A day in the life of a Master’s in Sustainability Leadership for the Built Environment student
30 September 2025 - Nikhil Dhumma, EMEA Design & Programme Director at JLL and a student on the Master’s in Sustainability Leadership for the Built Environment, shares his experience of studying the programme and details what a day looks like during the third of his residential workshops in Cambridge, UK.
My day begins with…
A video call with my family while they’re having breakfast. It’s lovely to hear what everyone’s up to before school and work. I’ll quickly respond to any critical emails and then head for breakfast.
Over the course of several residential workshop weeks, I’ve realised that, for me, having breakfast with and then walking to lectures with my peers is one of the most important aspects of the course. It’s where I’ve really got to know some of the other course mates, where ideas are shared and where friendships have been forged.
The workshop starts with…
Each workshop focuses on a spotlight of the built environment, each workshop day is themed around course core modules and I usually have lectures in the morning and studio project time in the afternoons. I look forward to the release of the week’s programme and timetable, to see the presenters and topics being covered. There’s a good mix of academic and practical material, and perhaps unsurprisingly where interdependencies are so common, the most enjoyable sessions are those where content, philosophy, and practicability is challenged.
Between sessions we…
Try and grab some fresh air! The morning lectures, in particular, demand attention and often require quickly jumping from one train of thought to another. As workshop weeks have gone by, I think the group has become more aware of the evolving conversation around the topics shared by presenters, and so there’s often conversation around differing views, professional experience, regional variations, and challenges.
The conversation in the longer lunch break, rarely returns to the lectures. It varies and meanders through different topics but always begins with a decision on where to have lunch! The Judge Business School cafeteria and food stalls at Market Square are perennial favourites, but if the weather permits then ducking into the courtyard of a nearby college can offer a moment of calm amongst the surrounding hustle and bustle.
After lunch we…
Spend time on studio projects or interactive sessions. The studio project lasts the full workshop week, and the project teams include course mates from different cohorts. Not only is it a chance to get to know other students, it’s also where interdisciplinary working happens. They’re interesting for seeing how different insights, views, and skillsets can come together without professional hierarchies, scope gaps, and fee vs resource concerns distracting from the matter at hand.
The soft skills required to navigate the studio projects often dovetail with the focus of the interactive sessions, where attention is given to the importance of communication and reflection. I’ve enjoyed these sessions a lot, observing and being impressed by my peers, and honing in on the mechanics of these skills to further improve my own.
After sessions finish, I…
Reflect on the day, and start thinking about dinner plans and Horizon lectures the following day. If I can, I’ll call the family whilst walking. This is followed by dinner and conversation with those who started as peers and now are friends.
The evenings often end at the college bar to unwind from the day we’ve just had. The decompression starts with the group, after which I’ll retire to my room to catch up with any important work emails.
After a day of learning, I feel…
One of the early realisations from the first workshop was that you’re surrounded by allies. Clearly, everyone has chosen to be on the course and therefore shares certain world views, but the space the course affords to have deeper conversations feels like an unwritten but very real benefit of the workshops.
There are plenty of takeaways from the lectures, sessions and studio time, and it's a privilege to be able to reflect on these, through both personal and professional lenses. Re-evaluation of values, purpose, strategy, tactics bubbles away in the background, but often comes to the fore during workshop weeks.
I am excited by…
The opportunity to think about ideas, outside of a home and work context. This means that every workshop day sparks a thought - direct and indirect, depending on the theme of the workshop - on something in either my personal or professional life.
There are also more defined thoughts on incorporation of learnings into my professional life: tweaks to leadership styles for greater influence both upwards and downwards; strategic and tactical thinking related to definition of outcomes and objectives.
I’m also excited to focus on what I want to achieve in the coming months with regards to areas of interest for my dissertation, not to mention returning for another workshop in the company of people I enjoy spending time with.