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Prosperity, People and Planet MSc

London, Stratford (UCL East)

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. You will study natural prosperity, a new, transdisciplinary means of studying well-being economies and healthy social foundations while respecting planetary ecological boundaries. Students will learn how to enact transformational, systems-level change through collaborative, multi-stakeholder, and multi-scalar partnerships, building a better future for both people and planet.

UK students International students
Study mode
UK tuition fees (2024/25)
£19,300
£9,650
Programme also available on a modular (flexible) basis.
Overseas tuition fees (2024/25)
£31,100
£15,550
Programme also available on a modular (flexible) basis.
Duration
1 calendar year
2 calendar years
5 calendar years
Programme starts
September 2024
Applications accepted
Applicants who require a visa: 16 Oct 2023 – 31 May 2024
Applications close at 5pm UK time

Applications open

Applicants who do not require a visa: 16 Oct 2023 – 30 Aug 2024
Applications close at 5pm UK time

Applications open

Apply for this course

Entry requirements

A first or upper second-class UK Bachelor’s degree in an appropriate subject, or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard from a recognised higher education institution. Evidence of extensive experience may be considered in lieu of the above, subject to approval.

The English language level for this programme is: Level 2

UCL Pre-Master's and Pre-sessional English courses are for international students who are aiming to study for a postgraduate degree at UCL. The courses will develop your academic English and academic skills required to succeed at postgraduate level.

Further information can be found on our English language requirements page.

Equivalent qualifications

Country-specific information, including details of when UCL representatives are visiting your part of the world, can be obtained from the International Students website.

International applicants can find out the equivalent qualification for their country by selecting from the list below. Please note that the equivalency will correspond to the broad UK degree classification stated on this page (e.g. upper second-class). Where a specific overall percentage is required in the UK qualification, the international equivalency will be higher than that stated below. Please contact Graduate Admissions should you require further advice.

About this degree

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’. 

Who this course is for

This programme will appeal to a range of students from around the world. In particular, individuals who already have a postgraduate degree and/or significant real-world experience in business, social entrepreneurship, government or third sector organisations are encouraged to apply. Entry to the programme is highly competitive and we are especially searching for students with diverse knowledges and abilities and a desire to work as part of a dynamic and inclusive community. We welcome students from natural and/or social science and humanities backgrounds and with skills in quantitative and/or qualitative research. Students with a strong personal vision for ecological, social and economic transformation are especially encouraged to apply. Please also note that this is a unique transdisciplinary programme and is not a standard business, economics or development studies programme.
Read about what it takes to study for a Master's at UCL

What this course will give you

The IGP is pioneering research into questions of prosperity and driving forward novel transdisciplinary engagements to deliver new, more prosperous natural and human world. As a student in the Institute, you will have the opportunity to become part of this emerging community, to learn from and participate in our research, and to help shape debates around what a prosperous society should be. We expect students to graduate as leaders who go on to deploy the ideas and practices they have learnt in future careers.

You will have the opportunity to engage with a range of IGP researchers, partners and affiliated fellows with possibilities of developing academic, policy or business-oriented projects. As a multidisciplinary global university with wide resources at its disposal, UCL is the ideal environment in which to study sustainable global prosperity.

Read about what you'll get out of a graduate programme

The foundation of your career

As a student at the Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP) you will join a wider network of both past and future alumni. Alumni are actively encouraged to engage in the life and community of the institute beyond their degree programme. Our alumni often go into major roles in government, business and the third sector thus becoming future partners and collaborators. We run regular alumni events throughout each academic year, allowing current students to engage with alumni and to build on this growing network of change makers. On graduation we expect students to become an active part of this lively alumni network and to engage with and mentor future students, providing essential career inspiration, advice and opportunities. Recent cases include: 

Silvia Velasco Arellano, who funded her MSc at IGP through a Chevening Scholarship, now works as Lead Manager for the Skills for Prosperity & Education Policy Programme, part of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in the British Embassy, Mexico. 

Areej Al Medinah, a Commonwealth Scholar from Pakistan, has returned to her home nation to work for SadaPay in promoting financial inclusivity. 

Patricia Naya, a Commonwealth Scholar from Ghana, is now completing a PhD in Business Administration with a focus on Organization and Social Change at UMass, USA. 

Employability

The programme attracts a wide diversity of both established professionals and new graduates. We recruit from diverse backgrounds in the UK and across the globe. We expect our graduates to show self-initiative and a drive to make global change across the environment, policy, economics, business and the third sector. Graduates must be able to work in truly global, cross cultural and international teams. You will learn to think across and between traditional disciplines and to apply a range of qualitative and quantitative skills alongside broader strategic and design/prototyping thinking. Graduates will gain key transferable skills in teamwork, communication, digital capabilities with particular software, academic and popular writing, presentation, visual design, foundational quantitative methods, creativity, real world problem-solving and in the methods of building engaged and participatory initiatives. The IGP organises careers events with alumni throughout the year. 

By educating a new generation of transdisciplinary change leaders we aim to build the informed and responsible global citizens envisaged in the SDGs and contribute to the speeding up of appropriate responses to the climatic and ecological crises of the moment. We expect our graduates to go on to leadership roles in the public and private sector, working in government and civil service, in sustainability and business, and in the NGO and third sector. This could include a broad range of roles such as ecological consultants, policy officers and social research officers. We also envisage graduates going on to careers in research and PhD study. 

Networking

There are opportunities to work closely with students and staff across the Institute for Global Prosperity. This includes weekly extra-curricular seminars with guest lecturers. Students will also have the opportunity to meet with the people who work on the IGP's wider research work, including our work on Fast Forward 2030, and our Prosperity Co-Labs (PROCOLs) in East London, Kenya and Lebanon. Students gain access to our extensive alumni network of professionals who are now leaders in the field from across the world.

Teaching and learning

Teaching and learning methods are strongly guided by the UCL Connected Curriculum and emphasise active research-led learning with students conducting their own research activities, sharing knowledge between each other and learning through peer-to peer activities. Considerable emphasis is placed on the value of diverse and inclusive knowledges and on outward facing knowledge coproduction though working with communities and practitioners beyond the academy. We have drawn on Advance HE’s Education for Sustainable Development in Higher Education Guidance, particularly by adopting the living labs approach for parts of the curriculum.

The curricula design is balanced around two general teaching and learning themes. These are conceptual/theoretical and design/engagement.  

The conceptual/theoretical theme is weighted to modules taught in the first term to provide fundamental foundations of the relationship between human prosperity and planetary wellbeing:  

  1. Prosperity, People and Planet: Conceptual Frameworks 

  1. Research Methods for Natural and Planetary Prosperity 

The design/engagement theme is weighted towards the second term of teaching, and involves design thinking and prototyping as well as solutions-focused workshops with practitioners and policymakers: 

  1. Prosperous and Inclusive Planetary Futures 

  1. Atelier: Prototyping Natural Prosperity 

The yearlong dissertation module embodies both of these themes, giving the students the time needed to develop meaningful and sustained relationships with research stakeholders in order to co-produce research questions, methods for data collection and analysis and ensure findings are impactful for all communities involved.

Teaching and learning methods/strategies involve:  

  • Critical engagement with literature through classes, seminars, guest lectures, in-depth discussion and exploring competing ideas.  

  • Engagement with world leading academics and non- academic practitioners through the departmental Academic Directors Seminars and Practitioner Soundbites.  

  • Grounding core concepts and theories through teaching cases, and application of core concepts through learning-by-doing methods including prototyping and design to explore how theory and practice inform one another.  

  • Enhancing student participation through flipped-learning methods, active learning and regular group assignments and activities.  

  • Connecting to practice/industry through engagement with entrepreneurial leaders, as well as policymakers and practitioners, through tutorials, guest lectures, field visits. 

Connecting directly to IGP Research and Policy Engagement though active challenge setting by IGP staff and partners (particularly at UCL East), including IGP’s Transforming Tomorrow Initiative, our Fast Forward 2030 network of Young Entrepreneurs and Prosperity Co-Laboratories in UK, Kenya and Lebanon.  

All modules contain a strong balance of formative in class exercises and peer to peer learning combined with a diversity of summative assessments. These are designed to allow you to progress across the course of each module and the Programme as a whole and to allow students with diverse skills, abilities and interests to shine both within individual and group-based work. The structure of assessments also builds towards the dissertation, which provides a key focus of the programme wherein you are able to develop a substantial research project that makes a distinctive contribution to knowledge around natural prosperity and has real world impact. 

Assessment types include:  

  • Individual and group assignments, including project reports and video/live presentations.  

  • Critical essays, reports and case studies that involve in depth exploration of key concepts and theories pertaining to module content. 

  • Blog posts that allow for the articulation of complex ideas in concise and publicly accessible ways. 

  • Exhibition project and prototyping designs for planetary prosperity.  

  • Extended writing/Dissertation. 

In addition to academic skills and training, the programme will also provide you with a unique set of career and skill enhancement sessions focussed on developing the core abilities and capacities of students. These will be delivered through the existing Skills and Personal Development sessions run in the Institute for Global Prosperity in conjunction with the Global Prosperity MSc and Prosperity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship MSc. These sessions are delivered by both internal specialists and external consultants and can include:  

  • Web-design and blogging  

  • Policy writing 

  • Writing for the media  

  • Academic writing  

  • Presentation skills  

  • Film and audio media skills  

  • Personal Leadership skills  

  • Mindfulness and study skills  

  • CVs and Careers Advice  

The Institute for Global Prosperity offers an award winning (Faculty Education Award 2018) series of Writing Workshops designed to help you improve general writing skills and broader written structure and argument, tailored and timetabled to module assessments. As a student on this programme, you will be able to make use of this optional training. 

The Programme involves various forms of assessment. They include:

Coursework – including Blog, Essay, Case Study Report and Dissertation proposal 

Presentations  

Media Production - Digital Multimedia Exhibition   

Dissertation 

The programme consists of approximately 150 contact hours.

Modules

The course structure embraces a diversity of learning approaches in line with the UCL Connected Curriculum, including lectures, experiential and peer-to-peer learning, prototyping, project work, and a dissertation. At the core of the degree is a significant independent research component, which allows students to apply knowledge and skills derived from the taught components to conduct an in-depth examination of a topic of their interest. An extended dissertation allows students to shape their degree programme to suit their own ambitions for their post-degree life (in business, policy, 3rd sector, etc). It enables students to contribute in meaningful ways to ongoing IGP research projects and develop the emerging research area of natural prosperity. A number of the best MSc dissertations have been published in the IGP working paper series. The co-production approach that underpins the entire course can only be fully and ethically realised in the dissertation module if students work on their projects (and thus with their partners) throughout the year. 

Structure 

Full time study 

Compulsory modules in the first term focus on problem definition, theory, and methods. Compulsory modules in term two develop and put into practice problem solving concepts, cases studies, and additional methods. The yearlong dissertation module guides you through a significant, sustained, and ethical engagement with a specific problem and stakeholder group. This approach works towards a full and deep collaboration, where research questions, methodological approaches and data collection are co-developed. This model maximises the chances of generating high-impact research, which pushes the boundaries of our understanding around natural prosperity. Students will also complete 30 credits of optional or elective modules to extend their knowledge in certain area(s) of interest, which may include conceptualising prosperity, financing prosperity, transformative entrepreneurship, and urban futures. 

Compulsory Modules (150 credits in total) 

•       Prosperity, People and Planet: Conceptual Frameworks (15 Credits) 

•       Prosperous and Inclusive Planetary Futures (15 Credits) 

•       Research Methods for Natural and Planetary Prosperity (15 Credits) 

•       Atelier: Prototyping Natural Prosperity (15 Credits) 

•       Dissertation in People, Planet and Prosperity (90 Credits) 

Optional/Elective Modules (30 credits in total) 

You must also choose up to 30 credits of modules. Please refer to the list below. Students will be able to register for suitable modules from other programmes based at UCL East, pending relevant permissions. 

 

In their first year, part-time students will need to take a minimum of 90 credits of modules. In the second year, you will take the dissertation (90 credits), for a maximum total of 120 credits.

Apart from the compulsory modules, 30 credits of optional/elective modules will be undertaken in the first year. The distribution of compulsory and elective/optional modules should be discussed with the programme director ahead of initial enrolment.

Students undertaking modular/flexible study may choose to organise the distribution of their modules flexibly across the five years provided they complete 180 credits by the end of year five.

Modular/flexible students are expected to have completed the majority of their taught modules before undertaking their dissertation.

Apart from the compulsory modules, 30 credits of optional/elective modules will be distributed across the programme. The distribution of compulsory and elective/optional modules should be discussed with the programme director and/or personal tutor ahead of each year's enrolment process.

Compulsory modules







Optional modules












Please note that the list of modules given here is indicative. This information is published a long time in advance of enrolment and module content and availability are subject to change. Modules that are in use for the current academic year are linked for further information. Where no link is present, further information is not yet available.

Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits. Upon successful completion of 180 credits, you will be awarded an MSc in Prosperity, People and Planet.

Fieldwork

Short, half-day field trips are a component of some of our modules.

Fieldwork related to your dissertation is encouraged and may take place in the UK or elsewhere in the world. However, risk and ethical considerations will need to be discussed with your Programme Leader and fully approved according to the circumstances at the time.

Accessibility

Details of the accessibility of UCL buildings can be obtained from AccessAble accessable.co.uk. Further information can also be obtained from the UCL Student Support and Wellbeing team.

Visit us

All open days and events

Online - Open day

Graduate Open Events: UCL Institute for Global Prosperity

Whether your ambition is to design better buildings, plan better cities, build sustainable communities or help meet the challenge of climate change, The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment could be a big step towards it. This session focuses on the Master's courses offered by IGP: Global Prosperity MSc, Prosperity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship MSc and Prosperity, People and Planet MSc.

Watch on demand event

Fees and funding

Fees for this course

UK students International students
Fee description Full-time Part-time
Tuition fees (2024/25) £19,300 £9,650
Tuition fees (2024/25) £31,100 £15,550

Programme also available on a modular (flexible) basis.

Additional costs

Students may need to spend a minimal amount (i.e. £20) on local transport for short field visits in London.

For more information on additional costs for prospective students please go to our estimated cost of essential expenditure at Accommodation and living costs.

Funding your studies

UCL offers a range of financial awards aimed at assisting both prospective and current students with their studies.

UCL East Scholarship

The scholarship works to support the ambitions of east Londoners by funding the fees and living costs of eligible Master's programmes including this MSc at UCL. Further details at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/scholarships/ucl-east-london-scholarship.

In our faculty, The Bartlett Promise Scholarship aims to enable students from backgrounds underrepresented in the built environment to pursue master's studies. Please see the UK Master's scholarship and Sub-Saharan Africa Master's scholarship pages for more information on eligibility criteria, selection process and FAQs.

For a comprehensive list of the funding opportunities available at UCL, including funding relevant to your nationality, please visit the Scholarships and Funding website.

See all the ways you can fund your studies

Bartlett Promise Sub-Saharan Africa Masters Scholarship

Deadline: 3 April 2024
Value: Fees, stipend and other allowances (Duration of programme)
Criteria Based on financial need
Eligibility: EU, Overseas

Bartlett Promise UK Master's Scholarship

Deadline: 31 May 2024
Value: Tuition fees plus £15,364 maintenance/yr (Duration of programme)
Criteria Based on financial need
Eligibility: UK

Commonwealth Shared Scholarship Scheme (CSSS)

Deadline: 14 December 2023
Value: Full fees, flights, stipend, and other allowances (1 year)
Criteria Based on both academic merit and financial need
Eligibility: EU, Overseas

Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP) Equity Fund

Deadline: 30 June 2024
Value: £5,000 towards fees (1yr)
Criteria Based on both academic merit and financial need
Eligibility: UK

UCL East London Scholarship

Deadline: 20 June 2024
Value: Tuition fees plus £15,700 stipend ()
Criteria Based on financial need
Eligibility: UK

Next steps

Students are advised to apply as early as possible due to competition for places. Those applying for scholarship funding (particularly overseas applicants) should take note of application deadlines.

There is an application processing fee for this programme of £90 for online applications and £115 for paper applications. Further information can be found at Application fees.

Your application must consist of both a personal statement and a CV. We place considerable emphasis on your personal statement and how you have tailored this for your application to the Prosperity, People and Planet MSc. Generic or template-style personal statements will not be strong enough for admission. Statements that do not fully engage with aspects of the degree programme will also be unlikely to succeed. We particularly value personal statements that outline a clear vision for transformative change and directly explain how the degree programme will help you realise the changes you would like to see happen. We also encourage students to explain how their past experiences have directly led them to this degree programme and to outline how the skills and knowledge they have acquired will help them to realise their goals for transformation.

When we assess your application we would like to learn:
  • Why you want to study Prosperity, People and Planet at graduate level.
  • Why you want to study Prosperity, People and Planet at IGP and UCL.
  • What particularly attracts you to this programme.
  • How your academic and professional background meets the demands of this challenging programme.
  • How you can make a unique contribution to our innovative academic community.
  • How you see this degree programme leading to a future transformative career.

Together with essential academic requirements, the personal statement is your opportunity to illustrate whether your reasons for applying to this programme match what the programme will deliver. Please note that the programme is not a standard business, economics or development studies programme (though it contains elements of each of these). The programme aims to address major challenges in our current social, economic and environmental conditions, and students are encouraged to consider how they would work to contribute to addressing such challenges.

We advise applicants to upload any supporting documents related to research, work experience, extracurricular activities or other projects mentioned in the personal statement or CV.

Please note that you may submit applications for a maximum of two graduate programmes (or one application for the Law LLM) in any application cycle.

Choose your programme

Please read the Application Guidance before proceeding with your application.

Year of entry: 2024-2025

Apply for this course

Got questions? Get in touch

Institute for Global Prosperity
Institute for Global Prosperity

igp@ucl.ac.uk

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