Executive Education and Summer Schools

The School of Geography and the Environment offers a growing number of courses to inspire professionals as they approach global challenges and work towards building sustainable futures.

Our professional development programmes, led by our research centres, are designed for both early-mid career and senior leaders and attract participants from a diverse range of organisations and nationalities.

• IFSTAL: Interdisciplinary Food Systems Teaching and Learning

  IFSTAL is a pioneering learning community and resource to enable a step change in food systems thinking. We have already built a large and diverse community of more than 2000 food systems thinkers, including students from a wide range of backgrounds, alumni and workplace practitioners. IFSTAL is available to all postgraduate students enrolled at the participating institutions. The programme equips participants with the skills to apply critical interdisciplinary systems thinking to issues of long-term food security through fostering intra- and inter-institution activities, and the means for taking new learning to the work-place.

  Led by the Food Systems Research Programme at the Environmental Change Institute.

• Global Challenges in Transport Programme

  The Global Challenges in Transport: Oxford Leadership Programme provides executive online and residential courses which can be taken independently or as a series. Each course draws together transport professionals and researchers from around the world to share insights as they reflect on their own practice and wide-ranging experiences.

  Taught by world-leading experts, participants explore the broader social, environmental and political questions around transport in a lively two-way dialogue. The course content is regularly updated to focus on the most relevant complex issues and challenges around sustainable transport and provide the most updated and rigorous research.

  Run by the Transport Studies Unit.

• Oxford Programme in Sustainability Leadership

  The Environmental Change Institute's annual Oxford Programme in Sustainability Leadership (OPSL) course brings environmental sustainability to a wide network of students across the University, whatever their degree course or year.

  Through talks, workshops and practical work delivered by over 45 sustainability professionals from the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, the 3-day programme allows participants to improve their sustainability literacy and equip them with the skills required for global leadership roles.

  Run by the Environmental Change Institute.

• Sustainable Finance Executive Programme

  The Sustainable Finance Executive Programme at the University of Oxford provides an introduction to sustainable finance for professionals working across a range of sectors. Held over 5 days in Oxford, it equips participants with essential knowledge of the principles and concepts of sustainable finance, as well as an advanced understanding of the latest developments.

  The Sustainable Finance Executive Programme (formerly the Sustainable Finance Foundation Course) was launched in 2016 and is the premier executive programme on sustainable finance globally. The programme attracts the best and brightest current and future leaders and delivers a unique in-person experience that equips participants with the knowledge and networks required to undertake significant future work on sustainable finance and investment.

  The programme is designed by the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group for professionals working in a range of sectors, for example: executives working in financial institutions that need to understand how sustainability, the environment, and climate change relates to finance and investment; civil servants, regulators, and central bankers working to develop policies that can foster the development of sustainable finance; staff at environmental NGOs who would like to help the global financial system create better environmental outcomes; philanthropic funders looking to navigate sustainable finance topics so as to support the most impactful activities; and trustees or company directors that want to understand how sustainable finance relates to their fiduciary duties.

  Participants on the programme engage critically with systems and theories in sustainable finance and investment such as: active ownership, the carbon bubble, climate finance, conservation finance, disclosure, divestment, engagement, ESG, green banks, green bonds, green benchmarks and indices, impact investing, public private partnerships, reporting, responsible investment, stranded assets, green taxonomies, and more.

  Run by the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.

• Climate-related Financial Risk Course

  Measuring and managing climate-related financial risks is critical for institutions across the financial system. Our three-day Climate-related Financial Risk Programme at the University of Oxford is designed to equip individuals from financial institutions and regulators, government officials, and corporate strategists with the latest understanding of climate risks.

  The G20 Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), central banks and financial regulators have all highlighted the need for comprehensive, high-quality information on the impacts of climate change. The physical impacts are stranding assets across specific sectors of the global economy, with real implications that need to be appropriately and professionally managed.

  In addition to the latest knowledge on climate-related financial risks, the Climate-related Financial Risk Programme provides participants with the expertise, networks, and confidence to design and implement practices for measuring and managing these risks.

  Run by the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.

• Oxford Climate Emergency Programme

  This online programme is for senior leaders who recognise the need for change within their business and are looking for guidance on how to best activate it. Held over 6 weeks, the programme uniquely combines the academic expertise and research of the University of Oxford's Smith School and Saïïd Business School.

  Run by the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment and Saïd Business School.

• Summer SCENE - Summer Sustainability, Climate & ENvironmental Education

  Oxford Smith School's low-carbon summer school programme. The Summer Sustainability, Climate & ENvironmental Education course aims to guide and encourage a youth and early career audience from the Global South to engage with sustainability policy. After exploring a range of sustainability topics, you will be guided to develop a policy recommendation for world leaders, to be published at the end of the course. In a live webinar format, it provides an opportunity for participants to network in the sustainability space with peers from other Global South nations, student facilitators on current Oxford MSc courses, and learn from Oxford faculty and other experts in this field.

  Run by the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment

• Leadership in Global Change summer school

  Based at Wytham Woods, Oxford University's research woodland, this 3-day summer camp for 16 to 28 year olds is an opportunity to share and expand your own ideas about climate, nature and how we can tackle global issues.

  The course is run by the Oxford Earth Academy, with experts from Environmental Change Institute and the University woodland research team.