Governance of Sustainability (MSc) – Leiden University | Partnerbijdragen

Are you eager to learn how to shape governance solutions to complex environmental challenges? Are you passionate about fostering a more inclusive, just and sustainable world? Then this master’s is the right fit for you.

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The Governance of Sustainability programme offers a transdisciplinary approach to tackling urgent environmental challenges. Designed for students from diverse academic and cultural backgrounds, this programme goes beyond traditional learning. On your path to becoming a change agent, you will learn how to integrate governance and environmental science perspectives and to collaborate with non-academic actors. This will enable you to co-create solutions to real-world sustainability issues like climate change, biodiversity loss, water management, and circular economy. Our graduates are well-prepared for careers in consultancy, governance, corporate sustainability, or research, equipped with the knowledge and skill set that are highly valued in today’s job market.

4 Reasons to study Governance of Sustainability at Leiden University

Our teaching creates a transdisciplinary environment in which you are challenged to integrate multiple perspectives, reflect on those and take ownership of your own learning process.
You will collaborate with interdisciplinary and international students to design and execute integrative research projects, combining concepts, theories and research methods of both governance and environmental sustainability.
We connect you to important organisations, institutions and other stakeholders through guest lectures, excursions, panel discussions and commissioned group projects.
You will be confronted with real-life sustainability challenges, that require in-depth insights into the environmental science and governance aspects thereof and the skills to integrate different perspectives.

Integrating different academic perspectives

Environmental sustainability challenges are complex and cut right across disciplines. In this master’s you will gain in-depth knowledge on environmental science and governance, and the skills to integrate these insights and craft effective solutions. This will equip you with the knowledge and understanding to tackle the Triple Planetary Crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Most of the courses in the master’s are co-designed and mostly also co-taught by a teacher from the Faculty of Science and a teacher from the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs.

Going beyond disciplines

You will learn to go beyond disciplines and academic perspectives. We will provide you with the skills to integrate different scientific disciplines as well as the knowledge of non-academic actors to bridge the gap between science, policy, and practice. Transdisciplinary is realized in cooperation between researchers and non-academic actors. This will enable you to tackle real-world problems, while considering scientific knowledge, as well as context-specific knowledge provided by other knowledge holders and stakeholders.

Crafting solutions

During the second year, you will follow the course Sustainability Challenge (10 ECTS). Here you will work in an interdisciplinary team on a real-world sustainability problem, commissioned by an external party. There is a wide variety of subjects. In the academic year 2025-2026, our students are working on 12 different projects, of which four examples are:

Biobased building as nature-based solution in the Dutch infrastructure construction sector
Addressing the policy gap: How demand-side measures could curb AI energy consumption
Social acceptance of geothermal energy in the Netherland
Replication of Food Pharmacy Program

Throughout the first year of the master’s, students strengthen skills such as collaboration, project management, stakeholder outreach and critical thinking. In the Sustainability Challenge you get the chance to put this into practice. You will conduct interdisciplinary research and will craft practical solutions to the sustainability problem. At the end of the course, you will present your findings at the Sustainability Challenge Symposium.

Career prospects

With an MSc degree in Governance of Sustainability, you are well prepared for a career in the field of sustainability, working with or for governments, at consultancies or companies, or pursuing a career in a research institute or university. Key policy areas include water management, agriculture and renewable energy. Read more about what our graduates do on our website.

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