This year provides knowledge and experience of interdisciplinarity, a thorough and broad introduction to environment-development issues, and preparing you for your second-year specialisation while also developing your generic skills and academic potential. More specifically, the first year:

• provides you with an understanding of the principles and processes that underpin environment-development challenges and solutions, with particular importance assigned to interdisciplinarity
• provides you with methods to collect primary data in the field, then takes you to the field (at various global destinations) to practice these methods
• prepares you for your second-year specialisation
• develops your intellectual, practical, numeracy, communication, information and communication technology, interpersonal/teamwork, self-management, and professional development skills
• inculcates the values of scholarship: inquiry, reflection, integrity, open-mindedness, evidence-based thinking, and collegiality

First-year programme overview

In Copenhagen, there are four blocks (each is nine weeks) of teaching each year. Each block is 15 ECTS, with 1 ECTS equivalent to around 28 work hours. The elective courses are entirely free – you can choose what you want. The restricted elective courses must be selected from the specific list of courses (see below) for your line of specialisation.

Compulsory courses: 30 ECTS
Restricted elective courses: 15 ECTS
Elective courses: 15 ECTS

Specialisation: Agricultural Development (second year at University of Milan)

The restricted elective courses (a total of 15 ECTS) must be chosen from the list below. Click on each course for a detailed description:

Specialisation: Susatinable Environmental Development (second year at University of Warsaw)

The restricted elective courses (a total of 15 ECTS) must be chosen from the below list. Click on each course for a detailed description:

The second year specialistion in Milan is on Agricultural Development. The compulsory modules continue the agricultural development specialisation commenced in the first year (with emphasis on plants), focusing on livestock, water management, and mechanization. The main aims are to:

• develop students’ understanding of the principles and processes that underpin sustainable agricultural development
• develop students’ abilities in the use of information technology, teamwork, communication skills and time management in an agriculture and development context
• provide students with knowledge and skills needed by commercial companies, NGOs, and governments responding to current challenges to agricultural systems
• equip students for a career in sustainable agricultural development and allied professions requiring an ability to synthesise concepts and ideas and to take a holistic view

Second-year modules on the Milano natural science mobility track, compulsory modules are shaded 

^{1 Each student chooses at least 11 ECTS among the 11 modules: 1. Experimental methodologies in agriculture (6 ECTS); 2. Biomass and waste recycling (7); 3. Environmental impact of agro-food production systems (4); 4. Agro-environmental analysis and modelling (6); 5. Energy for agriculture (6); 6. Plant disease and pest management (6); 7. Cropping systems (8); 8. Natural resources economics (6); 9. International cooperation and crop-livestock systems (6); 10. Characterisation and management of animal and plant genetic resources (6); or 11. Adaptation of livestock systems to climate change (6)}

The second-year specialisation in Warsaw is on Sustainable Environmental Development. The compulsory modules focus on studying environment and development issues in relation to contemporary social challenges. The main aims are to:

• develop students’ understanding of the principles and processes that underpin sustainable development and enable them to apply these principles to environmental development
• develop students’ abilities in the use of information technology, communication skills, and time management in an environment and development context
• develop students’ abilities to use methods, assess data, and design feasible environment-development interventions
• equip students for a career in sustainable development and allied professions requiring an ability to synthesise concepts and ideas and to take a holistic view

Second-year modules on the Warsaw social science mobility track, compulsory modules are shaded 

¹ Each student chooses at least 11 ECTS from the nine modules: 1. Innovations and Knowledge Transfer (4 ECTS), 2. Global Justice and Human Rights (6), 3. Challenges of the Social Dimension of Sustainability (3), 4. Research Study (8), 5. International Environmental Law (8), 6. Entrepreneurship, Leadership & CSR (3), 7. Reclamation, Remediation and Renaturalisation of the Environment (2), 8. The World at the Crossroads (2), 9. Communication, Education and Cooperation (3), or 10. Climate Change (3).