Postgraduate Studentships - Search for funding opportunities.
Postgraduate Studentships - Search for funding opportunities.
Study Details: MSc: 1 year full time (PG. Cert, PG. Dip and part time options available – subject to validation)
Schumacher College in partnership with the University of Plymouth is the first in the world to offer a postgraduate programme in Holistic Science.
Are you deeply concerned about the state of nature and ready for change both as an individual and as an active agent within our culture?
We are seeking highly motivated individuals who want to make a difference in the world.
Join our learning community for this pioneering programme in holistic science which completely re-evaluates our scientific understanding of nature, the ecological crisis we face and our role in widespread ecological, economic and social change.
Information has been available for many years on issues such as the state of biodiversity, climate and global financial sustainability. Yet this alone has failed to bring about the change we need.
Experts have now agreed that information is not enough to achieve a more sustainable future. What we need at this time in history is a more emotionally-based intelligence about the state of the earth, to combine with our advanced intellectual understanding.
Holistic Science is a different way of looking at the issues we face. It combines a rigorous investigation of conventional scientific thought with cutting-edge experiential, intuitive and group learning processes to bring about a more participatory understanding of the natural world and our role within it.
From this position of participation and engagement with nature we become empowered and inspired to act in the interests of ourselves and the wider world.
Schumacher College has been the pioneering force of Holistic Science for 20 years. It has brought together the radical thinkers, practitioners and activists around the world whose ideas approach centre-stage as we collectively begin to accept the need for radical rethinking of our ecological, social and economic systems.
Holistic Science is a new and emerging science of systems and wholes, qualities and values. It allows us to look at the social, economic and ecological issues of the 21st Century in a new light. It helps us to come to understandings that go beyond the limits of our current scientific paradigm. It is the next evolution of western scientific thought.
Be part of a learning community in the beautiful and historic surrounds of Schumacher College on the Dartington Hall Estate in Devon.
Learn in small groups with the leading thinkers and pioneers of our day.
Experience different ways of learning that engage and challenge you to reconsider your relationship with nature and society, and clarify your role in the wider world.
Immerse yourself in the richness and diversity of like-minded students coming from across the globe for our short-course, postgraduate and vocational trainings.
This is not just an intellectual enquiry. It’s a really embodied, participatory approach to nature which can help to foster a deep sense of belonging
Stephan Harding, Resident Ecologist and Head of Holistic Science, Schumacher College.
Visiting teachers will be drawn from Schumacher College associates who include Craig Holdrege, Fritjof Capra, Jane Goodall, Vandana Shiva, David Orr, James lovelock, Deepak Chopra, Patch Adams, Margaret Wheatley, Wolfgang Sachs, Jonathon Porritt, Janine Benyus and many other key thinkers and activists.
Schumacher College believes in a radical and rigorous approach to learning that develops the whole person through intellect, emotion, ethics and practice. We value trans-disciplinary approaches, different ways of knowing and creative forms of expression.
The course is structured as an inquiry in itself, which draws its inspiration from nature. Students discover their own path through the learning journey which includes reflective enquiry, participatory learning methods and small-group learning experiences in addition to more conventional ways of learning.
Become immersed in a transformative postgraduate programme that is geared towards both external and inner transition.
As part of this programme you will also carry out an independent research project in which you can apply holistic science to your own area of interest.
This is an unparalleled opportunity to undertake high level research outside the usual constraints of academic norms. Projects can be presented as personal narrative, film, artwork, poetry or any other creative endeavor, alongside more conventional modes of delivery.
We normally expect our MSc students to hold a first degree in a natural or a social science, but we will accept applications from non-graduates in exceptional circumstances when relevant life and work experience can be demonstrated.
The primary qualification we are looking for in our students is a strong interest in nature, how it evolves and self-organises and what we as individuals, organisations and cultures can learn from it in our quest for a sustainable future.
We welcome people from all backgrounds, cultures and of any age – whether you are currently employed, unemployed, a student or retired. The diversity of our student group is a rich part of how we learn and is a reflection of the diversity of nature itself.
£11,960 (UK/EEA); £17,300 (non EEA)
Schumacher College has a significant bursary fund for those who cannot meet the full tuition fees.
Graduates from this MSc will have the skills and knowledge to work for sustainable change in the public, private and NGO sectors or to set up their own projects or organisations that will be a part of the transition to a more holistic understanding and appreciation of the world.
Previous students have gone into areas such as ecological business consulting, educational projects and academia, healthcare, agriculture, media and film-making, NGOs and working with indgenous people.
Course Module One: 20 credits
This module explores the philosophy and methodologies of an expanded science that values qualities as much as quantities. This new approach cultivates intuition, sensory experience and ethics as well as rational thought as a way of understanding and interacting with the natural world.
In this module, students explore basic philosophical questions central to science such as: ‘How do we acquire reliable knowledge?’ and ‘How do we investigate natural processes?’ Principles and concepts from phenomenology, cognitive science and the history of ideas are applied to the understanding of relationships between parts, wholes and emergent phenomena. Students will review the fundamental principles of Western science and explore both the usefulness and drawbacks of the reductionist approach using examples from the history of science and biology. Alternative methodologies will be offered, including Goethe’s scientific approach to the study of colour, morphology and landscape. The use of Free Choice Profiling which involves the qualitative evaluation of phenomena in various domains will also be explored.
Assessment: Students are required to produce an essay of 3,000 – 3,500 words, or a creative project of equivalent standing, for handing in at the start of the second term.
Course Module Two: 20 credits
In this module, students work with the concept of emergent self-organisation to understand how the health and well-being of individual organisms, biotic communities and entire ecosystems contribute to the health of Gaia: planet Earth as an integrated whole.
Using a combination of experiential work, rational analysis, computer modelling and careful observation of nature, students develop an understanding of emergence at different levels of organisation. Chaos and complexity theories will be used to explore how complex order emerges within a wide range of phenomena, including the chaotic pendulum, the development of form in plants and animals, the pulsing of the human heart, and the workings of ecological communities. Students will use these insights to explore James Lovelock’s Gaia Theory, which proposes that the tightly coupled interactions between living beings and their nonliving environment give rise to emergent self-regulation at the level of the Earth itself. Through these investigations, students will see how complex systems tune themselves towards the ‘edge of chaos’, a domain of rich possibilities for creativity and meaningful expression of innate wholeness.
Assessment: Students are required to produce an essay of 3,000 – 3,500 words, or a creative project of equivalent standing, for handing in at the start of the second term.
Course Module Three: 20 credits
Holistic science can contribute to the understanding of human affairs and to the development of an ecologically, culturally, economically and socially sustainable society. This module seeks to expand the enquiry that is holistic science into a practical understanding of how it can help to create a sustainable future.
In its exploration of principles such as self-organisation, wholeness, emergence, participation, quality and meaning, holistic science can be used to assess the health of society and its relationship to the natural world. In this module students work with these principles to learn how current practitioners, some of them graduates of the MSc, are using holistic science in the realms of business, science and the Transition movement to create practices and social forms that are in harmony with the natural world and that look to nature as a way to design more appropriately and responsibly.
Students have two major options for creating a project to be submitted as their assessment for this module – they can either write piece in which they reflect about how what they have learnt during the teaching sessions for this module might affect their practice and enquiry in the wider world, or they can opt to carry out a practical project in the local community.
Students choosing the latter option can create their own community projects (some of which have involved creating a herb garden in a local school, or the offering of workshops of various kinds to local residents). It is also possible for students to engage with Transition Town Totnes (TTT) as a means of applying holistic science in the world.
The assessment for community engagement options require students to reflect on their experiences, based on their understanding of holistic science.
MSc in Holistic Science students take two short courses from the diverse Schumacher College short course programme. As these courses are available to professionals and interested and active individuals, this is an excellent opportunity for students to engage with these specialist areas in a holistic way.
80 credits
In the dissertation module, students have the chance to apply their knowledge of holistic science and its methodologies to a real research problem. In the past, students have chosen to explore the applications of holistic science to a wide range of disciplines including education, agriculture, economics, design, biology, medicine, and landscape assessment.
As a new type of masters degree which encourages novel approaches to scientific investigation, students’ holistic investigations for the dissertation often result in different outcomes to traditional styles of research and reporting. The dissertation can involve the use of alternative creative formats such as personal narrative, artwork and experiential material alongside those normally used in scientific writing in order to integrate intuitive insights and feelings that arise during the course of the work. Students are encouraged to blend the analytic-synthetic and the narrative-experiential as extensions and complements of each other in a coherent, holistic manner.
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