MSc Ecology, Climate Change and Health

This interdisciplinary programme will equip students with the conceptual knowledge, skills and expertise to understand and address the impacts of global change on human and environmental health.

This new MSc course will train the next generation of leaders with the expertise and core capabilities to work collaboratively across ecological and social domains to address this century's emerging challenges to health. Core modules will equip students with a foundational understanding of the intersections between biodiversity, climate change and public health, and practical expertise to apply cutting-edge analytical and data science tools to develop knowledge and solutions in this field.

About this degree

This new MSc is taught in UCL’s purpose-built People and Nature Lab at the new UCL East campus in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford in East London.

The MSc draws on UCL’s breadth of expertise across disciplines from ecology and global change sciences to epidemiology and health sciences. This will offer students a unique opportunity to develop a rich understanding of the relationships between environmental change and health, develop new ideas and participate in groundbreaking interdisciplinary research.

This MSc be run as a new type of post-graduate course taught by a truly cross-disciplinary team of scientists from UCL’s departments of GEE, Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, Institute for Global Health, UCL Arts and Sciences, and industry partners from the Zoological Society of London and the Natural History Museum. This breadth of teaching will address the urgent need to produce professionals with expertise across ecology, climate change and public health.

Compulsory Modules

Foundations of Ecology, Climate Change and Health
Computational Methods in Biodiversity Research
Data Science for Ecology, Climate Change and Health
Human & Ecosystem Health for a Changing World
Nature Smart Challenge: One Health

Optional Modules

Foundations of Ecology & Ecological Monitoring
Epidemiology
Community Wellbeing, Health Inequalities and the Role of Social Prescribing
Climate Change and Health
The Social Determinant of Global Health

Research Project

A range of projects will be available working with UCL academics and programme partners, including the Zoological Society of London and the Natural History Museum London. Students will carry out an original piece of research in ecology-climate-health related issues developed with the student’s expert supervisory team. The student will produce a dissertation detailing and critically analyzing their work and will be expected to prepare an oral presentation delivered to an invited audience.

Career Opportunities

Graduates of the MSc Ecology, Climate Change and Health will leave with the practical and conceptual experience and project management skills to implement multidisciplinary approaches to tackle the grand challenges to health posed by climate change and ecological degradation, underpinned by a One Health approach. Students will also have the necessary insight to plan and undertake independent research and the ability to report findings to a variety of audiences.

This in-depth knowledge and experiential skill set will provide you with a unique point of difference that meets a fast-growing need across all industries. For example, academic and non-academic research institutions, health agencies, local government, UK government organisations such as Defra, Department of Health and Social Care and UK Health Security Agency, environmental and health consultancies, and health, environment and climate NGOs.