MSc Global Change Geography – The Physical Geography of Human-Environment Systems

Understanding the Geography of Global Change Humanity has become the major driver of regional and global change in the Anthropocene. While we face planetary constraints regarding resources, climate, and ecological resilience, rapid transformations are taking place on both local and planetary scales. The MSc Global Change Geography at Humboldt-Universität aims to provide a broad understanding of these processes from a perspective of physical geography. Master's students of the MSc Global Change Geography will gain profound knowledge of current research questions, approaches, and insights regarding the interactions between the environment and society in the context of global change. Furthermore, the programme aims at providing knowledge about scientific methods and findings from physical geography, particularly biogeography, climatology, hydrology, remote sensing, sustainability sciences, and geoinformation science. Students learn to integrate scientific theories, findings, and procedures in order to analyse and model human-environmental systems. In addition, a major goal of the programme is the specialisation of scientific key skills, including scientific writing and presenting, the analysis of primary literature, and special language skills in English. The skills for dealing with questions of global change and sustainable transformation are developed by applying a wide range of teaching and assessment modes such as classical classroom teaching, virtual lessons, research guided project work, intense research seminars, and field work. The MSc Global Change Geography is a two-year Master's programme. Year one consists of compulsory and elective modules with lectures and seminars, including computer-based courses. The modular structure of year two, consisting of flexible and research-oriented specialisation modules, enables students to tailor the programme around individual interests and career goals. All courses are taught in English.

Course details verified 09 Sep 2026 — intakes, entry requirements and course facts · official source

1. Winter semester

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English

E.G. IELTS Academic: 5.5 UNIcert® English: UNIcert® III

Prerequisites

Bachelor's degree (with at least 150/180 ECTS completed by the time of application) 30 ECTS in physical geography, 5 ECTS in statistics, 10 ECTS in geoinformation science, 25 ECTS in applied geoscience English B2 or equivalent For details refer to: http://hu.berlin/mscgeo.

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