The University of Sussex will introduce what it says is the UK’s first undergraduate degree focused on climate justice.
The BA course, called “climate justice, sustainability and development”, will begin in 2026. The university says it will equip students with a blend of expertise in climate politics, activism and environmental human rights.
The university says this will be combined with the practical green skills needed to drive change.
Will Lock, coconvener of the new course and a lecturer in international development and anthropology, says the university is already focusing on a more hands-on approach to environmental study which will be included in the new BA, including use of the university’s campus forest food garden.
Lock said: “We’re integrating lots of new forms of assessment, new forms of getting students engaged in real-world challenges. As an example, my third year module that I’m teaching at the moment, which is part of the [new] course, is a modular political ecology and environmental justice to disciplines that are really focused on public communication and surfacing injustice stories from around the world.
“Rather than having a 5,000-word essay at the end of the module, we have a podcast that students are working on in groups and think about how they would convey the complexity of the case studies and examples to a wider audience.”
It comes after a Future Forum survey found that 72% of 14- 18-year-olds want more relevant and rigorous climate change education, with a demand for more humanities and social sciences-based climate education.
Lock said students are coming into classrooms already engaged with climate justice due to the real-life changes they have experienced. “Now the world is changing around them, and it feels urgent, and they feel like they want to be involved,” he said. “Climate change is at the centre of so much of politics today. People are naturally keen to learn about it in more depth.”
