MSc Data Science (Earth and Environmental Analytics) / Course details

Year of entry: 2025

Course description

Whether you’re trying to make sense of a football match, a general election or a business’ financial performance, data is vital. Our Data Science – Earth and Environment Analysis master’s will teach you invaluable skills for today’s economy such as:

  • data analysis
  • project design
  • computational methods
  • data stewardship.

This pathway focusses particularly on the data techniques and uses that are most relevant to environmental management, with optional course units exploring themes such as pollution control and subsurface geoscience.

The course welcomes applicants from a range of STEM, business and humanities backgrounds. Working with the rest of your student cohort will enrich your understanding of the uses and potential of data.

Upon course completion, you’ll have developed a highly valued skillset, enhancing your employability across countless sectors.

Aims

This innovative MSc in Data Science course is an opportunity for graduates from a broad range of disciplines to develop data science skills. Our goal is to help you develop into an agile, skilled data scientist, adept at working in a variety of settings and be able to meet the challenges and reap the rewards of interdisciplinary teamwork.  

There is growing evidence across academia, policy makers and industry that `Environmental Intelligence (EI)' is an emerging research area of strategic global importance. Its primary aim is to understand and respond to the complex interactions between the environment, climate, natural ecosystems, human social and economic systems, and health.    

Key areas of concern include:

  • Climate Change (e.g., resilient cities, clean power, smart transport options, sustainable production).
  • Biodiversity and Conservation (e.g., habitat protection and restoration, pollution control, realizing natural capital), Natural Hazards (e.g., predicting and forecasting, early warning systems, resilient infrastructure).
  • Environment and Health (e.g., air quality, water and sanitisation, social and environmental inequalities).   

Mapped to The University of Manchester's research strengths, the aim of this pathway is to prepare you for new and exciting training across cutting edge data science and environmental science technologies to integrate multiple complex data sources and create tools that enable informed decision making for future environmental systems.

Course unit details

Through a set of core units, you will develop a set of key data science skills.

The core units are:

  • Machine Learning and Statistics (both semesters);
  • Understanding Databases;
  • Understanding Data and their Environment;
  • Applying Data Science

Course unit list

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

TitleCodeCredit ratingMandatory/optional
Statistics and Machine Learning 1: Statistical Foundations DATA70121 15 Mandatory
Statistics & Machine Learning 2: AI, Complex Data, Computationally Intensive Statistics DATA70132 15 Mandatory
Understanding Databases DATA70141 15 Mandatory
Applying Data Science DATA70202 15 Mandatory
Understanding Data and their Environment DATA71011 15 Mandatory
Extended Research Project DATA72000 60 Mandatory
Programming in Python for Business Analytics BMAN73701 15 Optional
Privacy, Confidentiality and Disclosure Control DATA70402 15 Optional
Measuring and Predicting 2 EART60071 15 Optional
Computational Subsurface Geoscience EART60152 15 Optional
Key Interpretation Skills EART60381 15 Optional
Earth and Environmental Data Science EART60702 15 Optional
Environmental Monitoring and Modelling EART62012 15 Optional
Pollutant Mobility and Transformation EART62022 15 Optional
Pollution Management in Practice 2 EART63012 15 Optional
Digital Terrain Analysis GEOG60412 15 Optional
Environmental Remote Sensing GEOG60941 15 Optional
GIS and Environmental Applications GEOG60951 15 Optional
Understanding GIS GEOG71551 15 Optional
Neighbourhood Planning Project PLAN60812 15 Optional
Displaying 10 of 20 course units

Scholarships and bursaries

The School offers a number of awards for students applying for master's study.

To find our more, please visit our master's funding opportunity search page.

Disability support

Practical support and advice for current students and applicants is available from the Disability Advisory and Support Service. Email: dass@manchester.ac.uk