Sustainability and Risk Management (MSc) at Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences - Hochschule

About

In the light of recent studies on climate change (e.g., by the WMO or IPCC), we face major challenges in achieving climate targets and halting global warming, especially as the Production Gap Report 2019 also offers little hope. The European Parliament has therefore declared a climate emergency and wants to take courageous measures against climate change in order to be the first continent to achieve the Paris climate targets. These include new legal and regulatory requirements to promote standards for sustainability management and sustainability reporting on climate risks, including ESG risks, for listed companies, banks, insurance companies and investment firms. Currently, more and more countries are introducing a carbon tax to accelerate the transformation of the economy. As a supranational institution, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) has established a Task Force on Climate Change Financial Information (TFCD) and launched a Green Fund as a sustainable investment vehicle for the surplus reserves of the national central banks. In its monetary policy and financial supervision opinions, the European Central Bank (ECB) points out that climate risks are a central challenge for the real and financial sector, which is why all companies and financial intermediaries must take climate risks into account in their risk management. The European Union sees the reorientation of the financial industry towards sustainable finance as a central bridge to the implementation of the Paris climate targets, since an investment requirement of 180 billion EUR per year (according to ECB President Lagard) is necessary to transform the economy in a climate-neutral way. In view of these challenges and in order to mitigate ESG risks, the Ostfalia Centre for Scientific, Interdisciplinary Risk Management (ZWIRN) has developed a new international interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary Master's degree programme in Sustainability and Risk Management (SRM) for part-time students. We see a great interaction of sustainability and risk issues as well as similar demands on the interdisciplinary treatment of these issues for practical application. Sustainability is the balance between short-term and long-term risks and benefits. Both risk and sustainability are based on forecasts with limited accuracy, and both require assessments covering environmental, economic, technological, legal and sociological aspects.

Requirements

Entry Requirements

The admission requirements for the SRM Master's programme are as follows: a completed Bachelor's or Diploma degree with a total of 210 ECTS credits at least one year of relevant professional experience, based on the course of study English language level of at least B2 The admission regulations provide for compensation regulations in order to allow access even for prospective students whose university degree only comprises 180 ECTS points.