Prosperity, People and Planet MSc

The Prosperity, People and Planet (PPP) MSc equips the next generation of change-makers with the knowledge and skills to create sustainable prosperity for all of nature and humanity. At the core of the degree is the idea of natural prosperity – based on the premise that a well-functioning, healthy natural world lies at the heart of global and local prosperity, inclusive economies and societies. Natural prosperity offers a new, integrative means of studying well-being economies and healthy social foundations while respecting planetary ecological boundaries. This approach is based on integrative systems thinking and modelling the world around us. Accordingly, the degree takes an explicitly transdisciplinary approach, embedding students within the Institute for Global Prosperity’s (IGP) and UCL’s network of government, business, academic, civil society, and community partners. And, through multiple methods, such as ‘ateliers’ or solutions-focused workshops, students will co-produce research, policy, and enterprise for real-world impact. By undertaking this degree, students will learn how to enact transformational, systems-level change through collaborative, multi-stakeholder, and multi-scalar partnerships. Allowing students from different countries and diverse backgrounds to prototype and build a better future for both people and planet.

PPP introduces you to: (1) a range of conceptual discussions about complex systems change; (2) different perspectives for understanding the interaction of economic, social, political, and ecological processes; (3) cutting edge methods for measuring and modelling multiple, interconnected planetary emergencies; and (4) pathways for co-leading next generation institutional reforms with new kinds of impactful knowledge and policy creation.

Change leadership

The programme offers a distinctive vehicle for students who want to have real-world impact, grounded in learning, research and engagement. In PPP, you will be equipped with cutting edge knowledge about complex systems thinking, methodological tools for promoting dynamic and non-linear systems change, and practical experience with IGP partners working across a range of sectors and scales (e.g. local, national and multilateral governance institutions, businesses, civil society and community researchers).

Multi stakeholder partnerships

Students will engage with a range of IGP’s key stakeholders and partners throughout the degree. This will include partners based in the UK, Kenya, and Lebanon where IGP’s prosperity collaborations are most established and Fast Forward 2030 – IGP’s network for impact entrepreneurs achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The four compulsory modules utilise problem-based learning methodologies, guest lectures, ‘live’ case studies and partnerships, where students work with other students, staff and stakeholders to develop solutions to current global challenges. Students reinforce and further develop these skills through the yearlong dissertation module.

Strategic Fit

PPP forms the third part of the IGP’s masters level introduction to redefining prosperity for the 21st century, complementing the focus on context specific ideas and practices about societal wellbeing and secure livelihoods in the MSc in Global Prosperity, and forms of transformative entrepreneurship and innovative institutional forms and practices in the MSc in Prosperity, Innovation and Enterprise. The degree is grounded in the Institute’s broader vision: ‘to help build a prosperous, sustainable, global future, underpinned by the principles of fairness and justice, and allied to a realistic, long-term vision of humanity’s place in the world.’ Future prosperity must focus on new ways of living, new systems and new institutions – not fixing or optimising the current unsustainable system; and prosperity takes different forms in different places and for different people, and thus solutions must be co-designed with communities based on local understandings and knowledge of challenges they face.

The programme fits squarely within the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment’s long tradition of problem-led transdisciplinary collaboration as a means of prototyping and building new and better futures. It contributes directly to the faculty’s priorities on climate change and inclusion through diversifying the curriculum.

Natural Prosperity offers a unique take on UCL East’s key academic themes of Living, Making, Originating and Connecting, integrating the themes of flourishing and future coproduction through economic, social and ecological domains. The programme embodies UCL East’s goals of sustainability, inclusivity, embedding employability and partnership, using ‘cross-disciplinary discussion to inform thinking about sustainable futures and holistic, creative solutions to problems’.