Capacity Building for a Thriving Future: Accredited sustainable business programmes
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Build the leadership, frameworks and confidence to turn ambition into action and drive meaningful transformation in your organisation and beyond.
Global markets are facing almost unprecedented levels of disruption and organisations are under increasing pressure to respond commercially, strategically, and at pace. The challenges are complex, and the pathways to success are often unclear. For those who are willing to navigate the complexity and take a systemic approach to business solutions, however, the outcomes can be more resilient and more impactful organisations, with the innovation available to influence change across a sector or region.
CISL’s postgraduate programmes equip students with the knowledge and skills to tackle the challenges and opportunities facing businesses today and translate them into strategic business opportunities.
What you will gain:
- Influence change within and beyond your organisation: Gain the skills, confidence and credibility to make change happen.
- Build pathways and solution that value from sustainability for your organisation and society: Learn to align sustainability with commercial priorities, strategy and performance.
- Develop practical solutions: Work on challenges or opportunities from your own organisation and apply your knowledge as you learn, so impact starts immediately and can be refined throughout your studies.
- Make decisions with clarity in a complex, evolving landscape: Cut through competing approaches and understand what good looks like across sectors and regions.
- Gain exposure to cutting-edge solutions: Hear from practitioners and academics at the forefront of implanting and developing innovative solutions
- Learn from a global cohort of peers: Learn alongside professionals from different industries, roles and geographies and see how others are tackling similar challenges.
Delivered part-time for working professionals, the programmes are designed to develop practical skills and solutions that can be transferred directly to your professional context. This approach is designed to enhance the value of the learning to your organisation from the outset of the programme. More information on the employer benefits can be found here.
Choice of duration and intensity
Our sustainable business programmes are available in three awards. All of the programmes excluding the Online Postgraduate Certificate incorporate residential workshops in Cambridge alongside synchronous and asynchronous online learning between residential workshops.
The three awards available are
This programme allows students to immerse themselves in sustainable business education assessed through organisation-focused assignments, a group project and a research dissertation/essay.
[The MSt is available as both a ‘Continuous Route’, where students complete their Master’s over two years, or students can complete the PG Cert first, then progress to the Masters. Both routes provide the same learning outcomes, and networking opportunities. You can find out more about the progression routes here.
This programme is designed for those looking to gain Master’s level education in a shorter format over 9-months, either as a recognised and accredited standalone qualification or as a stepping stone to the Master’s qualification.
The core focus of the PCSB is the same as the MSt, and is available in blended (residential and remote) and fully online formats. PCSB Blended students are able to focus their study on either sustainable business, value chains or finance streams, allowing their assignments to reflect the practical requirements of their professional role.
The Postgraduate Certificate is a recognised Master’s level qualification, sometimes referred to as a mini-Master’s. As we explain here, it should not be confused with the certificates of completion that may be issued for participating in non-accredited course. There are many benefits to studying a Postgraduate Certificate. You can find out more about what is required for the accredited Certificate here.
PCSB alumni/students can apply to progress their studies by applying to the MSt Sustainability Leadership.
The Diploma builds on the learning of the PCSB, combining a practical focus with academic rigour, and exploring innovations in sustainable business. Diploma students join with MSt students for their residential workshops and are assessed through an academic case study and literature review assignments.
This programme is under review and will not be accepting applicants to start in 2027
Our unique value:
- Designed for working professionals: Flexible, part-time learning structured to fit around your role and responsibilities. Short residential workshops in Cambridge are complemented with remote, self-paced study.
- Interdisciplinary by design: Combine perspectives from business, policy, finance, science and systems thinking reflecting the real-world nature of the challenges and co-creating solutions from multiple angles.
- Learning agility: We develop innovative mindsets that are better able to tackle future challenges by instilling cross-cutting skill-sets such as systems thinking, critical thinking, building collaborations and interpersonal influence.
- Practical and applied: Assignments are grounded in your own context, enabling immediate application and providing business benefit throughout your studies.
- Cohort enabled learning: Our unique integrative approach builds a learning experience that actively enables peer exchange, constructive challenge and being part of a community, network and support system that extends beyond the programmes.
- Grounded in Cambridge: Access cutting-edge thinking, global perspectives and the credibility of a Cambridge postgraduate qualification.
Want to know more?
Compare key course elements and details via our programme overview and comparison table, frequently asked questions are answered here and find out what the difference is between an MSc and an MSt. Join CISL Course Directors for our monthly Meet the Director webinars, where you will gain an overview of our programmes and admissions processes and have opportunity to post your questions to be answered live.
