Master of Arts in Sustainability Studies

at University of York United Kingdom

This degree is designed for students who would like to develop a strong philosophical dimension to their study of social and political sciences.

You'll be taught by world-leading academics across four departments and study the most up-to-date theories in social and political sciences. As your studies progress you'll have the flexibility to tailor your degree to allow you to focus on your own interests, from globalisation, human rights and the future of the welfare state to migration, equality and social justice.

You'll have the opportunity to contribute to your own high-profile seminar series and become involved in the dynamic student-run SPS Society. You'll be encouraged to take up an internship or work placement in which you'll get first-hand experience of the work you're interested in.

This course is ideal if you want an interdisciplinary approach to Ecology and you will have a wide range of options to tailor the course to your developing interests.

You’ll develop an understanding of the processes that occur within and between organisms, through to investigating global systems and the influences that drive changes in these settings. Ecology at York ranges from studying the fundamentals of evolution, to the structure of populations and communities, and applications in conservation and environmental biology. You will build a solid foundation in theoretical concepts, which you will supplement with valuable experience in the field, and we have a dedicated field course in each of the first three years of the programme. As an ecologist, your focus on understanding our ecosystems and the processes occurring in them will be vital in helping us to work towards sustainable and effective solutions around current and future global challenges, whether around climate change, feeding the world sustainably or tackling diseases.

Adding a year in industry or a year abroad are both an option with this course too, so you can benefit from the advantages that a year away can bring. The Department of Biology will provide you with the opportunity to learn in new, spacious and modern teaching laboratories which provide excellent facilities for practicals and small group project work, alongside our state-of-the-art computing facilities.

In studying linguistics you will be learning the science behind how we communicate. You’ll engage with the study of language on a conceptual level as well as the detailed level of raw linguistic data. You'll study syntax, semantics, phonetics, phonology and sociolinguistics, taught by world-leading academics whose expertise covers a range of areas of linguistics.

The combination of theory and practice will stimulate your critical thinking skills, foster your originality, and enable you to become a uniquely skilled analytical thinker and problem-solver. Your knowledge and understanding of how a language works, and how we communicate, will give you a solid foundation for many careers.  This flexible course gives you opportunities to customise your studies from the second year onwards.

The world needs better politics: better ways of distributing resources and resolving conflicts.

How can we do this when our engagement with politics is most often local and national? The politics of the future is haunted by those of the past. In order to imagine and move towards building a new future, an understanding of history must underpin national and international politics.

This interdisciplinary MA seeks to address these problems by bringing together politics and contemporary history, with a particular focus on transnational ideas and institutions.

British art making has been at the heart of a wide range of worldwide networks and dialogues, from the material culture of early medieval Britain, through the painting and sculpture of eighteenth-century and Victorian Britain, to British Modernism and Britart.

Investigate notions of national, imperial, cosmopolitan and global visual and material cultures; engage with debates about British and European cultural identity and study a variety of works from painting, sculpture and architecture, through to graphic art, design and craft. You can explore photography, installation, performance and contemporary works engaging with new media, digital and other innovative technologies.

We are one of the largest History of Art departments in the UK. We have developed successful partnerships with museums, galleries and country houses that will enrich your studies, and may offer you placement opportunities and privileged access to collections.

Our course will provide you with a detailed foundation in the key theories and questions in sociolinguistics, while giving you practical training in the techniques, methodologies, and quantitative analysis methods associated with this field.

You’ll analyse the ways in which social factors affect language, and investigate the social, geographical and stylistic differences in spoken language. You'll have the opportunity to develop your interest in areas including language change, language and gender, attitudes to language, language planning, bilingualism and sociophonetics. You will be able to study contemporary and historical data.

With world-class tutors you'll gain up-to-date knowledge of the field, and be introduced to research questions and methodologies. You'll also have the opportunity to conduct original research in sociolinguistics, and apply your skills and knowledge to linguistic data.

Sustainable solutions thus require knowledge of the complex interactions and trade-offs between environmental, economic, social and cultural sustainability. Our Masters course provides this essential interdisciplinary overview, allowing you to specialise in the sustainability of ecosystems, communities, landscapes, buildings and heritage, or to focus on the interactions between them.

An exciting collaboration between our Departments of Archaeology and Environment and Geography, you'll gain a fascinating insight into the sustainability of processes that take place over a few years to many thousands of years. Working across disciplines to address issues of current and future sustainability is both stimulating and challenging, requiring expertise from a range of subject areas. Our staff and students work together to create interdisciplinary teams, and our wide range of module options and guided independent research opportunities allow you to tailor your studies to your own interests and career ambitions.

Physics is the study of the fundamental forces of the Universe, understanding the nature of waves and particles, and the structure of matter.

You will develop advanced techniques for researching fundamental physics, scientific principles and methods. You'll investigate subjects like nanosystems, semiconductors, fusion plasmas, biophysics, and quantum computing.

You'll learn to analyse real-life problems, write scientific reports, communicate complex concepts, and design and perform experiments.

Work with world-renowned physicists with access to unique facilities like our astrocampus and the York Plasma Institute giving you unprecedented opportunities to observe and experiment, helping you develop skills essential for higher-level research.

On this course, you'll examine the motivations of people who commit crime and how societies attempt to control them. You'll learn how to analyse a wide range of data. You'll also gain a critical understanding and practical knowledge of a range of social research methods relevant to conducting criminological research.

After finishing your studies, you'll have the skills and knowledge required to pursue a successful career in academic research, criminal justice and related fields.

Development is an inherently political process of change that tests human relationships.

By exploring these relationships you’ll see the connections between violent and non-violent conflict, processes of development, and how they relate to the governance of our modern world.

This course combines a strong focus on the major theories of development with empirical analysis of the experiences of particular countries and regions. You’ll examine key conflict and development case studies and apply major theories of international development to deepen your understanding of local, national and global processes of change as part of this dynamic course.