Everything you need to know...
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What is the fee?
Home: £10,940 for the course
International/EU: £18,600 for the course -
How long will I study?
2 Years
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Where will I study?
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When do I start?
September 2026
Course summary
- Study an interdisciplinary course aligned to professional environmental management.
- Develop your own ideas and competencies for a career in the sector.
- Complete an independent research project into a real-world environmental problem.
- Learn from and alongside active environmental practitioners and experts.
- Explore local and global challenges in climate change and ecological recovery.
Our MSc Environmental Management course prepares you for a career in the environment sector. You’ll tackle global challenges by creatively applying environmental knowledge, critical analysis of evidence and collaborative engagement with wicked problems, in often complex and complicated socio-environmental systems.
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Student satisfaction
This course scored 100% for overall student satisfaction in the Postgraduate Taught Student Satisfaction Survey 2025.
How you learn
This interdisciplinary course prepares you to tackle grand global challenges alongside other graduate students from a broad range of backgrounds.
Applied teaching and learning outcomes are strongly aligned to the development of professional competencies for a career in the water and environmental management sector. Our syllabus is set within the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the latest environmental policy frameworks at international, national and local levels.
You’ll explore and critically assess the core skills, tools, ethics and practices of environmental management. Your learning will be assessed through coursework in a wide and accessible range of forms.
You learn through:
- large group lectures to introduce core themes
- expert practitioner guest speakers
- smaller group seminars and workshops
- IT laboratories and field visits
- practical exercises
- professional skills portfolios
- academic essays
- presentations
- a published book chapter
- a major independent project
Key Themes
You’ll explore primary and secondary data gathering, processing and analysis using Geographical Information Systems. You’ll present and interpret spatial data and its integration in decision-making processes. You’ll also examine modern environmental management case studies from around the world, exploring the ethics, values and motivations that drive action.
You’ll extend your practical skills to core areas of environmental management practice, such as environmental management systems, habitat assessment, water safety planning, life-cycle assessment and multi-hazard disaster risk reduction. You’ll develop your understanding of the major global environmental challenges that environmental managers face, identifying solutions through systems-level change, underpinned by the cultures and dynamics of human-environment relationships.
The course is strongly aligned to environment sector professional standards and competencies. Critical self-assessment, reflective practice and continuous professional skills planning are developed and assessed as a core component of every module. You’ll also complete an independent project – identifying, designing and undertaking research on a subject related to the course material and the range of academic expertise in the department.
Course support
You’ll be supported to gain the applied skills and knowledge to work at the cutting-edge of environmental management across a wide range of sectors – from government to private sector. Our curriculum teaching is supported by a dedicated academic adviser and project supervisor, as well as a wide range of online and in-person study skills support services.
You’ll also be supported to conceive, design, implement and write up a significant piece of independent research work – supervised by professional and academic experts with extensive research experience – with the opportunity to tackle real-world environmental problems posed by practitioner partners.
Applied learning
Live projects
Our course is intrinsically international in scope, with a historically diverse student body bringing experience from around the world, plus a network of academic partnerships which enable us to engage with live projects and case studies in a wide range of contexts. You’ll have opportunities to work collaboratively alongside cohorts of students in other parts of the world.
Field trips
We work closely with local partners managing environmental projects throughout the Sheffield region, with opportunities to visit sites, understanding management issues and collecting data for analysis in your assessed work. Field classes and site visits have included local nature reserves and urban sites managed by our partners Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust, Yorkshire Water and Sheffield City Council.
Many of our students build on these opportunities and develop independent projects with these partners, which involve more extended fieldwork campaigns to answer a detailed research question.
Networking opportunities
All our modules offer components delivered by guest lecturers from our practitioner partner organisations. You’ll have opportunities to present your work and network with these partners in winter and summer events, which you’ll co-produce with our academic research groups.
You’ll complete short-course style training in industry-standard techniques. You’ll also take part in fieldwork and site visits alongside professional practitioners, offering extensive network-building and short work experience opportunities.
MSc Environmental Management is embedded within our partnership with five major regional environmental organisations involved in long-term management of the Sheffield landscape. Our applied teaching draws on this relationship with Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust, Natural England, Sheffield City Council, Yorkshire Water and the Environment Agency, offering opportunities for co-curricular conservation volunteering, technical research projects and professional placements.
Course leaders and tutors
Dr Jonathan Bridge
Associate Professor in Environmental GeoscienceI am an environmental geoscientist, researching the ways in which human activity affects the physical environment and try to find solutions to the ways in which the … Read more
Modules
Important notice: The structure of this course is periodically reviewed and enhanced to provide the best possible learning experience for our students and ensure ongoing compliance with any professional, statutory and regulatory body standards. Module structure, content, delivery and assessment may change, but we expect the focus of the course and the learning outcomes to remain as described above. Following any changes, updated module information will be published on this page.
Year 1
Compulsory modules
This module allows you to undertake a programme of professional-quality training in industry-standard methods and techniques used in current environmental management, demonstrating planning and critique of solutions to environmental problems. You will also have the opportunity to undertake Carbon Literacy certification, and to complete a short period of work experience related to the methods/techniques studied.
You’ll study topics such as:
- Environmental Impact Assessment and phase 1 site assessment (desk study)
- Building energy assessment
- Business transitions eg. CapSEM; Material Flow Analysis; Life Cycle Assessment; Corporate Social Responsibility; Industrial Ecology
- Life-cycle assessment/waste management modelling
- Risk and multihazard assessment, analysis and reduction, ecological and habitat site assessments and conservation site management planning.
This module develops your toolkit of skills to understand society and the natural environment. In this module, you will integrate core GIS skills with the broader fieldwork, literacy, numeracy, and presentation skills that a modern GIS professional requires.
You’ll study topics such as:
- Geographical Information Systems
- Desk-based Site Survey
- Collecting field data
- Statistical analysis
- Python for Environmental Science
- Cartography
- Data plotting
Final year
Compulsory modules
This module aims to critically examine high-priority environmental challenges through the application of knowledge and theory, working collaboratively to scrutinise policy responses and develop holistic recommendations.
You’ll study topics such as:
- Climate-resilient water security, transboundary water resource management, water conflict and cooperation, water sensitive cities/sponge cities
- Decarbonisation of energy systems, disaster risk reduction, crisis / humanitarian environmental management
- Soils and water pollution/mining and resource abstraction;
- Biodiversity/nature recovery
- Urban air pollution
This module aims to develop a critical understanding of foundational concepts and policy implements in environmental management and to critically assess their application in context of sustainable development.
You’ll study topics such as:
- UN Sustainable Development Goals. UK Environmental Improvement Plan (and for context, other plans worldwide).
- Key sustainability literacy principles: ecological intelligence; loss and care; restorative ecologies and practice; nature connection; biocultural diversity; nature culture; environmental citizenship. Ecological justice and ecological ethics; political ecology.
- Net Zero and political economic mechanisms. Environmental Law and regulation
- Historic development of environmental perspectives and policies. Ecological consciousness, ways of knowing, indigenous knowledge and participatory decision-making.
- Valuing the Environment (natural capital, assessing impacts).
- Environment, planning and development
In this module you will advance our understanding of the world though the application of your professional skills. You will plan and execute an independent project, with a freedom to explore the range of topics that your developed skillset allows.
You’ll study topics such as:
- Working as part of a research group
- Identifying research gaps in the literature
- Writing a research proposal
- Executing independent research
Future careers
This course prepares you for a career in the professional environmental management sector, for example as:
- an environment and sustainability consultant
- a conservation project manager (with suitable extra-curricular experience)
- an environment officer in local or national government
- a sustainability lead in the private sector
It also provides a solid base for progressing to further research or teaching in environmental disciplines.
Recent graduates of this course have gone on to work for:
- the Environment Agency
- wildlife trusts
- the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
- AECOM
- renewable energy consultancy
- Derbyshire County Council
- university research departments
- international government departments
Equipment and facilities
The course is based in modern, state-of-the-art university facilities in the heart of Sheffield city centre. Classes are delivered in lecture theatres and well-equipped seminar rooms, as well as specialist IT laboratories. Informal work and meeting spaces are distributed throughout the campus and in our well-resourced Adsetts library.
- Specialist IT facilities include GIS software such as ArcGIS, SPSS and Digimap.
- Practical projects may access well-equipped workshop and laboratory resources on campus.
Where will I study?
You study at City Campus through a structured mix of lectures, seminars and practical sessions as well as access to digital and online resources to support your learning.
City Campus
City Campus is located in the heart of Sheffield, within minutes of the train and bus stations.
City Campus map | City Campus tour
Adsetts library
Adsetts Library is located on our City Campus. It's open 24 hours a day, every day.
Learn moreLearn more about your department
Natural and Built Environment Facilities Tour
Take a look around the natural and built environment facilities at Sheffield Hallam University with lecturer Camila Bassi.
Entry requirements
All students
Normal entry requirements are a minimum 2.2 honours degree or equivalent. You may also be able to claim credit points which can reduce the amount of time it takes to complete your qualification at Sheffield Hallam. Find out more
We may accept applicants who do not meet the minimum requirements depending on their suitability. This may be assessed by • an interview and/or piece of written work • relevant experience • qualifications • commitment to study.
International students
International qualifications are suitable if they are equivalent to a UK 2.2 honours degree.
If English is not your first language you typically need an IELTS 6.0 score with a minimum of 5.5 in all skills or equivalent.
Please contact us for more information.
Additional information for EU/International students
If you are an International or non-UK European student, you can find out more about the country specific qualifications we accept on our international qualifications page.
For details of English language entry requirements (IELTS), please see the information for 'All students'.
Fees and funding
Home students
Our tuition fee for UK students starting part-time study in 2026/27 is £10,940 for the course. The tuition fee displayed above is for the full course. If the full course is more than one year in duration, the fee will be divided into annual payments which will then be rounded. This may mean the total fee you pay is slightly higher than the fee stated above. If you take a break in study or have to re-take part of the course, you may also be charged an additional fee and will be notified of this at the time. Our tuition fee for UK students starting part-time study in 2026/27 are: Year 1: £3,650 Year 2: £7,295.
If you are studying an undergraduate course, postgraduate pre-registration course or postgraduate research course over more than one academic year then your tuition fees may increase in subsequent years in line with Government regulations or UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) published fees. More information can be found in our terms and conditions under student fees regulations.
International students
This course is not eligible for full-time Student visa sponsorship. International/EU students may apply for part-time Student visa sponsorship on an individual basis. Please contact Admissions for further advice. Our tuition fee for International/EU students starting part-time study in 2026/27 is £18,600 for the course. The tuition fee displayed above is for the full course. If the full course is more than one year in duration, the fee will be divided into annual payments which will then be rounded. This may mean the total fee you pay is slightly higher than the fee stated above. If you take a break in study or have to re-take part of the course, you may also be charged an additional fee and will be notified of this at the time. Our tuition fee for International/EU students starting part-time study in 2026/27 are: Year 1: £6,200 Year 2: £12,400
Scholarships and financial support
Find information on scholarships, bursaries and postgraduate student loans.
International scholarships up to £3000 ›
Alumni scholarships up to £2000 ›
Postgraduate loans for UK students ›
Additional course costs
The links below allow you to view estimated general course additional costs, as well as costs associated with key activities on specific courses. These are estimates and are intended only as an indication of potential additional expenses. Actual costs can vary greatly depending on the choices you make during your course.
General course additional costs
Additional costs for Sheffield Institute of Social Sciences (PDF, 614.1KB)Legal information
Any offer of a place to study is subject to your acceptance of the University’s Terms and Conditions and Student Regulations.
