MSc Digital Politics & Sustainable Development
Explore the increasingly urgent phenomena of social activism, fake news, cybercrime, AI, and sustainability within a rewarding and professionally salient masters degree. Drawing on politics, philosophy, and computer science, this compelling interdisciplinary degree addresses new global frontiers facing political and business leaders.
MSc Digital Politics & Sustainable Development
Contemporary International Relations (IR) faces two main challenges: the first relates to ecological sustainability and the second to digital spaces. Both challenges pose new power shifts, influences and organisational structures in an increasingly interconnected world. These challenges are often regarded separately, however they are both uniquely complex and multifaceted.
| Award: | MSc Digital Politics & Sustainable Development |
|---|---|
| Location: | |
| Study mode: | Full-time or part-time |
| Duration: | One year (FT) or two years (PT) |
| Start date: | September 2025 |
| Annual tuition fees: | Home: £11,900 (FT) International: £15,150 (FT) |
| Funding for September 2025: | To be confirmed. |
| Graduate Route Post Study Work Visa: | Eligible |
| Funding: | |
| Faculty & Research: | |
| Programme Specifications: |
Key Features
- Examines contemporary, real-world problems and their solutions, studying trends and debates around the politics of global digital technology, and the social, political, and ethical dimensions of emerging technologies, including AI
- Draws on environmental history; the history of political thought; green political theory; political science; and theories and practices of international relations to understand sustainability as both a domestic and international problem
- Engages with topics linked to human security such as minority rights, terrorism, migration, poverty, disease, organised and cyber-crime as international issues
- Develops awareness and understanding of the different theories of sustainability and development, security, digital transition, and global citizenship in contemporary global politics
- Produces graduates who can carry out complex research, including information gathering, critical questioning and reasoning, synthesis and analysis, with written and oral skills necessary for successful presentation and reporting.
Summary
The MSc Digital Politics & Sustainable Development is an interdisciplinary programme, looking at how these two challenges interact and the unique approaches to tackle them. Drawing on political science, political theory, philosophy, and computer science, you will explore the increasingly urgent phenomena of social activism, fake news, cybercrime, artificial intelligence, and sustainability within a unique and compelling programme.
Programme Aims
MSc Digital Politics & Sustainable Development aims to:
- to train in political science and international relations, including how to find sources, analyse and critique evidence, and evaluate the value of different sources
- to develop an awareness and understanding of the different approaches to, and theories of sustainability and development, security, digital transition, and global citizenship in contemporary global politics
- to give a thorough grounding in the discipline and practice of International Relations and to encourage critical evaluation of how the past is represented, constructed, debated, and contested in relation to the present and the future, in different settings, and at different unit levels of analysis
- to give students an appreciation of the complexity of research within Political Science and International Relations
Structure
Teaching and learning strategies for the individual MSc Digital Politics & Sustainable Development courses will include a minimum of 12 hours of full-cohort lectures, alongside a minimum 5 hours of small group tutorials or seminars. Read more
Part-time study
The Masters programme can be taken part-time over two years. Part-time students attend the same classes as their full-time colleagues, taking 50% of the course load each academic year. The classes are not run separately in the evening for part-time students. Read more
Timetables
Timetables are usually made available to students during Freshers’ Week. Teaching can be scheduled to take place during any day of the week. However, when possible, Wednesday afternoons are usually reserved for sports and cultural activities.
Career Opportunities
MSc Digital Politics & Sustainable Development core modules and pathways will prepare graduates to step into decision-making and leadership roles in government, international and regional organisations, NGOs, think-tanks, consultancies and private sector companies that engage with issues such as sustainable development, cyber security, the digital economy, internet governance, policy analysis, risk analysis and risk management, forecasting and prediction.