MSc in Arid Land Studies

The MSc in Arid Land Studies is a joint programme offered by the Department of Geography of the University of Sheffield, the Center for International Arid & Semiarid Land Studies at Texas Tech University, Lubbock and the Faculty of Agriculture & Horticulture at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, and it is funded through the EU-US Atlantis Programme. Students taking this degree and whose base is Sheffield will take modules at both Sheffield and Texas Tech with a research placement at Humboldt, and will graduate with a degree awarded jointly by Sheffield and Texas Tech University. Graduates of the programme will have multicultural, interdisciplinary training in aridland studies, covering the fields of Geography, Geology, Environmental Sciences, Biology and Biodiversity, Soil and Water Sciences, and Development.

The MSc in Arid Land Studies will graduate students who will be ideally placed for further academic research, and for work in international, governmental and non-governmental organisations. We are looking for students who will respond positively to the intellectual challenges that this degree programme will present, and who will use the experience of studying in three institutions to broaden their perspective on arid land issues.

Course structure

The course comprises four elements that make up 201 credits of study: taught modules at Sheffield (60 credits); taught modules at Texas Tech (60 credits); a research project at Humboldt (21 credits), and a dissertation undertaken in Texas or New Mexico (60 credits).

In the first semester (beginning in September) students will be based in Sheffield and study four modules (see List A). Subject to satisfactory progress, in January they transfer to Texas Tech where they will spend their second semester studying three modules (see List B). During the summer period (June and July) students will undertake fieldwork in either Texas or New Mexico for their dissertation research under joint supervision from staff at Sheffield and Texas Tech.

Students will return to Texas Tech by mid-August for their third semester where they will take one additional module (from List B) and work on their dissertation. Students will return to Europe in mid December. They will spend six weeks (starting in early January) at Humboldt University working on an individual research project under the guidance of a supervisor from Humboldt University, and completing their dissertation. They will then return to Sheffield for oral examination of their dissertation.

List A

Research Design in Analysis of Terrestrial Systems
Current issues in Environmental Analysis
Ideas and Practice in International Development
Understanding Environmental Change

List B

Watershed Management
Precision Agriculture
Soils and Crops in Arid Lands
Aerial Terrain Analysis
Imagery Interpretation in Natural Resource Management
Geographic Information Systems
Spatial Data Analysis and Modelling
Water Resource Management
Surface Water Hydrology
Groundwater Hydrology
Ecology of Grazing Lands Systems
Soil and Plant Relationships
Advanced Range Ecology
Advanced non-Game Ecology
Geography of Arid Lands
Regional Analysis
Weather, Climate and Applications
Environmental Toxicology
Ecological Risk Assessment