online Circular Economy (Online Learning) MSc, PgCert, PgDip

An interdisciplinary degree with the Edinburgh Futures Institute

Engaging with a ‘circular economy’ means moving away from a wasteful, linear economic model where resources are extracted, manufactured, used, and discarded. A circular economy strives to design out waste, with products and materials kept in use for as long as possible at a high value. Beyond the need for design and system innovations, a circular economy also means investigating how to change the way we consume and use goods and services, both locally and globally.

On this interdisciplinary programme, you will have the opportunity to gain skills and knowledge of circular economy in order to support communities, businesses, and policymakers to create a more sustainable and equitable future. The circular economy is an opportunity for inventive thinking, researching, and acting on urgent global challenges such as the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and unequitable resource use.

The core courses will focus on both practical and theoretical approaches to:

• the fundamentals of a circular economy
• designing for a circular economy
• the circular economy from a business perspective
• the evolving field of circular economy
• responsiveness to the climate and environmental crisis

You will be able to shape your learning to meet your own circular economy interests and objectives, particularly through option course selection and your final project. This programme offers you opportunities to think differently, examine our finite global resources in the context of our changing world and society, and to act as an agent of change.

This programme is aimed at recent graduates and early- to mid-career professionals from across the globe, and from a diverse range of backgrounds, areas of study and skill sets. We are particularly interested in students that are not afraid of challenging the status quo, who are independent thinkers, and want to make a difference in their communities and organisations.

If you have an entrepreneurial spirit, you will be given the opportunity to explore and nurture your circular economy ideas for disrupting and rethinking how we currently design, make, and use resources in the world. The programme is designed to support student entrepreneurship, with an opportunity for you to explore your own circular business ideas through coursework and the final project.

Please note, this programme is not a general Economics or environmental economics programme. While a ‘circular economy’ has economics in the name, we study ‘economics’ in a broad sense; we will not be engaged in a formal study of economics and we do not have any core economics courses. If you want to focus your studies on economics or economics and the environment, we encourage you to find out more about an economics degree programme at the University of Edinburgh.

Postgraduate study at the Edinburgh Futures Institute

This programme is part of an interconnected portfolio of postgraduate study opportunities at Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI).

The Futures Institute supports interdisciplinary teaching, learning and research that is focused on complex global and social challenges. Our programmes are taught by academic experts from many different subject areas.

As a Futures Institute student, you should be proactive and motivated. You will be supported to develop creative, critical, and data-informed thinking that cuts across traditional disciplinary boundaries. You will have the space to think deeply about questions linked to your own passions and professional goals and will develop a project based on an issue that you care about.

As well as knowledge specific to your area of study, studying at Edinburgh Futures Institute will give you the skills and understanding you need to become a creative, confident, and critical citizen in a fast-changing world.

These skills include:

• core data skills
• data ethics
• the ability to interrogate issues of global scope using perspectives from across disciplines
• creative and analytic approaches to knowledge

You can join us regardless of whether you already have experience or practical skills in the use and application of digital data.

These entry requirements are for the 2025/26 academic year and requirements for future academic years may differ. Entry requirements for the 2026/27 academic year will be published on 1 Oct 2025.

A UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, in any discipline.

We will also consider your application if you have other professional qualifications or experience; please contact us to check before you apply.

Students from China

This degree is Band C.

• Postgraduate entry requirements for students from China

International qualifications

Check whether your international qualifications meet our general entry requirements:

• Entry requirements by country

International qualifications

Check whether your international qualifications meet our general entry requirements:

• Entry requirements by country

English language requirements

Regardless of your nationality or country of residence, you must demonstrate a level of English language competency which will enable you to succeed in your studies.

English language tests

We accept the following English language qualifications at the grades specified:

• IELTS Academic: total 7.0 with at least 6.5 in each component. We do not accept IELTS One Skill Retake to meet our English language requirements.
• TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition): total 100 with at least 23 in each component. We do not accept TOEFL MyBest Score to meet our English language requirements.
• C1 Advanced (CAE) / C2 Proficiency (CPE): total 185 with at least 176 in each component.
• Trinity ISE: ISE III with passes in all four components.
• PTE Academic: total 73 with at least 65 in each component. We do not accept PTE Academic Online.
• Oxford ELLT: 8 overall with at least 7 in each component.

Unless you are a national of a majority English speaking country, your English language qualification must be no more than three and a half years old from the start of the month in which the programme you are applying to study begins. If you are using an IELTS, PTE Academic, TOEFL, Trinity ISE, or Oxford ELLT test, it must be no more than two years old on the first of the month in which the programme begins, regardless of your nationality. (Revised 14 January 2025 to include Oxford ELLT.)

Degrees taught and assessed in English

We also accept an undergraduate or postgraduate degree that has been taught and assessed in English in a majority English speaking country, as defined by UK Visas and Immigration:

• UKVI list of majority English speaking countries

We also accept a degree that has been taught and assessed in English from a university on our list of approved universities in non-majority English speaking countries (non-MESC).

• Approved universities in non-MESC

If you are not a national of a majority English speaking country, then your degree must be no more than five years old at the beginning of your programme of study.

Find out more about our language requirements:

• English language requirements

The multidisciplinary nature of the MSc Circular Economy and Edinburgh Futures Institute gives graduates key skills to face the challenges of the modern world and a rapidly changing environment.

As the impact of the resource and climate crisis continues, governments, industries, and businesses are looking for employees with specialist circular economy skills and are creating roles that will help deliver a more regenerative, less resource intensive economy.

Graduates will be well equipped to enter the job market and meet the needs of this growing professional path. There are large global companies that have already embraced circular economy strategies, in addition to public sector and governments organisations which are looking to embed circular economy into policies, strategies, procurement, and community projects. The International Labour Organisation predicts a significant increase of jobs by 2030 due to the global shift to a more circular economy.

The core elements of the programme address the data and higher-order skills we know are important for the future of work, confident and critical citizenship, and a thriving, just society.