Sustainable Lands and Cities MSc, PgCert, PgDip

Students on this programme study the following:

• Core courses (20 credits) specific to your programme.
• EFI core courses (40 credits) which teach the essential, critical and hands-on data skills, climate change understanding, enquiry methods, ethical and creative capacities needed to underpin your programme-based studies.
• A wide choice of short 10 credit optional courses (60 credits), at least 2 of which must be on topics related to your programme, with scope to study across the entire portfolio
• A project (taking the form of a 20-credit ‘integration and project planning’ course, and a 40-credit final project).

Core courses

You will take the following 10 credit core courses for the MSc programme Sustainable Lands and Cities

• Envisioning Sustainable Lands and Cities
• Evaluating Sustainable Lands and Cities

EFI core courses

You will also take the following 10 credit EFI core courses, which are compulsory for students across all Edinburgh Futures Institute’s Postgraduate Futures programmes:

• Interdisciplinary Futures
• Ethical Data Futures
• And choose 1 of the following: Insights Through Data OR Text Remix OR Understanding the Climate Crisis
• And choose 1 of the following: Representing Data OR Building Near Futures

On EFI core courses you will work in cross-disciplinary teams with students from other EFI programmes. You will learn to collect, manage and analyse computational datasets, and to use emerging methodologies for mapping and designing the future. You will also learn the fundamentals of data ethics, and how to use creative skills in the analysis and representation of data-informed and qualitative inquiry.

Optional courses

Edinburgh Futures Institute offers a wide range of more than 40 optional courses taught by academic staff from many different discipline areas, including those associated with your programme. The exact courses will vary from year to year – in 2023-24 the courses associated with your programme may include:

• Land Communities and Power
• The EcoCity
• Regenerating Place
• A Systemic Approach to Sustainability
• Data, Mobility and Infrastructure

Optional courses from across the EFI postgraduate portfolio cover a range of themes and topics, such as:

• Critical perspectives on how new technologies are changing society
• Data, programming and research skills that advance the skills taught in the EFI shared core
• How new and rapidly changing technologies and data sources are transforming the future of democracy
• What the future of education might look like
• How narratives drive the way we understand the world
• Bringing service design and service management together to build change in a data-driven society
• Current challenges and futures for the creative industries

The project

In your final project, you will apply your learning in depth to a domain, issue or concern which drives you. It can be based on your own personal or professional interests, defined by your employer, sponsored by one of EFI’s industry, government or community partners, or aligned to one of our research programmes.

You will be able to submit your final project as a written piece of work, or combine text with other forms as appropriate – for example, video, visualisation, a digital artefact, performance, or code.

You will identify your project topic relatively early on in the programme, and work on it in parallel with the taught courses. We expect you to take an interdisciplinary approach to your project in order to connect with the creative, data and future-orientated nature of the Futures Institute.

Part-time and full-time options

Full-time students on the programme take these courses in one year. Part-time students take the same courses as full-time students, over either two or three years:

• For the 2-year version, students take 80 credits of courses in year 1 and 100 credits (including the project) in year 2.
• For the 3-year versions, students take 120 credits of courses over years 1 and 2 (with up to 80 credits per year in each year), and then take the project (60 credits) in year 3.

Students can also study towards a Postgraduate Certificate or Postgraduate Diploma:

• Students have two years to undertake the Postgraduate Diploma, taking the same taught courses as students on the MSc, but not the project. They will take a total of 120 credits of courses - between 40 and 80 in each year.
• Students have one year to undertake the Postgraduate Certificate, taking 60 credits of courses, including between 10 and 40 credits of the EFI ‘shared core’ courses, between 20 and 50 credits of programme-specific courses (either the programme core courses or optional courses), and up to 30 credits from the broader suite of EFI optional courses.

(Revised 6 February 2023 to restructure presentation of courses and correct number of credits)

Find out more about compulsory and optional courses

We link to the latest information available. Please note that this may be for a previous academic year and should be considered indicative.

On successful completion of this programme, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• how data science and technological change can contribute to effective sustainable strategies.
• the sustainable characteristics of lands and cities and the interplay of rural and urban environments.
• the interdisciplinary contexts in which sustainable development strategies can be applied.
• how sustainability and consumption narratives are created and communicated in an interdisciplinary way
• the quantitative means by which sustainable strategies can be created, tested and validated.

The core elements of this programme address the data and higher-order skills we know are important for the future of work, confident and critical citizenship, and a thriving, just society. Graduates will be able to work collaboratively to create and execute sustainable strategies in the workplace. Our graduates will have cross-disciplinary skills and understanding to support decision-making in complex environments.

Graduates have a range of career opportunities available, both for existing professionals and newer entrants to the job market including:

• Public, private and voluntary sector organisations with an increasing need to respond and create sustainable development policy, drivers and targets.
• Consultancy and environmental planning sector which is developing multidisciplinary interventions to address and mitigate climate change
• Businesses and commercial operators looking to anticipate and engage with new perceptions and policy frameworks for climate change.

Graduates of this programme will be able to:

• create commercial and sustainable strategies to meet both business needs and ethical requirements.
• respond to a broad range of challenges applicable in different professions and organisations.
• specialise in sustainable development across a range of sectors and roles, for example in planning, engineering, design, project management, the environmental sciences, public administration, law and advocacy.

What does interdisciplinary study mean?

Interdisciplinary study is at the heart of the EFI programmes. It means the ability to synthesise and apply knowledge and skills from across different disciplines, and is crucial to addressing many current complex challenges and planetary-scale issues.

We support you to develop interdisciplinary perspectives in different ways. For example, the EFI shared core courses draw on diverse disciplines to support you to work creatively and ethically with all kinds of data. Each programme develops interdisciplinary perspectives in the ways most appropriate to their specific domain and focus. And finally – because you will have such wide choice in the optional courses you choose to take in EFI – you will have the flexibility to design your own disciplinary pathway through your studies, integrating your insights and reflecting on their interdisciplinary power through your project-related work.

Flexible study choices

You will have a lot of flexibility in how you choose to study in EFI. All the core and optional courses offered for this programme, and almost all the broader portfolio of optional courses, are taught in ‘fusion’ mode: a distinctive approach which allows you to combine on-campus with online study, and teaches on-campus and online students together as a single cohort.

As a full-time, on-campus student you may choose to study most of your courses on-campus, but you will have some freedom to choose to study online. Please note however that full-time students on study visas have particular attendance and engagement requirements and need to be based entirely on-campus.

If you are considering full-time online study, please note that all courses require significant synchronous engagement in the classroom. Get in touch with us with questions before applying.

You can choose to study on a full-time basis over one year, or part-time over two or three years. You can register for a full MSc, or for a Postgraduate Diploma or Postgraduate Certificate. Part-time students can choose to study either entirely on-campus, online or via a combination of the two.

How you will learn in EFI

The EFI approach to teaching places student experience and choice at its heart and connects global cohorts in new ways.

Students study in teaching spaces and digital learning environments designed to enable on-site/online sharing of teaching and learning activity. Your classes and contributions will be recorded and livestreamed so that they can be shared – and learning communities built – across modes and time-zones.

Students studying online will have a presence in on-site classrooms (via video, audio and text in different forms), and students studying on-campus will be able to work with diverse teams located across the globe. All courses require significant synchronous engagement in the classroom. While there may be opportunities to engage in some activities asynchronously from different time zones, applicants should be aware of the requirement to join live classes at particular times. Please get in touch with us to discuss your particular circumstances before applying.

All students will have a presence in the digital spaces where teaching happens – video-based classes, real-time collaboration spaces, live chats, asynchronous forums, shared exhibition and blogging spaces and more.

• Fusion Teaching Privacy Notice

Teaching methods will include:

• group work
• expert lectures both live and live-streamed
• data skills and programming workshops online and on-campus
• on-site and virtual drop-ins
• hybrid seminars
• interactive journal clubs
• external stakeholder challenges and code-alongs
• data visualisation exercises

Apart from the shared core, most EFI courses are delivered in intensive two-day blocks of teaching and learning activity, combined with pre- and post-intensive wraparound activity that will include a range of scheduled and self-directed activities (for example, group project activities, reading, and assessment).

How do I apply

You must submit one reference with your application.

We will decide which applications to offer places to on the basis of:

• Educational achievement
• Professional experience (where relevant)
• Quality of personal statement

Your personal statement should include why you are interested in studying on this particular programme and – if relevant – how it will support your career development. The Edinburgh Futures Institute provides a space where students can pursue projects on issues they care about, so it would also be helpful (though not essential) if you could indicate the area on which you would most like to focus during your time in EFI.

Find out more about the general application process for postgraduate programmes:

• How to apply

These entry requirements are for the 2023/24 academic year and requirements for future academic years may differ. Entry requirements for the 2024/25 academic year will be published on 2 October 2023.

A UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, in any discipline.

We will also consider your application if you have other professional qualifications or experience; please contact us to check before you apply. In particular, we welcome applications from professionals with experience (e.g. working in companies, government, or third sector organisations) designing or implementing projects, programmes, or policies that aim to diminish inequalities.

Students from China

This degree is Band C.

• Postgraduate entry requirements for students from China

International qualifications

Check whether your international qualifications meet our general entry requirements:

• Entry requirements by country

English language requirements

You must demonstrate a level of English language competency at a level that will enable you to succeed in your studies, regardless of your nationality or country of residence.

English language tests

We accept the following English language qualifications at the grades specified:

• IELTS Academic: total 7.0 with at least 6.5 in each component.
• TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition): total 100 with at least 23 in each component. We do not accept TOEFL MyBest Score to meet our English language requirements.
• C1 Advanced (CAE) / C2 Proficiency (CPE): total 185 with at least 176 in each component.
• Trinity ISE: ISE III with passes in all four components.
• PTE Academic: total 70 with at least 62 in each component.

Your English language qualification must be no more than three and a half years old from the start date of the programme you are applying to study, unless you are using IELTS, TOEFL, Trinity ISE or PTE, in which case it must be no more than two years old.

Degrees taught and assessed in English

We also accept an undergraduate or postgraduate degree that has been taught and assessed in English in a majority English speaking country, as defined by UK Visas and Immigration:

• UKVI list of majority English speaking countries

We also accept a degree that has been taught and assessed in English from a university on our list of approved universities in non-majority English speaking countries (non-MESC).

• Approved universities in non-MESC

If you are not a national of a majority English speaking country, then your degree must be no more than three and a half years old at the beginning of your programme of study.

Find out more about our language requirements:

• English language requirements

• EFI funding opportunities

Search for scholarships and funding opportunities:

• Search for funding

Search for scholarships and funding opportunities:

• Search for funding