Electives and Management

Elective Programme

Students also choose four elective modules from a list of around 20 topics offered by the Centre for Sustainable Development, the Engineering Department and other Departments within the University. This allows individuals to tailor their studies to their own needs, providing the flexibility to add more technical depth or explore wider areas in policy, management, and planning and assessment topics. This flexibility is a major strength of the programme.

Opportunities exist to study the way policy, legislation and government set the framework within which engineering solutions must be delivered, and for those interested in work in developing countries there are modules on international development and water management under climate change. Students can also study in depth some of the technologies being developed to help engineers implement sustainability building physics or architectural engineering. 

Other modules deal with the circular economy and emerging markets, whilst opportunities also exist to select combinations of modules relating to negotiation skills, management of technology, policy design and evaluation, and innovation. Finally, for those who wish to extend their management skills, there are modules available in strategic management, international business and accounting and finance. 

Management Component

All students take the Management component, which comprises a taught module and a team-based Client Project. The taught module, ESD-SP, covers a range of Stakeholder Perspective activities. The Client Project, ESD-CP, which takes place in Lent term, provides the opportunity to engage with external organisations and is equivalent to one module.

• Please note that both the course structure and the modules offered for the MPhil are subject to change year on year. This information is representative of a recent year's course structure, but some options may not be available in future years.