This interdisciplinary course will give you an increased understanding of the complex relationships between health, environment, and climate change, particularly regarding sustainable cities and wellbeing. The aim of this course is to develop your knowledge on global environmental health and climate change and to refine your skills to become leaders in realising the ambitious 2030 Sustainable Development Goal agenda.
This course is appropriate for Bachelor's students in medical sciences, social sciences as well as environmental sciences. You will benefit from a diverse and challenging multidisciplinary class environment. You are expected to work within fields in which you are a novice, while also being challenged in your own disciplines. This course will facilitate cross-disciplinary collaboration and communication both in class and in the examination.
Course duration is three weeks full time with one week on-campus and two weeks online. The instruction consists of lectures, seminars, individual and group assignments, and presentations. We will use case-based learning with local challenge scenarios and in collaboration with Uppsala Municipality for community- and city-based activities.
This course is organised by the Department of Women's and Children's Health, with participation from the Department of Earth Sciences at Uppsala University, two other ENLIGHT universities (University of Tartu, Estonia and University of Groningen, the Netherlands) and Uppsala Municipality.
About the course
Content
This course is an introduction to the connections between the environment, health and climate change. It approaches the topics through the frameworks of global health and sustainable development. Throughout the course students will have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge in specific areas, such as toxicants and pollutants, water and sanitation, air pollution, waste management, vector-borne diseases, and urban environments. They will be tasked with relating these health hazards to issues of migration, natural disasters, war, development and urbanisation.
Learning outcomes
On completion of the course, students will be able to:
Knowledge and understanding:
- Explain the relationships between health, environment, and climate change from an interdisciplinary perspective.
- Critically analyse reasons for and responses to environmental and climate change challenges based on global health and sustainable development perspectives.
Competencies and skills:
- Describe major environmental health hazards and their sources, and relate these to questions of equity on the local, regional, and global scale
Assessment
In order to pass the course, active participation in all mandatory seminars and passing grade in group presentation (2.5 credits), as well as passing grade in written individual assignment (2.5 credits), are required.
If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.
Lecturers
- Syed Moshfiqur Rahman Uppsala University
- Laila Mendy, Uppsala University
- Hans Orru, University of Tartu
- Valentina Gallo, University of Groningen
- Cecilia Stålsby Lundborg, Karolinska Institute
- Maria Kippler, Karolinska Institutet
- Joacim Rocklöv, Umea University
Course dates
On-site period: 6 - 10 Oct 2025 in Uppsala
Online period: 13 - 24 Oct 2025. Class times typically occur all days of the working week between: 09.00- 12.00 and 13.00 – 15.00. Students are expected to be working independently and in groups outside of class hours.
How to apply?
General entry requirements (open for all ENLIGHT students).
Students will be selected at each of these universities separately. Students interested in the course need to apply via their home university. They should contact their faculty or programme to verify whether it can fit in their curriculum and to ensure academic recognition of the credits obtained. The home university will select the permitted number of students, inform the students as soon as possible, and then send these names to the host institution. Unsuccessful students will be placed on a waiting list and may get a place, if other universities do not use all their allocated places. Waiting lists are encouraged.
Please select your home university below and contact your ENLIGHT coordinator for further information on the application process or consult the linked information.
- University of the Basque Country:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - University of Bern: Application instructions for students at the University of Bern
- University of Bordeaux:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - Comenius University Bratislava:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - University of Galway:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - Ghent University:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (see information about BIP's) - University of Groningen:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - University of Göttingen:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (for BIP’s) orThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (other courses) - University of Tartu: Application instructions for students at the University of Tartu
- Uppsala University: Application instructions for students at Uppsala University.
Contact
Course leader: Syed Moshfiqur Rahman (
Course coordinator: Laila Mendy (
Course administrator: Tetyana Korol (