Development Practice (MDP)
The Master of Development Practice (MDP) offered by the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED) is aimed at producing graduates with a set of practical skills and functional forms of knowledge in the interrelated areas of health, natural, social and management sciences as they relate to the practice of international development. Integrating these core areas of knowledge, the MDP program provides students with the substantive knowledge and practical skills required to analyze and diagnose the multi-dimensional challenges of sustainable development such as extreme poverty, climate change and infectious disease. Graduates with this integrated knowledge and expertise will constitute the foundation of a new kind of development practitioner who is a social innovator, helping to shape a just, humane and ecologically sustainable world.
The MDP is a natural extension of the shared vision, mission and programs found in the Faculty of Environment, our International Development undergraduate program and the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED).
The MDP provides an excellent setting for mid-career development professionals wishing to retrain themselves or to augment their current knowledge and skills for the complex challenges of the 21st Century, and for younger scholars eager to combine generalist management strengths with issue and area specific training and experience.
The Master of Development Practice is an outcome of the International Commission on Education for Sustainable Development Practice and the program at the University of Waterloo is part of the international Global MDP network of over 20 universities that offer the MDP program. The MDP strives to educate students in practical and multi-disciplinary approaches to international development studies in ways that match the needs and aspirations of young people and leaders today. As important as the superb in-classroom training that students receive in our collegial state of the art facilities on campus, is the four month hands-on field experience in a development context that students complete after their first year in the program.
The MDP is generously supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Environment and Business (MEB)
The Master of Environment and Business (MEB) program offered by the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED) is aimed at meeting the growing need for business sustainability professionals as a distinct group of knowledgeable, skilled, confident and motivated individuals with the information, tools and expertise to integrate environment with business in very practical ways.
The MEB program offers a part-time program of studies offered through distance education courses with minimal on-campus study, and with course materials distributed over the Internet.
Graduates will be prepared for senior level positions, primarily as team-leaders or in strategic positions in corporations and medium and small-businesses seeking to change to more sustainable practices. Other intended job destinations include consulting firms and nongovernmental organizations that assist businesses in sustainability issues. Government departments (municipal, provincial and federal), public organizations (hospitals, school boards, etc.), and international agencies will also benefit from hiring our graduates.
Local Economic Development (MAES)
As Canada's only graduate program in Local Economic Development (LED), the Master's of Applied Environmental Studies (MAES) program prepares students for careers in local, regional, and community economic development. As well, many economic development professionals take the program to upgrade their skills and earn a specialized Master's degree.
Over the past few years the importance of local economic development has grown as communities and regions search for innovative ways to diversify their economic activities. Our graduates, who benefit from the University of Waterloo's reputation as one of Canada's leading graduate schools, have careers in communities across Canada.
The program is designed to be completed in a year and consists of eight courses, a research paper, and an internship for students with less than two years professional experience. Students learn theoretical fundamentals and applied skills through weekly contact with economic development professionals and the Faculty's own researchers and professors.
Seminars taught by guest speakers and leading researchers expose students to a range of local development issues, including entrepreneurship, information technologies, labour market processes, service sector expansion, globalization, strategic economic planning, environmental impact assessment, and sustainability.
As members of an interdisciplinary program within the Faculty of Environment, students in Local Economic Development interact with students and professors in the Faculty's other graduate programs: Environment and Resource Studies, Geography and Environmental Management, and Planning.
Topics of mutual interest include industrial, urban, and rural economic development, resource and recreation analysis, tourism, as well as urban, regional, and environmental planning. Students also benefit from close ties with the Department of Economics in the Faculty of Arts.
Approximately fifteen to twenty new students are admitted to the program each year, keeping class sizes small to allow students to interact with professors, guest speakers, and fellow students.