscapes
Core Modules
- The earth system
- Ecosystems
- Economics of the environment
- Climate mitigation and energy
- Human systems and environmental change
- Responding to environmental change
- Governing the Anthropocene
Specialist Training
- Research methods
- Effective communication
- Cost-benefit, risk and life-cycle analysis
- Environmental modelling and GIS
- Environmental monitoring and data analysis
Elective Seminars
- Climate models
- Energy policy
- Ecosystem valuation
- Indigenous people and the environment
- Sustainable behaviour change
- GIS
- Species modelling
Course aims
The programme has three overarching aims:
Examine the nature, causes and impacts of major types of environmental change. How do these changes operate and interact on global, regional and local scales? How do they relate to critical social and ecological systems?
Examine the economic, legal, cultural, and ethical underpinnings of environmental responsibility and systemic solutions, including mitigation, adaptation, remediation, enhanced resource stewardship and other sustainable responses to environmental change at different scales and within different organisational contexts.
Empower environmental leaders to address the world's most pressing environmental problems through an understanding of and training in the key analytical and practical skills; and in a broad appreciation of earth systems and societies in relation to environmental change.
Core Modules
Overture: Welcome to the Anthropocene
| Global change and the biosphere |
| The Earth system |
| Economics of the environment |
| Human systems and environmental change |
| Energy systems and mitigating climate change |
| Sustainable responses to environmental change |
| Governing the anthropocene |
Specialist Training, Methods and Skills
| Research methods in the social and natural science |
| Effective communication |
| Cost-benefit, risk & life cycle analyses |
| Environmental monitoring and data analysis |
| Environmental modelling & GIS |
| Human dimensions and valuation of ecosystems & biodiversity |
| Other professional transferable skills |
Field Trips & Site Visits
| Renewable energy technologies |
| EU Parliament & Ministries |
| Natural resource management centres |
| Coastal & marine environmental change sites |
| Conservation in protected & industrial areas |
| Climate & local ecosystem interactions |
Dissertation
| 15,000 words, 1-to-1 supervision, 3+month exercise, often undertaken in conjunction with businesses, environmental organisations, and governments |
Elective Seminars (24+)
| ASEAN Environments |
| Behavioural Economics and Field Experiments |
| Climate Change: Solutions and Society |
| Environmental Accountability |
| Corporate Social & Environmental Accountability |
| Ecosystem Services for Development |
| Energy and the Environment |
| Environment and Development Challenges: Learning from the African drylands |
| Environmental Governance and Development |
| Environmental Participation: Involving lay publics in environmental science and policy |
| Flood Risk Management: Water Security in theory and practice |
| Gender, Geography and the Environments |
| Indigenous Peoples and Environments |
| International Environmental Law |
| Strategic Environmental Management |
| Urban Water and Wastewater |
| Advanced environmental economics: theories of growth, distribution and welfare |
| Analytical Skills in GIS |
| Cities, Mobility and Climate Change |
| Climate Change, Communication and the Media |
| Development, Environment and Health |
| The Geopolitics of Local Environmental Governance: What, Where and Who is the ‘Neighbourhood'? |
| Global Environmental Change and Food Systems |
| Governance, Land Use and Development |
| Modelling Hydrological and Water Resource Systems |
| Museums in the modern age: dead animals to decision-upport data |
| Rewilding and Its Place in Future Conservation Strategies |
| Supply Chain Governance |
| The Economics of Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity |
| Techniques for monitoring and modelling ecological responses of terrestrial ecosystems to global change |
| Transformation to Sustainability (T2S): Sharing Economy as the Lens |
Teaching methods and contact hours
The teaching is concentrated in the first two terms. The course is taught through a combination of lectures for core modules, small group teaching for elective courses (maximum class size 10), practical sessions, fieldtrips and study days. In each week, there are approximately 12-14 hours of formal contact time. For core modules, there are normally 8-10 hours of lectures per week, delivered through two-hour lecture sessions. Electives are normally delivered in 4-6 sessions across the term, each lasting 90 minutes to 2 hours. Individual extended reading is an important part of the course programme and up to 3 hours of reading may be set in preparation for each two-hour class. In weeks with fieldtrips or study days, the number of contact hours will be greater.
The ECI is an interdisciplinary unit within Oxford University researching the many dimensions of global environmental change.
Part of the School of Geography and the Environment.
Contact Us
Oxford University Centre for the Environment
South Parks Road
Oxford
OX1 3QY
Phone: +44 (0) 1865 275848
Email: enquiries@eci.ox.ac.uk
2023 © University of Oxford. All Rights Reserved. About this website | Privacy & Cookies | Web Accessibility
Page last modified: 22 Sep 2020, 16:37 BST | Email: webmaster@eci.ox.ac.uk