Rural Development and Natural Resource Management - Master's programme

Welcome to the Rural Development and Natural Resource Management Programme

We are glad that you have been admitted to the Master's Programme in Rural Development and Natural Resource Management for the academic years 2023–2024 at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). We look forward to having you with us in Uppsala. A very warm welcome!

The autumn semester 2023 begins with roll call and study information on campus.

Date: 28 Augusti

Time and place: On the pages for new students you will find information when the roll call for your programme begins and which room the roll call will be in.

On these pages, you will also find all the information you need as a new student at SLU, including information about the orientation days. The orientation days are not mandatory but we recommend that you attend them. They take place at the end of August, before the semester starts, and provide essential and useful information about your stay in Sweden and your studies at SLU.

Your first course will be Rurality, livelihood and gender. Link to the coursepage. On the course page, you will find a timetable for your classes and other course-related information. Timetables and reading lists will be published at least four weeks before the course starts.

The Programme runs for two years and attracts students worldwide. It offers students learning, knowledge and skills which can be used to understand and address rural development issues in the global South and North. Rural development depends on a multitude of socio-cultural, economic, health, political and agro-ecological determinants. Understanding this complexity requires trans-disciplinary analyses which students learn in the Programme. The Programme focuses on interconnections between rural development, natural resource management and social organization as well as rural-urban linkages and strategies for sustainable livelihoods.

The introductory course is followed by courses on sustainable natural resource management, conflict, democracy, facilitation, global food systems and food security, during the first year of the Programme. In the second year, the Programme offers courses on how to theorize rural development and on research methods. These courses aim to broaden the students’ understandings of social science theory and prepare them for carrying out individual research for their master theses.

To facilitate students’ learning, the experience and expertise of the faculty at SLU, and external lecturers of international repute, are enlisted with the aim to provide broad experience and understandings of rural change and natural resource management issues.

Link to programme-specific info (web page)

We would like to inform you that only students with legitimate proof will be considered for late registration (e.g. supported medical reasons). 

Best regards,

Katarina Pettersson, Director of studies