From climate change, food and water security and sustainable urbanisation, to poverty, health inequality, and migration, responding to the world’s challenges as a global society is more important than ever, requiring new thinking that cuts across traditional subject boundaries.

This new interdisciplinary degree is designed to address 21st-century issues facing humanity and our planet. It will provide the theoretical knowledge and skillset about our environments and environmentalisms for motivated individuals to develop their careers, as policy-makers, environmental experts and scientists, and advocates for change across diverse fields.

A key feature of this innovative degree is the opportunity to take modules across the departments of Biological Sciences, Earth Sciences, Geography and Psychology, with further contributions from other disciplines including options in Politics and Business & Management. Students can choose to specialise through one of several pathways, for example, developing as skilled campaigners able to lead grassroots movements, policy-makers able to develop frameworks for governance, and scientists who are able to communicate state-of-the-art findings in accessible language and with contextual nuance.

You will be taught by international research leaders across a broad range of topics, with options to acquire real-world experience through placements as part of an embedded approach to developing your employability and transferable skills. Highlights include a social change toolkit, equipping you with practical skills and a research project, designed to apply knowledge to real-world problems, and develop your expertise to contribute to social change.

We believe that developing resourceful people with purpose is key to maintaining a resilient planet. Skilled generalists are needed to communicate across interdisciplinary boundaries of science, politics, and social action, to solve complex global problems, and this is a highly employable skillset. You will graduate with OECD Global Skills that go beyond the traditional four Cs of communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, developing as a  digitally literate individual with an awareness of intercultural competence, citizenship, and wellbeing. Our dynamic research culture also means you'll be in a great position to progress to further postgraduate study.

Graduates from Royal Holloway from similar courses are highly sought-after by a wide range of employers, from environmental conservation and NGOs to media relations and the Civil Service among other fields.