In the first year, four 12 ECTS thematic courses are offered. The themes are inspired by the ‘Triple Planetary Crisis’ of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. We teach the environmental sustainability aspects of the themes to provide you with a systems understanding. At the same time, you will learn that governance aspects are as much part of the solution/response as they relate to the root causes of the most urgent sustainability challenges. Specifically, the four courses deal with:

• Materials and Circular Economy
• Biodiversity and Ecosystems
• Climate change and Energy Transition 
• Water and Toxicity

In addition, the programme distinguishes overarching governance themes that are integrated into the thematic courses:

• Institutions and Policy cycles
• Decision-making and Governance networks
• Global governance and Multi-level analysis
• Policy framing and Wicked problems

In each of these thematic courses, the interplay between the different key actors such as scientific experts, citizens, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), policy advisors, politicians, and companies is central.

An overarching goal of these four thematic courses is to create a ‘shared language’ and to bridge the disciplinary and cultural differences between students. Bridging disciplines is a key characteristic of a change agent. Theory and concepts will be taught through a combination of lectures, discussions, work sessions and state-of-the-art literature. Complementary perspectives will be provided by guest speakers and through studying different information sources.

In addition, each thematic course has a practical skills component, in which we familiarize you with, for example, Environmental Input-Output Analysis,  spatial analysis (GIS), programming and environmental risk assessment.

A final important component of each thematic course is the Integrated Group Assignment (IGA). For each IGA, you will form an interdisciplinary and intercultural team with fellow students and work on real-life cases. In these cases, you are challenged to integrate the environmental sustainability and governance perspective. We facilitate an experience that resembles what you could be confronted with in your future work environment. Moreover, these group assignments give you ample opportunities to practice inter- and transdisciplinary skills, like critical thinking, synthesizing, reflecting, debating, collaborating, integrating non-academic perspectives, and participating in the science-policy interface.

Next to the thematic courses, a variety of inter- and transdisciplinary skills are trained throughout the programme in dedicated skills courses. In the first semester, the Transdisciplinary skills (6 ECTS) course provides the experience to understand transdisciplinarity meanings and epistemological foundations, co-learning and co-creation, addressing different audiences, and consideration of different sources of knowledge. In the second semester, the Qualitative research skills (6 ECTS) course provides you with hands-on experience with and insights into various forms of qualitative data collection and analysis. Having critically reflected on a wide range of approaches in the context of sustainability research, you will be well set up for the second year. 

Concepts and skills taught during the first year are put into practice in the second year course ‘Sustainability Challenge’ (10 ECTS). In the first semester of the second year, you will work with an external commissioner on a real-life case, tackling a question or problem. In this course, you are challenged to connect different governance and environmental sustainability perspectives and apply the research skills and transdisciplinary skills you have acquired over the first year. 

Also in the first semester of year 2, the second research skills course is quantitative research skills (8 ECTS). In this course, you will acquire the skills needed to navigate the era of big data and (mis)information. You will be trained to become a modern data scientist, by going in-depth in statistics, programming and data visualization. 

Next to these two courses, you will take part in electives (12 ECTS in total) in the first semester. A selection of electives from multiple faculties has been made available for you, and we pride ourselves on having three dedicated Governance of Sustainability electives, developed by our teachers: Nitrogen and Sustainability, Sustainability, Power and Place, and Public Health and the Ecology of Disease. 

Finally, in the second semester of the second year, you work on your Thesis Research Project (30 ECTS). Supervised by an environmental sustainability expert and a governance expert, you will embark on an inter- and transdisciplinary journey, to apply the skills and knowledge obtained. Although the thesis is an individual examination, you will be part of ‘capstone’ groups, which allow for ample exchange, peer feedback and support.