• Krushil Watene.
  • Scheyvens Regina.
  • Watene Krushil.

New degree on sustainable development to empower change-makers

Massey University News

A new Massey University master’s degree framed around the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals is set to empower graduates to tackle some of the most urgent issues facing humanity.

Programme coordinator Professor Regina Scheyvens says sustainability is “perhaps the most pressing imperative facing humanity” and is addressed head-on by the creation of the Master of Sustainable Development Goals.

Professor Scheyvens, who leads the Development Studies programme in the School of People, Environment and Planning, says the degree represents a cross-university collaboration to address the three main elements of the UN’s sustainable development goals – ecological, societal and economic. It also presents a unique opportunity to showcase Pacific and Indigenous concepts of sustainability as alternatives to dominant western models, she says.

Since 2015,  193 countries (including New Zealand) have signed up to the goals, which the United Nations says are “the blueprint” to achieve a better and more sustainable future.

The degree will focus on implementing the goals, in particular how to measure an organisation, community or country’s performance against the goals and how to work with others to achieve more sustainable outcomes. It is aimed at recent graduates looking for work-ready skills in sustainability and professionals from diverse backgrounds thinking about a career change.

Breaking down silos for more collaborative approach to solving global problems

Professor Scheyvens says the degree takes a “silo-breaking approach” by fostering a new mindset in which there is greater collaboration between private, public and government institutions. It also allows students to work across disciplines including sciences, social sciences, arts and business. 

The new degree has four specialisations: Business and Sustainability; Disaster Management; Environmental Sustainability and Global Development, and will be available from semester one next year. It would be the first such qualification in New Zealand or Australia.

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark, who was administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017, endorsed Massey’s new degree in a tweet that went viral, following her keynote address at the the SDG Summit held in Auckland on September 2, 2019. 

Indigenous perspectives

Dr Krushil Watene (Ngāti Manu, Te Hikutu, Ngāti Whātua o Orākei, Tonga), a senior lecturer and specialist on indigenous philosophy in the School of Humanities’ Philosophy programme based at the Auckland campus in Albany, is among the cohort teaching into the new master’s programme. She says indigenous philosophies are highly relevant to sustainable and equitable development and are playing an increasingly prominent role in advancing social, economic, environmental and cultural development around the world. 

“In Aotearoa New Zealand, Māori philosophies ground the naming of the Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui river) and Te Urewera (previously a national park) as legal entities with rights. Similarly, Kaupapa Māori theory has helped to pioneer a platform for indigenous knowledge globally, providing space to reimagine the role of communities in research and development.”

Beyond Aotearoa New Zealand, concepts such as aloha ‘āina (which literally means 'love of the land' and is a central idea of ancient Hawaiian thought, cosmology and culture);  minobimaatisiiwin (reflecting the beliefs of the native peoples of Canada and the United States, meaning both 'the good life' and 'continuous rebirth') as well as sumaq kawsay, (meaning 'good living'  – part of the worldview of the Quechua people of the Andes) are transforming environmental thinking, says Dr Watene. 

“Within and beyond the Pacific region, calls for sustainability chart a renewed course for development, highlighting the urgency and centrality of environmental concerns for tackling poverty, the value of diverse knowledge, and the need for local and global solutions,” she says. “Any course in sustainability must include the perspectives of indigenous communities, and we must be clear about the contributions that these perspectives make.”

Dr Watene is also part of the coordination of a major conference at Massey’s Albany campus on sustainability and justice in Auckland next June/July. The Human Development and Capability Association conference will include leading scholars and practitioners such as renowned American moral philosopher Martha Nussbaum, a professor at the University of Chicago; and Pedro Conceicao, director of the Human Development Report Office and lead author of the Human Development Report at the United Nations Development Programme.

For more information on the Master of Sustainable Development Goals, click here:


Issue 104 November 2019