Environmental Technology
Explore the tools, alternative technologies and policies of sustainable environmental management.
Explore the tools, alternative technologies and policies of sustainable environmental management
Specialise in areas of environment and sustainability tailored to your career goals
Gain hands-on experience through field trips in the UK and abroad
Course key facts
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Qualification
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MSc
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Duration
1 year
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Start date
September 2025
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Study mode
Full-time
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Fees
£16,200 Home
£33,100 Overseas
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Delivered by
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Location
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South Kensington
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Course overview
Acquire a diverse range of problem-solving frameworks for tackling contemporary environmental issues on this one-year MSc course.
You'll learn how environments function and analyse the tools, technologies and policies needed for sustainable environmental management.
Start to specialise in your second term by picking one of eight subject-specific options, designed to cater for a variety of individual interests and career requirements.
You'll also complete a research project, which normally stems from your chosen specialist option.
This can be laboratory or desk-based and can involve fieldwork carried out in conjunction with outside organisations in the UK or abroad.
On completion of this course, you'll be equipped with the broad set of skills needed to pursue a career in environment and sustainability.
Structure
This page is updated regularly to reflect the latest version of the curriculum. However, this information is subject to change.
Find out more about potential course changes.
Please note: it may not always be possible to take specific combinations of modules due to timetabling conflicts. For confirmation, please check with the relevant department.
You'll complete a compulsory set of foundational sustainability modules and an extended independent research project.
Core modules
Familiarise yourself with aspects of economics and markets, including consumption, environmental policy and governance and environmental law.
Further your knowledge of ecosystems and ecological theory, climate change, air pollution, biogeochemical cycles, biodiversity and natural resources.
Use problem-based case studies to understand the interactions between the natural and human worlds.
Improve your essential professional and transferable skills, including information searching, career planning, presentation skills, and relaxation and resilience skills.
Undertake rigorous independent research and apply your knowledge and understanding of environmental disciplines to practical problems.
The project can be desk and/or laboratory-based and/or involve fieldwork, and can be carried out in conjunction with an outside organisation.
During the spring term, you'll study modules from one of the eight specialist options, which you will have chosen when applying for the course.
This allows you to build on the knowledge acquired from the core modules, and apply it with a career-oriented focus.
Four specialist options are shown on this tab with four further options on the next tab.
Business and Environment
Gain a critical understanding of contemporary best practice in sustainable business.
Work in groups to provide solutions to contemporary sustainability projects proposed and supported by industry.
Develop business models that demonstrate positive environmental, social and economic impacts to meet ambitious sustainability goals.
Energy Policy
Acquire a firm grounding in the technologies and principles that underpin the energy system.
Develop a broad range of skills in energy economics appraisal, policy analysis and communication.
Improve your skills for complex problem solving and interdisciplinary thinking. Apply them to analysing interconnected challenges such as geopolitical energy security and decarbonisation pathways.
Environmental Resource Management
Become familiar with the variety of methods and tools used for evidence-based environmental resource management and decision making.
Gain first-hand experience of environmental management in practice and engage with practitioners on a series of field visits.
Explore a wide range of environmental resources and the management approaches associated with them.
Environmental Assessment and Management
Gain an insight into the circular economy, and learn about the technical and practical issues involved in waste and resource management.
Explore some of the most important tools and techniques in environmental assessment, decision making and management.
Enhance your understanding of the pathways in the environment that pollutants follow from source to receptor. Find out how an investigation into a contaminated site is carried out.
Four further specialist options are shown here.
Environmental Economics and Policy
Understand the theory underlying environmental economics and policy and explore the links between economic behaviour and the natural environment.
Gain a critical understanding of quantitative and qualitative research methods that are essential instruments in an applied economist’s toolkit.
Examine the specific challenges in the domain of environmental policy design and make a field visit to an international environmental economics and policy conference.
Global Environmental Change and Policy
Analyse the nature and causes of global environmental change as understood through academic research, public policy and private sector communities.
Assess the disciplinary and interdisciplinary tools and methods used for addressing global environmental change, as well as associated regulatory and policy options.
Collaborate on group work aimed at addressing a specific global environmental challenge in an interdisciplinary setting.
Integrated Water Management
Learn how water and environmental systems interact with each other and build practical skills in integrated water management.
Discover the most important tools and techniques in integrated water decision making and management. Learn about industry developments on a mixture of group work and site visits.
Enhance your understanding of the pathways in the environment that pollutants follow from source to receptor. Find out how an investigation into a contaminated site is carried out.
Urban Sustainable Environments
Examine the key elements of infrastructure that cities require to function: water, energy, waste, transport and land-use planning.
Explore the aspects of governance that cities require to function, and how cities can improve decision making to build towards healthier and more sustainable urban environments.
Identify the co-benefits, trade-offs, opportunities and barriers for sustainable decision-making in cities and explore successful templates for urban environments.
Teaching and assessment
Balance of teaching and learning
Key
- Lectures, seminars and practicals
- Independent study and group work
- 40% Lectures, seminars and practicals
- 60% Independent study and group work
Teaching and learning methods
- Lectures
- Seminars
- Computer-based work
- Fieldwork
- Lab work
- Group work
- Data analysis
- Virtual learning environment
- Independent research project
Balance of assessment
Key
- Independent research project
- Other
- 45% Independent research project
- 55% Other
Assessment methods
- Group presentations
- Reports
- Essays
- Written exams
- Coursework
- Individual research project
Entry requirements
We consider all applicants on an individual basis, welcoming students from all over the world.
How to apply
Apply online
You can submit one application form per year of entry. You can choose up to two courses.
Application deadlines – Round 1 closes on Thursday 16 January 2025
We operate a staged admissions process with several application rounds throughout the year.
Apply by 23.59 (UK time) on the closing date of an application round, to ensure you receive a response on your application by the relevant decision date.
Application rounds
Round 1
- Apply by Thursday 16 January 2025
- Decision by Thursday 6 March 2025
Round 2
- Apply by Thursday 27 March 2025
- Decision by Thursday 1 May 2025
Round 3
- Apply by Thursday 15 May 2025
- Decision by Thursday 17 July 2025
There is no application fee for MRes courses, Postgraduate Certificates, Postgraduate Diplomas, or courses such as PhDs and EngDs.
If you are applying for a taught Master’s course, you will need to pay an application fee before submitting your application.
The fee applies per application and not per course.
- £80 for all taught Master's applications, excluding those to the Imperial College Business School.
- £100 for all MSc applications to the Imperial College Business School.
- £150 for all MBA applications to the Imperial College Business School.
If you are facing financial hardship and are unable to pay the application fee, we encourage you to apply for our application fee waiver.
Find out more about how to apply for a Master's course, including references and personal statements.
All shortlisted applicants will be interviewed either in person or online.
An ATAS certificate is not required for students applying for this course.
Tuition fees
Home fee
Full-time
£16,200
You should expect and budget for your fees to increase each year.
Your fee is based on the year you enter the College, not your year of study. This means that if you repeat a year or resume your studies after an interruption, your fees will only increase by the amount linked to inflation.
Find out more about our tuition fees payment terms, including how inflationary increases are applied to your tuition fees in subsequent years of study.
Whether you pay the Home or Overseas fee depends on your fee status. This is assessed based on UK Government legislation and includes things like where you live and your nationality or residency status. Find out how we assess your fee status.
If you're a UK national, or EU national with settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, you may be able to apply for a Postgraduate Master’s Loan from the UK government, if you meet certain criteria.
For courses starting on or after 1 August 2024, the maximum amount is £12,471. The loan is not means-tested and you can choose whether to put it towards your tuition fees or living costs.
The loan is not means-tested and you can choose whether to put it towards your tuition fees or living costs.
Overseas fee
Full-time
£33,100
You should expect and budget for your fees to increase each year.
Your fee is based on the year you enter the College, not your year of study. This means that if you repeat a year or resume your studies after an interruption, your fees will only increase by the amount linked to inflation.
Find out more about our tuition fees payment terms, including how inflationary increases are applied to your tuition fees in subsequent years of study.
Whether you pay the Home or Overseas fee depends on your fee status. This is assessed based on UK Government legislation and includes things like where you live and your nationality or residency status. Find out how we assess your fee status.
If you're a UK national, or EU national with settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, you may be able to apply for a Postgraduate Master’s Loan from the UK government, if you meet certain criteria.
For courses starting on or after 1 August 2024, the maximum amount is £12,471. The loan is not means-tested and you can choose whether to put it towards your tuition fees or living costs.
The loan is not means-tested and you can choose whether to put it towards your tuition fees or living costs.
How will studying at Imperial help my career?
Gain transferable skills relevant to a career in environment and sustainability or similar fields.
With specialised knowledge, you'll be highly sought after in a range of sectors.
Specialise in a particular field and learn job-market-specific research and management skills.
Further links
Contact the department
- Telephone: +44 (0)20 7594 9347
- Email: enquiries.env@imperial.ac.uk
Course Director: Dr Martin Head
Deputy Course Director: Dr Caroline Howe
View the Centre for Environmental Policy website.
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Terms and conditions
There are some important pieces of information you should be aware of when applying to Imperial. These include key information about your tuition fees, funding, visas, accommodation and more.
You can find further information about your course, including degree classifications, regulations, progression and awards in the programme specification for your course.
Programme specifications