the course study tours

Travel the world! Spots still available for 2025 J-Term study tours

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Students of all class years and majors can participate in a special study tour to discover new interests and test their creativity. Seats are still open for 2025 J-Term study tours . Check out the study tours that still have spots available below. Hurry and enroll before the courses fill up.

Get funding for your study tour by applying for a scholarship .

Travel in January 2025

Experience Tanzania: Religion, Society, and Culture

Study Tanzanian society and culture. Traveling across northern Tanzania, you will have the opportunity to immerse in the abundantly diverse social, cultural, religious, and natural surroundings of Tanzania. Learn more

Contacts:   Prof. Andrea Ng’weshemi, Prof. Debbie Masloski

Flora, Fauna, and Culture in Argentina

Explore the local flora and fauna of Argentina and learn about the unique adaptations that exist in various niches. You will discover the evolutionary connections between organisms at each site. Along the way, you will also learn about the cultural significance of local flora and fauna and the role that these organisms have played in the lives of humans. Learn more

Contacts:   Prof. Matt Borden, Prof. Angela Dassow

Global Perspectives in Healthcare: Service Learning in Honduras

Help implement health promotion activities and treatment of health problems in a community with needs. Additional study will focus on the community as a whole and identify needs endemic to the people within it. Experiences that provide learning about cultural differences related to health care, family, economics, technology, religion, and other aspects will be identified. Learn more

Contacts:  Prof. Nancy Reese, Prof. Rachel Martinez

J-Term in Paris: A Capital Experience

Learn about French history and culture through the various places visited, including museums and monuments. You will learn about the main styles of architecture and principal schools of art. You will also be guided to make observations on the French daily way of life, including conversational styles, food and table manners, use of transportation, and use of public and private spaces, and will make observations of public institutions in comparison to the U.S. Learn more

Contacts: Prof. Caitlin Quintenz, Prof. Stephanie Mitchell

Photographing Nature in Costa Rica

Use digital photography to explore plant and animal species and their habitats. The course will begin with an introduction to digital photography, and then you will travel to Costa Rica, where you will focus for 13 days on a variety of organisms, learning to photograph them while exploring their biology. You will visit a variety of locations and learn about conservation efforts that are ongoing in Costa Rica. Learn more

Contact: Prof. Laura Huaracha

The Role of Tourism in Cuba and Its Effect on Cuban Society

Visit Cuba and learn about the role of tourism and its effect on Cuban society. The course is designed to enhance students’ global perspectives by exploring the impact of socialism on Cuba and the similarities and differences between the Cuban and U.S. political, economics, and social systems. You will learn about life in Cuba through its traditions, music, dances, art, food, gender roles, and language in this diverse culture that includes a mixture of Spanish, African, and Caribbean cultures. Learn more

Contact: Prof. Jeffrey Roberg Information Session: 11:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19, Lentz Hall 420

Writers in Context: Reading Jane Austen’s ‘Persuasion’ in England

Immerse yourself in the cultural, historical, and geographic contexts of “Persuasion,” Jane Austen’s novel of love, the sea, and second chances. The tour will include a week in Bath and a week in London, with excursions to Bristol, Lyme, Hampshire, and Portsmouth. Learn more

Contacts:  Prof. David Garcia, Prof. Alyson Kiesel

Travel in Summer 2025

Biology and Geography of Nicaragua

Experience either clinical work or work on water and other environmental projects. Both aspects provide you with first-hand knowledge of the rural volcanic island of Ometepe, Nicaragua. You will also learn the fascinating history, culture, and environment of this country, and see how all of this has affected the land and people. Learn more

Contact: Prof. Matthew Zorn

Discovering Cultural Traditions in Modern Japanese Society

Learn about the rich cultural traditions of Japan and its evolution in contemporary Japanese society. You will be encouraged to learn broadly in the context of a rapidly changing civilization and develop an understanding of the class material by direct contact with the people, places, cuisine, art, architecture, religion, and social customs that serve as our unwritten text. Learn more

Contacts: Prof. Yan Wang, Prof. Wenjie Sun

Field Techniques of Vertebrate Paleontology

Learn the skills of collecting dinosaur bones — such as Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops — and other fossils from seasoned paleontologists. The course includes hiking, discovering new bones, and working on sites in progress. This is a science lab course for students of all majors and it has no prerequisites aside from a passion for dinosaurs! Learn more

Contact: Prof. Thomas D. Carr

Global Perspectives in Healthcare: Service Learning in Belize

Contact: Prof. Rachel Martinez

Apply for J-Term scholarships

College Study Tours: The Top Benefits of Learning Abroad

Last Updated on February 28, 2017

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Know that, we only share companies and services I know and trust to be valuable recommendations to our readers.

What is a study Tour?

A study tour is an experience where students study abroad as an alternative to traditional classroom-based learning. Students are required to meet course objectives and graded on specific learning outcomes based on the class syllabus. Traditional travel destinations include:

• Europe region
• Asia region
• Latin America region
• USA and Canda region
• Austraila region
• New Zeland region

The most common ages for travelers are 18-35 years old.

Here are the benefits of study tours to students:

Aids in learning.

As one famous adage goes and I quote, “There's no education quite like the lessons of travel.” It is a great and effective way to learn specific subjects beyond textbooks and lectures. Joining a study tour with an expert guide who's very knowledgeable about the place or topic is like having on-hand answers to questions that may not be fully accounted in some books. A study gives you a solid picture of how or what one really is when seen in person.

When we talk of a sculpture, let's say the famous Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, Denmark, seeing it on a picture, many of us may have said to ourselves, I wonder how it looks in person or what made it very interesting. Once you see the actual piece and how impressive and detailed the work is, then you now have instant answers to your questions. Most famous sites even have their own facilities that hold records of a site's/subject's history, founding and everything related to it.

Creates a new and fun experience

We may have heard from someone before that “we learn from experience.” While good teaching is still an important learning foundation for each of us (especially during our younger years – and I don't think that can be easily replaced) the world is also an effective classroom. Although classroom learning can be rewarding, long hours of lectures may sometimes be a daunting event; an option for a study tour anytime in the course of study can be an exciting and fun new experience that students may look forward to.

A study tour helps students appreciate their field of study more and it really helps them better realize the interaction between their chosen fields of study to the rest of the world. Study tours help students open themselves to many possibilities that are not just contained in one geographical location or culture.

Study tours expose students to other cultures

Study tours can be a great way to learn new things about different cultures and be aware of certain differences between them, as well as similarities. It makes students see certain issues in a new perspective and some study tours even allow students to immerse themselves in a different community even if it's just a short period of time. In return, they are exposed to cultures of different socio-economic statuses which help them build compassion and better understanding for these cultures. To a certain extent, we can say that study tours allow people to gain a new perspective on things simply because they've been there; they have experienced it and somehow built a connection to that culture or place.

Opportunity to find new interests and enhance existing ones

After traveling to many places, there will be different things you'll see that may not be available or done in your area or country. Being exposed first hand to things related to your study, as well as new things you'll see for the first time, there are a lot of opportunities for you to discover new interests or enhance existing passions. A lot of business ideas nowadays are based on things they saw in another place but couldn't find it in another – so they decide to build one.

Builds friendship and enhance social skills

Spending time with people outside of the classroom and exploring and finding new things together definitely allows students to have and share a common experience. Especially if you are traveling to a different country for your study tour, before leaving it is definitely advisable to somehow learn quite a few words as well as common practices in that country for a better social experience. Let's say, you are traveling to Denmark, it wouldn't hurt to learn a few helpful Danish words, don't you think? And once you're in that country, maximize the opportunity to socialize with locals; you might learn a thing or two that is way different from the country you came from.

Good study tours offer great possibilities to people of different ages and cultures. They are definitely an effective tool for experiential learning not only about your field of study but also its relation and effects to different places and culture . Study tours may be arranged to accommodate both small and large groups and depending on your needs. Check out your course syllabus if a study tour is included or reputable travel agencies to find out more about your options for great study trips.

So go ahead! Take advantage of a study tour opportunity, make new friends, increase your knowledge and understanding, and explore new terrains, people, and culture.

Abigail Agres and Kaylee Wilson are lifestyle and mom bloggers. They write for TeamBenns, Denmark's premier travel agency for group travel and student tours .

Kaylee Wilson is a proud single mom and a professional writer. She currently contributes at http://helpyourteennow.com/ . Help Your Teen Now brings together a vast collection of resources that will help families find their bearings. Click here to learn more.

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Gloomy TV ratings hang over LIV Championship, PGA Tour fall debut

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Jon Rahm's LIV Individual Championship win came in front of an average audience of 89,000 viewers, per the SBJ.

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Most of the time, TV ratings require nuance.

Anyone can read the numbers, but the numbers don’t always tell you everything you need to know. A favorable time slot, pre-broadcast audience tailwinds, or a lack of alternative options can boost a good rating in much the same way a scheduling snafu, extra opponent, or changed timezone can influence a bad one.

But the numbers from this weekend’s professional golf tournaments — the LIV individual championship and the PGA Tour’s Procore Championship — need no such context. They were bad by any objective measure, raising the latest warning of a TV audience exodus driven by years of division and confusion in the pro game.

We’ll start with the PGA Tour, which recorded 69,000 average viewers during Sunday’s final round at the Procore Championship in Napa, less than a quarter of the audience that tuned into Sahith Theegala’s final round victory in the same event last fall.

The Procore Championship (formerly the Fortinet Championship, Safeway Open and Frys Open) was not aided by the same Netflix star-winner support it received in ’23. Instead, PGA Tour journeyman Patton Kizzire seized a five-shot win over a light field. The final round aired opposite the NFL on Golf Channel, which reaches a far smaller audience than most traditional PGA Tour broadcasts on NBC and CBS. Still, the final number was paltry even by Golf Channel’s diminished viewership standards, considering it ranked beneath the August average for a Golf Channel telecast of any kind ( 76,000 ).

Kizzire’s win kicked off a FedEx Cup Fall Season refashioned by the PGA Tour to serve as a feeder series for the big tour. The Tour shifted away from its “wraparound schedule” to amplify its biggest events during the spring and summer months when sports TV competition is comparatively light. But the downside of that shift is that it risks ceding the fall months to the NFL and college football entirely — a change that could further harm the rest of the Tour’s diminishing TV ratings.

The situation was just as dire across the street at LIV, where only 89,000 average viewers tuned into Sunday’s final round of the league’s individual championship in Chicago, less than one-third of the 286,000 viewers that tuned into the league’s first event on the CW in Mexico last February.

LIV’s ratings were closer to its averages, but the league didn’t have the PGA Tour’s built-in challenges of a journeyman winner, a weaker point in its yearlong schedule or an event that aired exclusively on cable. Rather, LIV’s averages — which fall safely below the August averages on such cable channels as Great American Family, Disney Junior and Up TV — came from the final round of what might be its biggest event of the year, with one of the league’s highest-priced stars claiming a big-money victory on the league’s typical broadcast network home, the CW.

We’ll point out here that LIV and the PGA Tour faced lots of competition in the sports world this weekend, including a typical bludgeoning from the NFL’s TV behemoth and a pair of in-house competitors, the Irish Open and Solheim Cup. These items no doubt combined to steal market share from the two major pro tour telecasts, but it’s also fair to ask if, even given these headwinds, telecasts from the two largest pro tours in the world should be capable of producing viewership larger than a combined 158,000 average viewers.

Tempting as it is to focus on these questions, or more specific issues with either league’s television and competitive products, another gloomy batch of ratings raises bigger concerns about the health of the sport’s TV product more broadly.

LIV’s intrusion into the sport has made pros fabulously wealthy and infused billions in new investment, but it has cost golf dearly in terms of public goodwill. Scores of casual golf fans have reported tuning out of pro golf after being angered by the sport’s partisan rancor, turned off by its lack of week-to-week star power, disinterested in its new competitive formats or confused by the on-again, off-again state of peace talks between the two sides, which have now stretched to 15 months without any clear solutions.

Over the last nine months, executives at both leagues and several networks have slow-walked concerns raised about the state of the TV audience, but the growing number of questions surrounding sagging ratings underscored a deeper truth: the numbers were dropping.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves when it comes to the ratings stuff. It’s early to be worried,” CBS Sports chief David Berson told GOLF in May , a point echoed in later months by executives at NBC, LIV, and more recently, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.

At the end of the 2024 regular season, SBJ’s Josh Carpenter quoted one PGA Tour network partner as having faced a year-over-year ratings swoon of 15 to 17 percent, far outpacing the dips faced by other sports properties as cord-cutting continues to proliferate.

“I think when you look at 2024, it’s important to note, and I’m going to note it, that overall consumption across our platforms in aggregate is up,” Monahan said at the Tour Championship last month . “That’s a really good sign for the PGA Tour and the engagement that we have with our fans.”

Consumption data is good for optics, but ratings are still where sports leagues and networks make their money. The value of a sports TV deal is tied intrinsically to the size of the audience and the volume of advertisements sold — without either, a deal isn’t nearly as valuable.

This is why LIV has struggled to gain a noticeable foothold with advertisers and corporate partners, and why it has entertained extending its agreement with the CW despite those same audience development struggles. It’s also why the PGA Tour is spending the fall looking for innovative solutions for its telecasts, including its curious influencer pilot program, the “Creator Classic.”

None of this is to say that pro golf is headed in a hopeless direction, or that the losses of the last several years are unfixable next to the combined financial might of golf’s two major pro tours. It is to say, however, that the problem of television ratings in golf is real, and that each of golf’s stakeholders bears a piece of the responsibility.

After the latest round of ratings, it’s okay to be blunt.

Like what you read? Subscribe to James Colgan’s Hot Mic Newsletter and get the scoop on golf media news in your inbox before it lands on the web.

You can reach the author at [email protected] .

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Golf.com Editor

James Colgan is a news and features editor at GOLF, writing stories for the website and magazine. He manages the Hot Mic, GOLF’s media vertical, and utilizes his on-camera experience across the brand’s platforms. Prior to joining GOLF, James graduated from Syracuse University, during which time he was a caddie scholarship recipient (and astute looper) on Long Island, where he is from. He can be reached at [email protected].

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Climate, Risk and Society

• September 2025
• September 2024

1 year full-time, 2 years part-time

Durham City

Course details

Our MA in Climate, Risk and Society provides an in-depth understanding of how changes in the global climate resulting from human activity are set to pose new risks and challenges to society whether in the form of natural physical events or more indirectly through political activity.

The course explores how climate risk is perceived, managed and mitigated by individuals, organisations and governments around the world, taking a social science approach to climate change and resilience in addition to risk. This makes it as relevant to a learning background in natural sciences or engineering as it is to the social sciences.

You will study taught modules over a year full-time or two years part-time in subjects including understanding risk, the social dimensions of risk and resilience and using geographical skills and techniques. You will also complete a major project; this can take the form of a research-based dissertation where you carry out original independent study or a vocational dissertation that combines external placements with independent research.

To further embed practice into the course, we work closely with the University’s Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience (IHRR) and through this, you will gain a vital insight into practitioner and academic perspectives at the forefront of risk thinking and practice. The IHRR also hosts an annual seminar series tailored specifically to students on climate, hazards and risk postgraduate programmes.

The postgraduate community is a vibrant and supportive network, and when you join us at Durham you will be part of an active group that is both social and academic. You will be able to participate in research events and start to build an industry network, as well as attend talks given inside and outside the Department of Geography throughout the year.

Course structure

Core modules:.

Climate Risk and Society provides an advanced understanding of human influence-based climate change as an issue that poses new risks to society, challenges and vulnerabilities and will help you to develop tools for responding to these emerging natural and socio-political threats. You will be required to think critically about how evolving understandings of risk, resilience and vulnerability shape efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Understanding Risk provides an overview of the key theories and concepts that reflect the interdisciplinary nature of risk involving human action and environmental events. You will learn the basic concepts and terms used to describe and communicate risk, as well as studying interventions involved in managing, preventing or mitigating against risk to populations, and building an understanding of the determinants of risk and its social inequalities.

Research Methods for Global Challenges  introduces students to a selection of social science research methods, such as interviewing, participatory research, thematic mapping, and critical data storytelling. The module provides hands-on experience working using these methods, working with data and drawing conclusions. In doing so, we train students in principles of good research design and ethical practice in contemporary research on global challenges.

Risk Frontiers is delivered by the Institute of Hazard and Risk Research. This module looks at current risk research and provides training in the generic skills of interpreting, criticising and collating the emerging research. What you learn will help meet the demands of the risk industry and associated areas such as disaster reduction, security, development and humanitarian relief.

Social Dimensions of Risk and Resilience offers advanced training in topics relevant to understanding the social dimensions of risk and resilience with a particular emphasis on environmental hazard, climate change, security, migration and insurance. This module takes an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on research in human geography, security studies, sociology of risk, political science, science and technology studies, as well as legal and commercial risk studies.

The Dissertation (Research or Vocational) builds on your learning in taught modules. It offers the option to develop independent research skills through a research dissertation in which you carry out original independent research supported by our staff. Alternatively, you can choose the vocational dissertation route which combines research with collaborations or placements with external organisations. We offer vocational dissertation partnerships and project options through our large and growing partner and alumni network, or we can support you in developing your own vocational research collaborations.

Learn more about our suite of taught masters in the  Geography Department .

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The course offers an interactive and participatory approach in which we aim to get to know you and work with you individually. Classes are delivered using a combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials, workshops and practical sessions, with approaches to learning structured around the content of the module. 

You will receive approximately eight hours of module contact time per week during terms one and two, although this can vary from week to week. In total, for full-time study, you should expect to devote around eight hours per day to work during term time, including all assessments.

Throughout the course, you will be supported by an academic advisor and you will also be assigned a dissertation supervisor.

All modules require the completion of coursework, including traditional tools of assessment such as essays, presentations and reports but also other forms such as podcasts and portfolios featuring a compilation of work.

In the final term and over the summer, you will complete a research-based or vocational dissertation, bringing together elements of learning from across all the taught modules. 

Entry requirements

An upper second-class degree (2:1).

Band E English language requirements ( see here for details .)

Application to the MA/MSc in Climate Risk and Society requires:

• Transcripts of your qualifications
• English language test certificates if taken
• Personal statement (if not written directly into the portal)
• Scholarship documentation (if applying)

English language requirements

Fees and funding

The tuition fees for 2025/26 academic year have not yet been finalised, they will be displayed here once approved.

The tuition fees shown are for one complete academic year of study, are set according to the academic year of entry, and remain the same throughout the duration of the programme for that cohort (unless otherwise stated) .

Please also check costs for colleges and accommodation .

Scholarships and Bursaries

We are committed to supporting the best students irrespective of financial circumstances and are delighted to offer a range of funding opportunities. 

Career opportunities

Department information.

Find out more:

Apply for a postgraduate course (including PGCE International) via our online portal.  

• Applicant Portal (not PGCE unless International)
• Admissions Policy

The best way to find out what Durham is really like is to come and see for yourself!

Join a Postgraduate Open Day

• Date: 01/09/2023 - 31/08/2024
• Time: 09:00 - 17:00

Self-Guided Tours

• Time: 09:00 - 16:00

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Study Tours

About our tours.

Each tour is led by one of our Study Leaders with expertise in the subject matter along with a Smithsonian Representative to handle all the logistics and comforts of the group. The study leader imparts knowledge both formally and informally throughout the tour, with methods that can include a background lecture, handout materials, narrating site visits, and stimulating social engagement with all participants during the course of the tour.

Study tours include day bus trips, multi-day and overnight tours, and shorter neighborhood walks or visits to specific sites. We offer over 70 study tours each year, and we hope you will join us!

Select a tour type to learn more:

Day Bus Tours

Popular day bus tours have included:

• Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater
• John Wilkes Booth's Escape Route
• Western Maryland Scenic Railroad
• Sultana Cruise & Historic Chestertown
• The Cloisters of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Overnight Tours

Popular overnight tours have included:

• Best of Brooklyn, New York
• Berkshires Summer Sampler
• Exploring Frank Lloyd Wright in Chicago
• Corning Museum of Glass
• West Virginia Railroad Spectacular

Walking & On-Site Tours

Popular walking and on-site tours have included:

• Inside Smithsonian Libraries
• Architecture on the National Mall
• Dupont Circle and Embassy Row
• Sunrise Hike at Great Falls
• Roosevelt Island Walks
• Read our frequently asked questions
• Still have a question? Send us an email with your Study Tours questions!

All upcoming Study Tours

Discover landmarks, art, and other projects from the New Deal period with author David Taylor during a walking tour in Washington, D.C. Sites visited include Judiciary Square to see the public sculptures and dramatic courthouse bas reliefs there; the Henry F. Daly Building, constructed in the Classical Moderne style; the Federal Trade Commission Building, which features monumental Art Deco sculptures; and the National Mall and Washington Monument, both of which were renovated during the New Deal period.

Home to a vibrant theater scene, the Washington area offers opportunities for theater lovers to experience world-class productions, from grand-scale to intimate stages. Join local guide Lynn O’Connell for her second tour of the region’s theaters to explore five additional venues, meeting key players who make the magic happen.

One of America's most innovative architects, Frank Lloyd Wright experimented with new ways to design homes and integrate them into nature. Fallingwater, Kentuck Knob, and the houses at Polymath Park offer prime examples of his organic architecture. Visit all three locations on an overnight tour to the scenic Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania with tour leader Bill Keene , a lecturer on architecture, urban history, and city planning. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1 credit)

A mecca for aficionados of railroad technology and history, Strasburg, Pennsylvania, offers the ideal destination for a tour led by rail historian James Reaves . Featured in the leisurely day are a round-trip steam train excursion through beautiful Lancaster County on the country’s oldest continuously operating railroad and an afternoon at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, which houses more than 100 locomotives and cars.

The stark natural beauty of Long Island’s South Fork has inspired painters from William Merritt Chase and Childe Hassam to Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Lee Krasner. Participants in a 5-day tour led by arts journalist Richard Selden encounter works by these artists and others at galleries in the Hamptons; visit the former home and studio of Krasner and Pollock; and take in the Brooklyn Museum and the Yale University Art Gallery during travel to and from Long Island. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1 credit)

Previous Study Tours

From peru to st petersburg to poland: browse our previous art history tours.

If you are interested in travelling with lecturers who know their destinations intimately and can take you to places not usually open to the public, The Course can offer far more than the average tourist experience.

We launched our travel arm in 1997 with a study tour to Japan and since then we have run tours throughout Europe, America, China, Egypt, India and Turkey.

Our aim is to make the tours as exciting and friendly as possible. So whilst many of those travelling on the tours are students on our teaching programmes, you are welcome to bring along family and friends.

The tours are arranged by us but are facilitated through bonded agents, so you have the security offered by a large company while enjoying the flexibility of an independent organisation.

A few of our previous Study Tours are here.

BRUSSELS, ANTWERP and GHENT: A Cultural Extravaganza of Art and Architecture

Rembrandt to mondrian: masterpieces of dutch art, palaces, islands, and masterpieces of northern italy (milan, turin and the borromean islands), equador & peru, ancient greece, syria and baalbek in lebanon, great country houses of dorset: a private view, hidden tuscany, great country houses of norfolk: a private view, dutch masters: art in amsterdam, royalty and revolutionaries: the glories of st. petersburg, the magnificence of the spanish baroque and its legacy, from porcelain to painting: the treasures of dresden, vienna: imperial splendour and modern masters, kraków: poland’s jewel in the crown, legends of the french riviera, the art treasures of northern italy, berlin: a cultural extravaganza of art & architecture, award winning.

“Very insightful course, thought provoking. Loved looking at how different cultures handle same/similar materials.”

“I have just completed Nicole’s online course on the Art of Venice. It was truly fascinating, extremely well put together and I really appreciated the linear style which has helped me arrange the artists and their styles into relevant time frames. She has aptly demonstrated and explained why and how Venice is a city like no other, and how even its artists couldn’t help but celebrate it in their epic works. I have always thought of it as a sort of female city and now I think I know why! Epic! A tour de force!”

“Anyone who is interested in art history, culture, literature and architecture will be bowled over by the range and content of the courses planned by Mary Bromley and delivered by her team who are the most amazingly erudite, learned people you could meet but who provide fascinating insights into the world of art in easy to digest informative ways. If this person is you, make haste and look at The Course curriculum a.s.a.p. The Courses change each year and are not repeated! So hurry! Let The Course open up a brand new way of looking at and appreciating the amazing works of art that surround us here and abroad.”

“An exceptionally well-structured course with excellent slides that facilitated side-by-side comparisons. Very thought-provoking.”

“Marie-Anne Mancio’s Print and Print-Making course was excellent. Give any topic to Marie Anne and she seems to be able to bring it to life! A subject as dry as printmaking must have been a challenge but as always she rose to the challenge. I feel it’s as though she was tasked with ‘Your mission should you accept it is to do a four part lecture series on Prints and Printmaking and make it interesting!’ She did just that! She has shown how enriched we all are as a result of innovations in print, etching, engraving and lithography. Her inclusion of videos was also ingenious. I really enjoyed the emphasis on British artists and their political, moral and social takes on life.”

“Outstanding lecturer with a rich knowledge, excellent slides and well delivered. Superior to any lectures on my degree courses.”

“Exceptional courses and lecturers.”

“I really love my mornings at The Course and am so grateful you let me dip in and out if I am around. The different topics you cover are extraordinary – and all fascinating. You go to such lengths to make it all so perfect and the atmosphere you create is full of friendship and fun. Thank you, thank you for such happy times.”

“A revelatory, microscopic look at some of the world’s most iconic art works, providing insights as to the artist’s intent. Outstanding! Your best course yet, Leslie.”

“I do not think The Course could be improved. The organization, lecturers and venue are all first class”

“How do you do it? Just when I think the series just ended is the best yet, along comes another which is even better. This has been a marvellous mix of the aesthetic and informative and remains in the memory. Marie-Anne’s lightness of touch belies remarkable erudition – a delight to listen to. The idea of wearing the subject colour is fun and starts you thinking about the lecture long before it begins. Notes exemplary”

“A captivating study of the art world through the prism of colour. You have given me a new dimension to appreciating art”

“I love the series of lectures on offer so far. I think the organiser has taken a lot of thought and attention in selecting the topics, certainly the lectures I have attended since 2021. Highly recommended!!”

“A series and speaker of Olympian quality. I had never previously appreciated the immediacy and richness of a lecture in which the speaker did not refer to notes. Confiding rather than didactic. This series will remain in my memory for a long time.”

“I found the series thrilling in its inventiveness. Clearly art can’t be divorced from social context but Andrew Spira’s judicious choice of images and commentary created for me a wholly new strand of appreciation.”

“It’s good to see that you are keeping ahead of things. I think it sends a very positive sign that there’s some normality in the country and that business owners (such as yourself) are continuing despite Covid19 doing everything in its power to disrupt us! I’m not a student but I follow your great website regularly.”

“Fabulously insightful to the artists and their lives. Wonderfully articulated. Nicole gives Vasari a run for his money.”

“Thank you so much for enabling these lectures to happen on line. Not quite the same as being there but nevertheless still wonderful. I have enjoyed every minute of them and at least there is the consolation of being able to listen again and look at the images as many times as you like. It’s been lovely to have something so enjoyable to put in the structure of the week. To hear Nicole Mezey’s great expertise put across in such a clear and interesting fashion has been a real privilege and I have been able to join up my scattered bits of knowledge into a greatly expanded whole.”

“Interesting, challenging and well run”

“Absolutely fascinating approach, which I have never seen before”

“Thank you for making my week so much more interesting and fulfilling. I am SO enjoying the course and already look forward to next term”

“I’d like to congratulate on another successful year’s lecture series especially given the background of the Coronavirus pandemic. I for one have truly appreciated the switch from physical to digital presentations as a means of continuing access to your wonderful lecturers. I know it cost you a lot of worry and headaches but it really has paid out in full!”

“Please thank Marie Anne for her amazing series on the Cote D’Azur. It was like a ‘Through the Letterbox’ look at the lives and loves of some of the most well-known artists and writers of the 20th century. I feel as though she brought us into their homes as guests so we too could experience the highs and lows of the Belle Époque! I was amazed at how many stories there were to tell. The Cote D’Azur may be relatively contained in size but what a wealth of treasure she has inspired!”

“This has been a hugely enjoyable series. Leslie’s breadth of knowledge is amazing but it is lightly worn and he shares it with modesty and an original wry humour.”

“Sadly, I have just finished your last lecture on the Art of Venice. It is difficult to truly express how much I enjoyed being transported to the Venetian lagoon each week (especially while in isolation) and being enveloped in the art and magnificence of the Basilica, churches, the Scuole, the Palazzi, Fondaci, and the country side villas. What an incredible journey and time travel over 7 centuries! Again, your presentation was incredibly informative and an absolute joy to listen to, more a performance than a lecture. This series exceeded all my expectations and my expectations were fairly high after taking two or three of your other series”

The Course offers art history, music and literature lectures for students in London, the UK and beyond.

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Our Office: 105 William Court, 6 Hall Road, London NW8 9PB

Harvard Immersion Study Tours

We enlighten and inspire youth from across multiple backgrounds, we help the kids and youth to get immersive experience with harvard & mit, and we invite harvard & mit scholars to share their study experience and enlighten our kids..

The Harvard Immersion Study Tours, led by students from Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT) and organized by ECC senior education consultants, enable students to immersively experience the world’s top universities from mind to heart. Multiple activities, in-depth communication with Harvard students, all-inclusive services, and the full escort of two education consultants will relieve you of all worries and enjoy the wonderful journey!

During the 5-day tour, the students will meet like-minded friends and travel around Harvard and MIT, talk face-to-face with Harvard students, and learn about valuable experiences and wonderful life stories. Specifically, students will observe new technologies at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences as well as Harvard Innovation Labs, experience campus life at Harvard Business School and Law School, browse rare books at Houghton Library, listen to anecdotes at Harvard Yard, explore the magical world at Harvard Museum of Natural History, appreciate classical art at Harvard Art Museum, and discover the beauty of science at MIT Museum.

Furthermore, in Boston, the place where American civilization originated, students will walk into history on the Freedom Trail and feel the present at Quincy Market. The 5-day immersion study tour is an integrating journey of academics, history, culture, art, science, and technology, as well as an inspiring journey of students’ knowledge, thoughts, spirit, and soul. The 5-day study tour will definitely enrich and impress the students in many aspects, enlightening and motivating their future life.

Join Harvard Immersion Study Tours today and change our kids’ life from now on!

Communicate face-to-face with Harvard/MIT students

The Harvard Immersion Study Tours, led by students from Harvard University and MIT and organized by ECC senior education consultants, enable students to immersively experience the world’s top universities from mind to heart. Multiple activities, in-depth communication with Harvard students, all-inclusive services, and the full escort of two education consultants will relieve you of all worries and enjoy the wonderful journey.

Led by scholars from Harvard/MIT

Led by scholars from Harvard/MIT, our students visit Harvard Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard Innovation Labs, Harvard Business School, Law School, browse rare books at Houghton Library, listen to anecdotes at Harvard Yard, explore the magical world at Harvard Museum of Natural History, appreciate classical art at Harvard Art Museum, and discover the beauty of science at MIT Museum.

Enlighten and motivate our kids and youth

The 5-day immersion study tour is an integrating journey of academics, history, culture, art, science, and technology, as well as an inspiring journey of students’ knowledge, thoughts, spirit, and soul. 

The 5-day study tour will definitely enrich and impress our students in many aspects, enlightening and motivating their future life.

MA Social Work

Key Details

Course Overview

Study social work at one of the most highly regarded centres in the UK, internationally renowned for its leading role in social work education and research. You’ll graduate with a professional qualification and a body of knowledge and skills that open a wide range of exciting, rewarding and challenging employment opportunities.

You’ll develop your skills as a future social worker through teaching that emphasises reflective and relationship-based practice, combined with challenging and thought-provoking placement opportunities provided by our local partner agencies. Many of our lecturers are actively involved in research and nearly all are experienced practitioners. Importantly, current practitioners and people with lived experience are involved in teaching activities across the course. This means our teaching draws on leading research, while providing you with a direct insight into the latest social work issues and evidence-based practice. 

At UEA, we pride ourselves on the support we provide for our students. As part of this, you’ll have an academic adviser, who’ll take an active interest in your professional development when at university and while on placement. From day one you’ll join a community and do a course with people and relationships at their core. 

Placements and practice-based learning are central to social work education at UEA. These are undertaken in partnership with social work employers and organisations and will offer you experiences in at least two contrasting settings. Your learning on placement is supported by a qualified practice educator who will guide and assess your practice. During your placement, you’ll gain experiences that you'll draw on in the classroom, and have regular ‘call back’ days, where you return to the University to develop the links between theory and practice.

We’ll ensure you have a blend of opportunities to bring together the academic, practical and lived experience of social work in your teaching and learning opportunities. You’ll graduate ready for a career as a first-rate practitioner and could go on to become a successful senior manager or distinguished academic. 

Accreditations

Our Social Work Master’s is accredited by Social Work England (SWE) and allows graduates to apply for registration as a social worker in England.  

Study and Modules

Our course will teach you about the theoretical foundations of social work, which are rooted in psychology and sociology. You’ll explore social policy and the laws surrounding working with children and families, people with mental health issues, and vulnerable adults. And you’ll focus on what it means to work with individuals, families, groups, fellow social workers and other professionals. 

Your learning will take many forms – lectures, seminars, group discussions, tutorials and workshops, simulated practice and recorded role plays to help you learn from them. You’ll benefit from professionals, people with lived experience being at the heart of our teaching. 

You’ll also study the legal and social policy context of social work practice and apply your learning from across the programme in your Level 1 (70 days) placement. 

Compulsory Modules

Legal and social policy context of social work, professional theory and practice, working with service users i.

Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring, review and update of modules. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes and their constituent modules, the University will endeavour to consult with students and others. It is also possible that the University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff. In some cases optional modules can have limited places available and so you may be asked to make additional module choices in the event you do not gain a place on your first choice. Where this is the case, the University will inform students.

Teaching and Learning

We value our involvement in the Suffolk and Norfolk Social Work Teaching Partnership, which ensures social work education in the region meets the needs of students and employers. Your social work degree will combine lectures and seminars that encourage and require you to contribute. Crucially our teaching foregrounds current practice, along with the experiences of professionals, and people with lived experience.

The amount of teaching varies in year 1, but you’ll average around 25 hours per week of lectures and seminars in semester 1. In semester 2 the contact time increases, and you’ll average 37 ½ hours per week for your level 1 placement. 

Assessment 

In each module, you’ll undertake a formative assessment, from which you’ll receive feedback. This will help prepare you for your summative assessment which contributes to your overall mark. All summative assessments must be passed before a student can progress to the next year of study.

You’ll experience a range of assessment methods, including essays, presentations, recorded role-plays, an exam, a case study and practice-based portfolio.  

You’ll receive constructive feedback on your formative and summative assessments to encourage your development. We aim to return feedback within 20 working days.  

In your second year, you’ll deepen your understanding of social work practice through specialist teaching and your Level 2 (100 days) placement. Finally, you’ll have the chance to study a topic of your choice in depth by completing a literature review-based dissertation, with the support of one of our academic advisers. 

DISSERTATION

Working with service users ii, professional development.

Your second-year ranges from 10 hours per week during teaching periods to 37 ½ hours per week during your level 2 placement. The course concludes with self-directed study as you complete your dissertation.

Independent study

As this is a Master’s-level course, you’ll be responsible for a significant amount of independent study. Your dissertation is a literature-based review where you'll explore an aspect of social work that interests you. This will help you develop confidence in analysing information as well as skills such as time management and organisation.

Student voice

We are totally committed to the continued development of our teaching quality. We provide you with a number of ways to feedback on teaching and the course, for example through module reviews, debriefing meetings, and the Staff-Student Liaison Committee. Each helps us monitor, evaluate and develop our programme. 

In each module, you’ll undertake a formative assessment, on which you’ll receive feedback. This will prepare you for your summative assessment, which will contribute to your overall mark. All summative assessments must be passed before a student can progress to the next year of study. 

You’ll experience a range of assessment methods including essays, presentations, a case study, dissertation and practice-based portfolio.  

Entry Requirements

UK and International fee-paying students. Choose UK or International above to see relevant information. The entry point is in September each year.

We welcome and value a wide range of qualifications, and we recognise that some students might take a mixture of different qualifications. We have listed typical examples that we  accept for entry.   

You should hold or be working towards the specified English and Mathematics requirements and one of the examples of typical entry qualifications listed below. If your qualifications aren’t listed, or if you are taking a combination of qualifications that isn’t specified, please contact Admissions.  

All applicants must hold or be working towards GCSEs in English Language and Mathematics at minimum grade 4 or grade 4.  

In place of Mathematics GCSE we can also consider Functional Skills Level 2 Mathematics.

Bachelor Degree (Hons)

2:2 or above. 

Following the initial screening an 800-1000 word essay will be requested and has to be submitted prior to consideration to interview. Full essay guidance will be sent to applicants at the time of the request.  We also require a Declaration of Suitability form to be completed which will be sent to you at the same time as the essay request.

All applicants are required to have gained some paid or voluntary work experience of helping people and working with others in a Social Work/Social Care environment.  Further information about work experience can be found in our  Work Experience Leaflet .   We recognise that work experience opportunities may have been limited, please do contact Admissions to discuss your experience. 

If shortlisted and invited to interview, applicants will be required to provide an additional reference. This should typically be a professional reference providing details of your ability in a caring/helping capacity, to complement your academic reference provided on the UCAS application.

We advise you review   Research - School of Social Work - About - UEA to assist you with your decision of studying Social Work.

Disclosure and Barring Service

The course you are applying for is ‘exempt’ from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore, you are required to declare any convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings that are not ‘protected’ (i.e. filtered out) as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2013) on your UCAS application.

The amendments to the Exceptions Order provide that certain ‘spent’ convictions and cautions are 'protected' and are not subject to disclosure, and cannot be taken into account.  Guidance and criteria on the filtering of these cautions and convictions can be found on the Disclosure and Barring Service Website . Further information can also be found on the Nacro website  https://www.nacro.org.uk    Successful applicants will be subject to a satisfactory enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check during the first year after commencement of the course.

Where applicable, an Overseas Police Check may be required.

Overseas applicants should check to ensure they can drive in the UK for the  second year onwards of their studies.   Driving in Great Britain on a non-GB licence - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)  You may be required to take a test in the UK and you will need access to a car for placements for your second and third year. 

Social Work England is the new, specialist regulator for all social workers in England. It is an independent public protection body, setting professional, education and training standards for social workers. In its role, Social Work England also investigates and manages 'fitness to practice' cases brought against social workers.

Social work England’s professional standards are specialist to the social work profession. The standards are the threshold standards necessary for safe and effective practice. It also reflects the value and diversity of social work practice and the positive impact it has on people’s lives, families and communities. The professional standards apply to registered social workers and social work students in all roles and settings.

Social work is a regulated profession. This means that to be able to practise as a social worker in England, individuals must be registered with Social Work England. Once registered, all social workers are listed on a public register. The register is a statutory list of individual social workers who practise in England. It provides assurance that the people who practise as social workers in England have the right skills and qualifications and are capable of safe and effective practice.

You can apply to join the register when you have received official confirmation from the University that you have successfully completed your course. Further also evidenced by the University submitting the list of people who passed the course. However, it is important to know that there is no guarantee of entry onto the registration once the course has been completed, because Social Work England is the regulator and makes the final decision.

Applicants living within the UK  will be invited to attend to an interview on campus.  Overseas applicants or UK applicants living overseas will be invited to attend an interview day online. 

The  format for both is the same.  The first part of the admissions day consists of an observed group activity. The activity will be observed by members of the interview panel and  will involve a university lecturer, social work practitioner or manager and a person with lived experience and gives you an opportunity to participate and communicate in a group. The group will consist of 2 – 6 social work applicants and your group members may vary in age and experience.  However, the focus of the activity is on how you participate and communicate during the task and not your specific knowledge or experience and there is no ‘right’ answer for this activity. 

Later in the day the interview will last around 40 minutes and the interview panel is made up of a University lecturer, a Social Work practitioner or manager and a person with lived experience where possible. The interview will enable the panel to look at your personal background and circumstances, essay and group activity participation and your understanding of Social Work, your current studies and your suitability for the programme.

During the course you will participate in a 70 day and 100 day placement.  As this course includes people facing placements in social care settings, and these are mandatory component course, you will need to comply with the placement vaccination policy. Failure to meet the placement policy may prevent you from successfully completing the placement and course.

We do not encourage applicants to apply for deferred entry for the Masters programme.  We encourage students to join in the current cycle.  If your circumstances change after receiving an offer of a place, you are advised to email admissions and make an individual request in writing which will be considered by the School of Social Work. 

Our  Admissions Policy applies to the admissions of all undergraduate applicants.

We would prefer you to be able to demonstrate evidence of recent academic study within 5 years of the start of the course. If your last qualification will have been completed more than 5 years ago by the time the course starts, please contact Admissions.

English Foreign Language

Applications from students whose first language is not English are welcome. We require evidence of proficiency in English (including writing, speaking, listening and reading):   

IELTS:  7.0  overall (minimum 6.5  in all components) 

To meet the requirement for Social Work England we will require an IELTS in most cases due to the high level for entry.

Test dates should be within two years of the course start date. 

Fees and Funding

Tuition Fees  

View our information for Tuition Fees.  

Scholarships and Bursaries 

We are committed to ensuring that costs do not act as a barrier to those aspiring to come to a world leading university and have developed a funding package to reward those with excellent qualifications and assist those from lower income backgrounds. View our range of Scholarships for eligibility, details of how to apply and closing dates. 

Course Related Costs

All students will be required to complete DBS before they undertake their placement, and we recommend that students sign up for the updated service. 

Additional costs can also be expected when travelling to and from placement. Bursaries may be available through the NHS.

Please see Additional Course Fees for details of course-related costs. 

How to Apply

How to apply.

UCAS Hub is a secure online application system that allows you to apply for full-time undergraduate courses at universities and colleges in the United Kingdom. 

Your application does not have to be completed all at once.  Register or sign in to UCAS  to get started.  

Once you submit your completed application, UCAS will process it and send it to your chosen universities and colleges. 

The Institution code for the  University of East Anglia  is  E14. 

View our guide to applying through UCAS for useful tips, key dates and further information: 

How to apply through UCAS  

Employability

After the course.

You’ll graduate with a professional qualification and an academic degree from a course accredited by Social Work England . 

You’ll have the knowledge, skills and practice experience to work with children, adults and carers in a range of settings. You’ll graduate ready for a career as a first-rate practitioner and have the foundation to build your career, potentially as a successful senior manager or distinguished academic. You’ll have the knowledge, skills and practice experience to work with children, adults and carers in a range of settings. You’ll graduate ready for a career as a first-rate practitioner and have the foundation to build your career, potentially as a successful senior manager or distinguished academic. 

Our high employability rates reflect the success of our students. 

Example of careers that you could enter include: 

• Local Authorities e.g., Norfolk and Suffolk County Council 
• Fostering and adoption agencies 
• Charity and Voluntary sector e.g., NSPCC and Age UK 
• NHS hospitals and mental health trusts e.g., NSFT 
• Advocacy services 
• Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS)  

Discover more on our Careers webpages . 

Social Work starting September 2025 for 2 years

How Norilsk, in the Russian Arctic, became one of the most polluted places on Earth

This article is part of “ The Fifth Crime ,” a series on ecocide published in partnership with Inside Climate News , a nonprofit, independent news outlet that covers climate, energy and the environment, and Undark Magazine , a nonprofit, editorially independent digital magazine exploring the intersection of science and society. 

It was 2 a.m. and the sun was shining, as it does day and night in mid-July in Norilsk, a Siberian city 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

Igor Klyushin went to the bank of the river where he used to fish with his father for grayling, a dorsal-finned beauty known for its graceful leaps above the surface. “A very merry fish,” Klyushin recalled. “It enjoys cold and clean, clean water.”

He doubted grayling would be there that night. In any event, authorities had long warned that it was unsafe to fish for them in the Daldykan River.

And besides, he wasn’t there to fish. He began to record images of the clay-colored muck flowing downriver from one of the largest metal mining and smelting complexes in the world. The discolored water represented “the latest environmental crime of Norilsk Nickel,” Klyushin said in the video he posted on “Norilchane” — or “Citizens of Norilsk” — the YouTube channel he helps moderate.The channel and its Facebook group, with about 8,300 members, have become gathering places for distressed residents of Norilsk, the northernmost city in the world. The city of 176,000 has long been recognized by environmentalists — and even by the Russian government — as one of the most polluted places on Earth, because of one business: Norilsk Nickel, the world’s biggest producer of palladium and high-grade nickel and a top producer of platinum, cobalt and copper.

Built as a resource colony by prisoners in the Soviet Gulag, Norilsk outlasted communism, embraced capitalism, and it now aims to ramp up production to sell the metals needed for electric vehicle batteries and the clean energy economy. Norilsk Nickel is the world’s leading producer of the high-purity Class 1 nickel that electric vehicle industry leaders like Tesla CEO Elon Musk are seeking . The company’s ambitions coincide with those of Russian President Vladimir Putin for greater development in the Far North, which he maintains can be accomplished sustainably. 

But Norilsk Nickel has undermined its own vision for the future by spoiling a priceless environment, with implications for the entire planet. The company’s pollution has carved a barren landscape of dead and dying trees out of the taiga, or boreal forest, one of the world’s largest carbon sinks. Its wastewater has turned glacial rivers red . Its smokestacks belch out the worst sulfur dioxide pollution in the world. And last year, a corroded tank burst and released 6.5 million gallons of diesel fuel into waters that flow to the Kara Sea. It was the largest oil spill in Arctic history. Although Norilsk Nickel maintains that no diesel fuel made it to the Arctic Ocean, the Russian government’s fisheries science agency told Inside Climate News that its testing showed that the contamination had reached that far.

In September, Norilsk Nickel agreed to negotiate the settlement of an $800 million lawsuit that the federal fisheries agency, known as Rosrybolovstvo, filed against the company this summer over the damage to the region’s aquatic resources .

Norilsk is an example of the kind of systematic and long-term devastation that has animated a global movement to make destruction of nature an international crime. The campaign aims to treat “ecocide” in the same way as genocide or crimes against humanity, offenses prosecutable by the Hague-based International Criminal Court. The ecocide campaign has drawn attention to the failure of national laws to halt severe and widespread or long-term damage that has international consequences.

Norilsk is grappling with such damage, both as part of a region that is especially vulnerable to climate change and as a city reliant on an industry that has poisoned its land and water. 

Norilsk Nickel maintains that it can rehabilitate its environment. It paid a $2 billion fine for last year’s diesel spill, the largest environmental penalty in the country’s history, and it has pledged to spend more than $5 billion on both pollution control and economic and social revitalization throughout its territory of Krasnoyarsk Krai . 

“We do acknowledge that there are legacy issues relating to our business,” a company spokesman said in written responses to questions from Inside Climate News, referring to the problems left over from the Soviet era. “We are implementing far-reaching measures to address them.”

Local government officials are enthusiastic about Norilsk Nickel’s program. The city and the territory plan to build a hospital, renovate housing and even create an Arctic Museum of Modern Art.  Krasnoyarsk Krai Gov. Alexander Uss has proposed making Norilsk the official capital of the Russian Arctic.

But residents like Klyushin are skeptical, given the pollution they’ve seen even after the company paid its fine. 

“When I came that night to see the Daldykan, my heart really sank, and it was broken,” Klyushin said, speaking by phone through an interpreter two weeks after he took video of the discolored water in July. “The river was red with pulp, and the chemical smell is still in my lungs.”

Dying forests and pollution visible from space 

The story of Norilsk’s pollution is written in the trees: 5.9 million acres of dead and dying boreal forest downwind from the Norilsk Nickel compound — a scar larger than New Jersey, slashed into the largest forested region on Earth. 

In tree ring samples, scientists have pinpointed the great rush of sulfur dioxide pollution that began in 1942, when the first nickel smelter geared up to meet the Soviet Union’s need for stainless steel during World War II. And the tree rings have shown how the rate of forest deaths here jumped in the 1960s, from 5 percent annually to 30 percent annually at one research site, said a study that researchers from Siberian Federal University and the University of Cambridge published last year. The discovery at that time of huge new ore reserves gave Norilsk Nickel “a new lease on life,” the company noted in its official history . 

By the early 1980s, all larch trees within 40 miles east of Norilsk were dead.

Satellite readings show that no other human enterprise — no power plant, no oil field, no other smelter complex — generates as much sulfur dioxide pollution as Norilsk Nickel. In fact, the only entities on Earth that rival its sulfur emissions are erupting volcanoes, according to a monitoring project led by scientists at NASA and Environment Canada. At 1.9 million tons of sulfur dioxide emissions annually, Norilsk produces as much sulfur pollution as the entire U.S. — all concentrated in a city the size of Eugene, Oregon.

“You cannot breathe there,” Valeriya “Lera” Bolgova, a leader of the Nganasan people, one of five Indigenous tribes of the Taimyr peninsula, said in an interview. The region’s first people have been unique witnesses to Norilsk Nickel’s indelible imprint on the environment, because fish and reindeer meat are still central to their diets.

 “When the pollution proceeds, and proceeds as intensively as it is nowadays, both the fish and the animals start looking for a cleaner environment,” Bolgova said. 

Researchers from Siberian Federal University affirmed that the reindeer patterns have dramatically changed on Taimyr. They found the average stay of the reindeer at their traditional summer calving and feeding place to be just 63 days, a third of what it was in the 1960s.

As for human health, lung cancer mortality is 1.2 to 2.5 times higher in Norilsk than in other Russian cities, and deaths from cardiovascular disease and infectious diseases also are elevated, according to the latest research . Such elevated rates are difficult to tie to a single source, and their cause hasn’t yet been established.

It is difficult to study life expectancy in Norilsk because so many people retire early and move to warmer climates, where their health outcomes aren’t captured in the city’s statistics.

“They hope to start getting this higher pension and then go to the mainland and live this beautiful life,” said Klyushin, whose father and uncle were among those who left. His father died a few years ago at age 61, and his uncle died before he was 60. 

A ‘mountain river’ of diesel fuel

Klyushin and other local environmental activists agitated for years for Rosprirodnadzor, the Russian environmental protection agency, to establish an office in Norilsk.

They succeeded early last year, and the job of chief deputy went to Vasily Ryabinin, then 39, a chemist, who had previously worked at Norilsk Nickel but left after his beloved mentor at the company died of cancer, he said in an interview with Inside Climate News.

Yet the warm, spring day when 6.5 million gallons of diesel fuel spilled from the Norilsk Nickel complex into the Daldykan River marked both the beginning and the end of Ryabinin’s career as an environmental enforcer for the Russian government. 

In the days leading up to May 29, 2020, the temperature in the region had risen 18 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, according to one scientific study . Permafrost had begun to give way under a corroded fuel tank at Norilsk Nickel’s power plant that Russian government safety inspectors had deemed unstable two years earlier and that the company had never fixed.

Ryabinin received a phone call from his boss, who had been denied entry to investigate at the nickel plant, saying red pollution had been spotted in the river. Ryabinin joined him outside the plant, but they were turned away by security, backed up by police.

Ryabinin, who is both a mountaineer and a photographer, took his hiking boots and a camera and walked 2 kilometers with his boss to a nearby bridge, where they could see “an absolute mountain river” of diesel fuel spilling into the waterways, Ryabinin said. “My boss was even afraid to actually smoke, because the smell was so strong it was possible these vapors could ignite some kind of explosion,” he added. 

Ryabinin told his story in a 45-minute video posted later on the Norilchane YouTube channel. His broadcast and photographs were the first account that reached the outside world about the largest known oil spill in the Arctic. If it had occurred in the U.S., it would have ranked among the country’s top 10 spills , more than half the size of the Exxon Valdez spill and six times larger than the 2010 pipeline spill of tar sands oil in the Kalamazoo River .

Top Rosprirodnadzor officials flew in from Moscow. The company deployed containment booms and hundreds of workers to clean up. But Ryabinin felt it was an unwinnable race with the river current. He pressed to sample the water downstream in Lake Pyasino for contamination, but his superiors told him no transportation was available. Six days later the head of Rosprirodnadzor declared that no oil had reached the lake, which connects to the Arctic Ocean. Norilsk Nickel said the same.

Ryabinin, feeling he was being prevented from determining the true extent of damage to the environment, turned in his resignation.

One of Russia’s most prominent ecologists, Evgeny Shvarts of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute for Geography in Moscow, told Inside Climate News he is convinced from long experience as an environmental advocate in Russia that people can’t rely on the government for environmental protection.

Shvarts has been a member of Norilsk Nickel’s board of directors since 2019, one of the independent directors the company is required to have because it is traded on the London Stock Exchange. Shvarts holds no stock in Norilsk Nickel and isn’t in the corporate chain of command under the majority shareholder, the oligarch Vladimir Potanin.

Shvarts believes independent directors and other requirements of the public markets are especially important in Russia, where, he said, the government doesn’t have the tools necessary to implement environmental laws. “It is a very naive approach to think that the state always represents the public interest,” he said.

After Klyushin saw pollution in the Daldykan River again in July, he notified the regulatory agencies. The Ministry of Natural Resources responded with a letter that Klyushin shared with Inside Climate News. In it, the ministry detailed Norilsk Nickel’s reported discharges into waterways for the first quarter of 2021: cobalt, 32,318 tons, or four times the legal limit; iron, 3,998 tons, or 45 times the legal limit; and nickel, 989 tons, or 100 times the legal limit. The discharges exceeded the “normative permissible standards,” the ministry said, but they were allowed under Norilsk Nickel’s permit, signed by Rosprirodnadzor, the environmental agency. The agency declined repeated requests to respond to questions for this article. 

“Nornickel’s factories operate under strict environmental restrictions and a set of established permits, which are prescribed in accordance with project documentation with an assessment of permissible impact standards,” Norilsk Nickel’s spokesman said about the discharges. 

Ryabinin said he wasn’t surprised about the permits or the ministry’s response.

“In Russian, we have a saying: ‘It’s like throwing dried peas against the wall,’” he said. “The peas will just come right back to you. They won’t get to somebody else, to someone who is guilty of building this wall.”

Putin plays ‘the good czar’

Putin reacted sharply to news of the diesel spill last year, which came only weeks after he unveiled a new strategic plan for the Arctic , a vision of resource development and environmental protection going hand in hand. 

“Why did the authorities find out about this only two days later?” Putin asked in a video conference call with regional and company officials. “Are we going to learn about emergencies from social networks?”

Fiona Hill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of books about Putin and about the long-lasting costs of the Soviet Union’s intensive development of Siberia , said about Putin, “This is him playing the role of the good czar, who has a direct connection with the people.”

But, she said, Putin doubtless is also aware of how environmental disaster can breed activism and awaken dissatisfaction with the government. After the deadly 1986 Chernobyl disaster, protests in Ukraine, Belarus and Estonia morphed into a full-fledged independence movement that helped bring about the Soviet Union’s collapse.

In the weeks after the Norilsk Nickel spill, five people were arrested or charged with criminal negligence, including the power plant’s director and chief engineer and Norilsk’s mayor at the time.

The London-based consulting firm Environmental Resources Management, which the Norilsk Nickel board hired to investigate the accident, found that it was caused by a confluence of a changing environment, carelessness and neglect . In February, a Russian court ruled that the company should pay a fine of 146 billion rubles, or $2 billion.

“We learned this lesson well,” Potanin said in a statement after the verdict . “We are carrying out the instructions of the President to eliminate the consequences of the accident and to restore the ecosystem.”

Norilsk Nickel has maintained that the cleanup effort collected more than 90 percent of the leaked fuel — if true, an extraordinary recovery rate. For oil spills in marine environments, the average recovery rate is 8 percent to 10 percent , and on rivers, 50 percent would be considered high, according to experts at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Oil Spill Recovery Institute at Cordova, Alaska.

Russian scientists determined that diesel fuel from the spill did reach Pyasino Lake and beyond. Contamination was found in bottom sediment in the lake and the entire 900-kilometer length of the adjoining Pyasino River, including at its mouth in the Arctic Ocean’s Kara Sea, said Vyacheslav Bizikov, the deputy director of the Russian government’s All-Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography in Moscow, in an interview with Inside Climate News.

Bizikov led the expedition of scientists, who lived on boats for 17 days sampling water, sediment and fish. The researchers found both diesel fuel and heavy metal contamination in the liver and muscles of fish they tested, and they warned local authorities and Indigenous communities that the fish weren’t safe to eat, he said.

The findings became the basis of the lawsuit the Russian fisheries agency filed against Norilsk Nickel in July. The company and the agency are working out an agreement on how to further study the damage, restore the environment and replenish the fish, Bizikov said. 

“We can restore and recover the ecosystems and water ecosystems if we do it right,” Bizikov said. “As I see it, it’s not a matter of one day or one year. If there will be no more accidents, we will manage to fix it. It’s difficult to say when, but in 10 years, maybe we will see the definite results.”

New pressures for change are building on Norilsk Nickel from the outside. 

Electric vehicle batteries, which rely on nickel for energy density and storage, are a major growth opportunity for the company. Russia is one of the few places that have the sulfur-rich ore that readily yields the very pure-grade Class 1 nickel needed, a resource base that has made Norilsk Nickel the world’s leading producer.  

Musk of Tesla has said that he has plenty of business to offer but that he wants to partner with companies that engage in sustainable practices. “Tesla will give you a giant contract for a long period of time if you mine nickel efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way,” he said on a company earnings call last year.

Potanin has made clear his ambition to compete in this market, having announced that Norilsk Nickel will increase production of “ green economy ” metals by 30 percent to 40 percent by 2030.

‘We kill our children and leave them a trash heap’

Norilsk Nickel, pledging to cut sulfur dioxide emissions by 90 percent by 2025, has said it will spend at least $4.1 billion on a project called Sulphur Programme 2.0 . 

“In my opinion, the implementation of the project will fundamentally change the ecological situation in our city,” Norilsk’s current mayor, Dmitry Kasarev, who previously worked for Norilsk Nickel, said in written responses to questions from Inside Climate News. “Our city ​​should breathe a new breath in terms of ecology.”

Shvarts, who helped Norilsk Nickel develop its new environmental and climate strategy, said he supports the company’s striving to be part of the green economy. “We need to make every week, every month, a few new steps ahead to be a more transparent, more open, more environmentally responsible company,” he said.

Klyushin, however, won’t wait for that day to come. He has vowed to leave Norilsk soon and not return.

He worries about his friend Ryabinin, who has four children and hasn’t had a full-time job since he quit Rosprirodnadzor. 

“If it were not for Vasily who started this, who discovered this, they would have avoided responsibility. This is clear,” Klyushin said.

Ryabinin said that since he quit the Russian environmental protection agency, he has been working as a freelance photographer and focusing on his children. He would like to take them to a place with more opportunity — and, of course, less pollution. But for now the family has no plans to move. His wife still works for Norilsk Nickel.

The experience of fighting the company changed him, Ryabinin said. The problem, he said, isn’t one company but consumption without any thought of where the raw material comes from or the need to use less.

“Until the bulk of the population of our planet comes to understand the reasonable consumption of any resources,” he said, “we will not achieve either economic growth or an environmentally friendly planet. We just simply kill our children and leave them a trash heap.” 

Ludmila Mekertycheva in Moscow contributed to this report.

Dudinka | Russia Travel Guide

By Koryo Tours

Introduction History What is a 'Closed City'? What's the weather like? How to get there What to do in Dudinka Accommodation

Introduction

Dudinka is one of the most remote settlements in Russia.

In its particular area (the Talnakh peninsular) it is still the major port, is situated near the mouth of the mighty Yenisei River, where it empties into the Arctic Ocean.

Thus, Dudinka has great strategic value as well as a long history as a settlement than most other remote towns and cities. 

Dudinka is a fascinating and surprisingly scenic small town with much more to offer the visitor than one would at first expect! 

Dudinka was founded officially in 1667 as a winter settlement of the Russian Empire, mainly for exploration, trade with local native people, and so on.

The area had been inhabited by humans though for many centuries prior, and still to this day, there are communities of many of the local tribes (Nenets, Evenki, etc) who make the far north their home. 

The basic settlement was expended in the 1930s into a proper town, with a railway line laid to Norilsk and port facilities built.

This progress though isn’t as positive as it sounds; any settlements built or expanded in remote Russia in 1937 or 1938 were inevitably to utilise the gulag population bloated by the victims of the Great Terror and Stalinist repression.

The population explosion in the area at this time wasn’t down to great opportunities being available; the people who moved here weren’t given a choice in the main part.

Climate wise Dudinka gets what you may expect of somewhere more than one and half degrees into the arctic; shockingly cold winters mostly, and periods of complete darkness for days on end.

But in summer it is very pleasant indeed, the wind from the river can be fierce for sure though, be prepared for some variety on your visit to Dudinka!

The main industry in Dudinka is port-related; shipping the nickel generated at the various mines and processing facilities in the Norilsk area out to the rest of the world.

As a result, the port here can be busy and bustling.

As the river freezes in winter though there is an annual event whereby the port itself is deliberately flooded when the ice is broken up.

This involves evacuating all equipment every June and breaking the ice, causing flooding up to 20m deep.

After the waters subside the shipping season can begin and the port is basically rebuilt and operates until October when the cold closes in again.

What is a 'Closed City'?

The concept of a Closed City is something that seems anachronistic in this post-cold war day and age.

However, Russia still has dozens of such places.

Usually, cities and areas were initially closed (meaning access for foreigners was not permitted) because they were penal colonies, military sites, areas of key industry production, or of some other form of great sensitivity.

Many formerly closed cities are now wide open (for example Vladivostok, closed until 1991).

Norilsk and the other cities we visit on our tour in this area (Dudinka, Talnakh, Igarka) all remain with their status as Closed Cities intact.

However, we do have a (legal!) way of getting there and we are more than happy to share this access with you! 

What's the weather like?

Frankly, the answer to this is that it is extremely inhospitable and absurdly cold for much of the year.

Being in the arctic circle this time of year also includes weeks of complete darkness.

So all-in-all very…. Russia , one might say.

However, our tour here is in summer when the days are long (as in, they never actually end during the trip).

The weather is clement (around 10-15 degrees during the day) and even the much famed and feared pollution in and around the main city is not as bad.

There is, of course, a stark beauty about remote and industrial places in winter

If you disagree with this statement you simply have different aesthetic standards than we do!

This is outlined will in the fascinating and sad short documentary about Norilsk; My Deadly Beautiful City which is well worth watching. 

Nowhere does extremes better than Russia and the far north is very much a place of extremes so temperature and weather variations are quite drastic and dramatic.

But this is part of the experience in such a place, and something many locals are proud of being able to handle and go through seasonally;

Although in the deepest winter some crazy stories about ‘black storms’ come out of Norilsk!

How to get to Dudinka

The nearest airport to Dudinka is Alykel Airport, about halfway between here and the larger city of Norilsk.

Flights to and from here are domestic only and include service to Moscow, Novosibirsk, holiday areas in the Caucasus, and several other places.

As many mineworkers in Norilsk are well-remunerated it is common for people from there to travel domestically and internationally for holidays, so flights are often full.

Igarka is the other nearest airport, services to here currently are only from the regional capital of Krasnoyarsk.

There is no railway connection from the Norilsk area to the rest of Russia.

An attempt was made to connect the city to Moscow with the Salekhard-Igarka Railway , a gulag project that despite the grimly predictable suffering and overworking of the prisoners failed to be completed and was abandoned in 1953.  

At present trains exist only to ferry materials between the industrial complexes of Norilsk and the port of Dudinka, so no passenger option at all for any trains in this region.

As the Yenisei River merges with the Arctic Ocean very close to Dudinka this is the main terrestrial method of moving anything between the Norilsk area and the interior of Russia.

As distances involved are huge and the river is frozen in parts for much of the year this isn’t a fully viable option for human transport.

Our new tour of Norilsk does involve a river trip for a whole day from Igarka to Norilsk to see some amazing views and travel in a quirky but fascinating way into this closed area.

Passengers ships sail from Krasnoyarsk, far to the South but along the same river.

Krasnoyarsk is the provincial capital (of Krasnoyarsk Krai, which also includes Dudinka and Norilsk) and boats take around 3-4 days to make the entire journey.

It is possible to join a boat trip along the way if you don’t want to make the entire trip by ship.

Zero roads link Dudinka with the rest of Russia.

Residents call anywhere outside of this area “the mainland” for this very reason.

All cars are imported by ship.

If you are in Dudinka and have a car you can get to Norilsk, Talnakh, and other surrounding villages, but not into the mainland of Mother Russia

What to do in Dudinka

Taymyr history museum.

A very extensive and impressive museum indeed, a real unexpected gem considering the modest size of the town.

This place has various exhibits showing life in the arctic, the range of local native tribes, the history of Russian involvement in the area, information on the natural world and industrial efforts here too.

Takes a good couple of hours and can be finished off with ethnographic demonstrations such as how to prepare the local delicacy of frozen candle fish.

Good selection of fridge magnets here too!

Waterfront sights

Everyone (or at least the kind of people who might find themselves in Dudinka!) loves a good monument or two and Dudinka is very good for these;

Lenin stands outside the museum set in stone, a native girl in a canoe in bronze nearby, and the smaller cranes of the Dudinka port line up photogenically just down the road.

A little further into town are some T-55 tanks and a WWII memorial as well.

The sides of some buildings have some interesting and well-done murals celebrating various anniversaries since the foundation of the settlement or the granting of town status.

Wandering around & mixing with locals

Dudinka is very much navigable on foot, and in doing this you will get the best photos too – the buildings are on stilts and gas pipes run above the ground, testament top the permafrost that runs beneath your feet.

The Arktika Sports complex is home to the local ice hockey team. 

It's also a good place to see some sports fans and casual skaters having fun, the Okean Supermarket stocks locally made beer

(plus a local supermarket is always something tourists should visit).

The supermarket also has a very good restaurant and bar on the upper floor too, an unexpected pleasure (although cocktails are not cheap!)

Accommodation in Dudinka

There are not many, it is a small town after all and you would only be here for one night unless you were working at the port.

The Hotel Viktoria is a good option and has a decent restaurant, the Yeniseyskie Ogni Hotel is slightly better located and a bit more fun.

All options are basic though but do the job surely enough! 

Interested in a tour to Russia?  Travel to Russia  with the  Russia travel experts,  Koryo Tours 

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