Learning sustainability by degrees

The International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility based at Nottingham University Business School has long forged a path in the pursuit of academic recognition for the CR and sustainability profession.
Founded in 2002 with the aim of leading CSR research and teaching, these core activities have grown in scope and scale over the years and the ICCSR now provides two highly regarded specialist taught programmes in CSR (an MSc in CSR and an MBA in CSR) in addition to supervising specialist research degrees in CSR.
It launched an MBA in CSR in 2003 and this September is making strides yet again by introducing its very first MSc in Sustainability.
The MBA in CSR was the first of its kind in the UK and has attracted students from all over the world, while the MSc in CSR (reclassified from an MA in 2010) has been one of the UK’s leading courses, particularly for recent graduates looking for training to develop a career in a CSR related area. However the new MSc in Sustainability promises to be even bigger.
Indeed, the ICCSR envisages that the new course will ultimately become a more significant programme for the business school than its MSc in CSR because it is designed for a much wider audience.
Judy Muthuri, director for the MSc, explains: “The course does have a much wider remit and will attract students from other schools within the university. From geography to engineering, the course has a much wider appeal. There is more focus on the long-term implications of sustainability and also on the connectedness of ESG factors which anchor sustainability. The world is changing and sustainability should now form part of any managerial career.”
Wendy Chapple, associate professor and acting director of the ICCSR, adds: “The new MSc is open to everyone, so students can herald from any discipline but must have achieved a minimum of a 2.1.”
The new MSc was triggered by the shift in business towards systems thinking and the complex nature of sustainability issues. The new MSc is designed to explore the various interpretations of sustainability impacts.
The course comprises two semesters of taught programmes and one semester of supervised research which produces a dissertation.
Muthuri emphasizes that students “will not be spoon-fed”. There is a lot of written and research work. “We aim to encourage students to be analytic around the issues. It’s about developing critical analysis skills which can then be evaluated in different sections. We give research training and have a practice orientated approach to field work. We are trying to expose students to the real problems businesses face.”
There are core sustainability modules and students can also specialize in three streams: management (exploring the social angle and ethical perspective of managing people), entrepreneurship (taught through the Hayden Green Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship) and CSR (exploring business ethics and the promotion of responsible business). They are all practice-based modules.
Muthuri explains how the school works closely with SMEs to see how sustainability and its thinking has become, or is becoming, embedded. The course is project-oriented and includes mentorship. For example for those following the entrepreneurship stream, they’ll be asked to ensure that the product, innovation or organisation they are seting up, must have sustainability embedded within that organisation or product.
The challenge, maintains Muthuri, is to look at business issues through a sustainability lens. And it’s not always as straightforward as you’d think. She gives the example of Fair & Lovely, a whitening cosmetic product. “How do you analyse that with a sustainability lens? After all, there’s a market for it. Students would have to consider the socio- and ethical impacts of such a product. There are expectations on all our students to interpret the sustainability of these kind of issues.”
Course results are based on project work, essays and a media presentation. “It’s very hands on,” she adds.
Muthuri says that the ICCSR’s course differs from other MScs in sustainability available because many – instigated a while ago – tend to have a ‘green’ emphasis.
“Our course is different because it’s not just about the environment,” she maintains. “There was a time when sustainability was focused predominantly on green issues but that’s not the case any more. For us it’s about the socio economic impacts too. We have a big plus in that area because of our MSc in CSR heritage. We’re already strong in that area and in that ‘interconnectedness’ approach within business.”
Muthuri says those interested in questioning how a business operates within a complex system should consider the course. “Sustainability is big now. It’s an expectation. To understand sustainability challenges and how business operates within a complex system is more important than ever. It’s also about using sustainability to create new ideas.”
The one-year, full-time course costs £10,500 in the UK and £18,000 to students from abroad.