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Africa and International Development offers a variety of courses and innovative cohort building activities that foster the co-creation of interdisciplinary understanding of the dynamics of the climate emergency, based on a situated understanding of its impact on societies across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Our approach to teaching underscores intersecting themes, ranging from climate-induced mobilities and vulnerabilities to contestations around net-zero transitions across the region. We also drive various student-led initiatives through dissertations and placement within several world-leading research and advocacy organisations which, enable students to connect acquired skills and insights on the programme with imaginative and practical ideas about how to empower governments, civil society, businesses and relevant stakeholders to build a more sustainable and inclusive solution to climate change.

The programme was transformative for me, both intellectually and professionally. It challenged me to question assumptions, think more critically, and approach Africa and the world’s development issues with deeper analytical rigour. Every assignment, class activity, or group work was a learning experience and looking back I can see how I have been transformed not just in my thinking but even in how I relate with others. I am now far less quick to generalise and far more eager to hear and learn from other perspectives. One of my favourite aspects of the programme was how approachable our instructors were and the brilliant guest lecturers they brought in, making the programme as much about real-world insights as it was about academic learning.

Diana Tsitsiwu, 2025 Scholar

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As it has been observed during the last decade, food security is becoming a major issue around the world.

The last FAO report (2023) states that almost 30% of the world's population suffered from severe or moderate food insecurity in 2022.  

Climate change and sustainability are critical elements of the food insecurity situation. Many consequences of climate change are challenging food security and diet quality worldwide.

Climate change places those vulnerable to food insecurity in even more difficult situations because of the reduced resources available for food production and the extreme climatological conditions make food production stability difficult to achieve.  Furthermore, how food is produced at the moment and how consumers are deciding which food conforms to their diet negatively impacts planetary resources, consumers' health and generates greenhouse gas emissions.

This is why two new food security pillars were defined last year: sustainability and agency. The sustainability pillar focuses on the importance of producing food, respecting the natural resources used to produce food and reducing the impact of climate change generated by the food system.

The objective is to work towards the long-term viability of food systems reinforcing its ecological and social bases. The agency pillar is to recognise the right and responsibility of people to choose what is good for them and the planet instead of being imposed on their dietary choices. Consumers can choose to help make the food system more sustainable for the planet and their health.

The programme has been highly transformative, providing a thorough understanding of complex global food systems. The intensive training allowed me to face global food insecurity concerns firsthand, considerably improving my practical comprehension and problem-solving abilities. Despite my lack of in-depth undergraduate experience in food science, the detailed learning technique enabled me to engage deeply with the content and excel in my studies. The learning outcomes emphasised not only scientific and technical expertise, but also critical thinking and policy analysis, which are essential for dealing with not just food security concerns but globally challenges. In particular, the curriculum included a 10-day field trip to Peru, which gave us an amazing opportunity to apply our classroom knowledge to real-life settings.

Nyingilayefa Gift Ernest, 2025 Scholar

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The energy crisis is forcing the world to secure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. The MSc in Sustainable Energy Systems allows students to contribute to a more sustainable future. The programme is grounded in engineering, but students are encouraged to consider the societal, economic, environmental and policy aspects of the industry.

The programme is intensive, with rigorous design projects, essays, report writing and critiquing. One of the best strategies I adopted was to start my assignments on time and asking questions. Beyond academics, I indulged in other social events around the campus, explored society clubs, participated in school politics, and volunteered for organisations. All these experiences counted and helped in building my social capital.

Victor Chukwuemezie, 2024 Scholar

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MSc Entrepreneurship and Innovation prepares our students to tackle complex challenges, in different disciplines including sustainability by focusing on development, implementation and commercialisation of innovative solutions. The programme is designed focus on the development of practical skills and opportunities for the application of knowledge to real-life organisational situations and issues. 

The programme curriculum has significantly strengthened my research, analytical, team-work, and problem-solving skills. More importantly, it has helped me refine my new business idea by applying insights from core modules like feasibility studies, innovation management, and strategy. It has been a perfect fit for me because, as an entrepreneur interested in building ventures that solve global socio-economic challenges, it has equipped me with several tools and frameworks I can use to sustain impact-driven innovation across my ventures.

Olumide Shode, 2025 Scholar

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Addressing climate change and sustainability is deeply intertwined with understanding inequalities. The most vulnerable and impoverished are disproportionately affected by climate change, yet studies reveal that the wealthiest 10% of the global population contributes to nearly half of all CO2 emissions. Dealing with climate change is, necessarily, dealing with inequalities.

The MSc Data, Inequality, and Society program is designed to empower students with robust analytical tools and data proficiency to delve into the underlying causes of inequalities and develop inclusive initiatives that pave the way for sustainable futures.

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The goal of Operational Research is to support organisations in running their operations as efficiently and effectively as possible using minimal physical resources. Especially the latter is becoming increasingly important in recent years.

Examples of sustainability issues addressed in courses of the programme include finding the best output levels of traditional and renewable electricity generators, the optimal placement of charging stations and use of electric vehicles for last-mile logistics, and ESG-based investments. In addition, in the past students could work for their summer projects on topics like hydrogen refuelling network design, managing grid-sized battery storage to level out imbalances in the energy network, or climate risk quantification in the financial industry.

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The MSc Environmental Sustainability recognises that ensuring and achieving environmental sustainability is one of the most significant challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. You will be encouraged to think across different disciplines and consider scientific, socio-economic, and policy perspectives to better understand sustainability and how it can be achieved in different geographical contexts. You can explore critical social and global issues and ways to address these to benefit individuals, communities, societies and nature.

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������ƵBusiness School’s MSc in Climate Change Finance and Investment is dedicated to developing professionals in the field of low carbon finance and investment. Designed around an interdisciplinary foundation of carbon accounting, climate policy and financial economics, the programme aims to develop the skills and knowledge to drive the trillions of dollars of new investment needed to face the climate emergency. The MSc has an international focus, looking at the opportunities and challenges across different sectors, financial markets, and levels of national economic development.

The programme offered a different perspective on climate finance, encompassing the private sector and firms, as well as the government or public sector and civil society. Having prior experience within non-profits, it exposed me to the private sector, where firms are striving to create a green and resilient environment through portfolio alignment and investment choices. A dive into infrastructure finance and the renewable energy sector, along with exploring what can be achieved through financing adaptation-related projects, was highly valuable – especially given the significant need within the African continent. Finally, each assessment, whether individual or group, addressed real-life situations, from policy memos to portfolio alignment and carbon footprint calculation, supported by insights from industry experts through guest lectures and partnerships.

Enogba Ende, 2025 Scholar

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A sustainable future is a future where people, living beings and the planet can flourish together. Planetary health is about achieving the highest attainable health, wellbeing and equity across the world  by attending to all of those human systems – the political, social, economic, and environmental systems alongside all of the earth’s natural systems. Planetary Health emphasises the absolute interconnection of all life – human, animal and the wider natural world – and the effects and consequences of the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.  At the heart of planetary health studies is acknowledging that humans have been responsible for driving the triple crises, but we can also bring about the necessary changes.  Students on the Planetary Health MSc will develop the knowledge and skills required to promote sustainable livelihoods, learning how to protect human and natural systems and tackle the drivers of climate crises, biodiversity loss and pollution.

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The MSc Environment and Development enables you to critically evaluate the multiple dimensions of the inter-relationship between development and the environment, with an abiding concern for social and environmental justice.  

Our approach to understanding climate change and sustainability will centre on questions of justice and inequalities. You will be encouraged to reflect upon your own roles in transformations towards social and environmental justice, considering the ethics of engagement in an unequal world. Attempts to understand and address climate change and sustainability issues need to pay close attention to their contested, political and ideological nature and how they differ across places and scales. That is why our MSc foregrounds society and nature as inherently linked, historical contexts as highly relevant to current debates, and global capitalism as an underlying force of change. It will consider the increasingly diverse set of actors, practices and processes driving environment and development issues, and question the power of these to direct agendas and actions. The MSc has relevance in both the 'Global South' and 'Global North', drawing attention to relationships of inequality and marginalisation as they occur for particular environments and sections of society worldwide.  

The programme was a perfect fit for me as an interdisciplinary conservation practitioner because of the alignment of its content with the current complex global environmental ecosystem. The programme is well structured to critically investigate the questions to do with environmental justice and development, particularly across the majority world. Additionally, the application of research skills in the real-world during the program's Nepal trip is an invaluable learning opportunity. 

Esther Githinji, 2025 Scholar

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Find out about the eligibility criteria to apply to our on-campus and online postgraduate scholarships with the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at Edinburgh.

Application timelines for the 2026/27 on-campus and online postgraduate scholarship with the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at Edinburgh.

The selection process for applications is based on the following criteria:

• Academic merit of the candidate that qualifies for admissions to the University of Edinburgh 
• Track record as a transformative leader and service within their community.
• Quality of application in line with the Program's theme of climate justice.
• Potential impact on the development of the applicant’s home country.
• Applicants who have faced significant barriers to education (social, financial, personal, practical or health-related).

To help your application journey, we have gathered together a list of frequently asked questions on the application, interview and offer stages of both the on-campus and online postgraduate scholarship with the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at Edinburgh.