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MA - Outdoor and Experiential Learning (Ambleside)

If you love the outdoors and are passionate about helping others to be confident in who they are and the contribution they are making to society, the environment and the planet, then the Outdoor Experiential Learning programme is for you.

Nestled in the stunning Lake District, you’ll be based at our historic Ambleside campus - placing you at the forefront of sustainable futures, social justice, and experiential education.

Taught by internationally recognised experts in outdoor environmental sustainability education, mental health, wellbeing, and bushcraft, this MA is designed for those eager to challenge conventions, think critically, and transform outdoor learning. Our interdisciplinary approach brings together students from diverse backgrounds, creating a vibrant community of change-makers.

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Outdoor and Experiential Learning (Ambleside) cover image

Course Overview

The MA in Outdoor and Experiential Learning isn’t just about studying experience, it's about living it. From hands-on engagement in diverse environments to critical reflection on cultural, ecological, and political perspectives, this course immerses you in learning that is as dynamic as the landscapes we explore.

Join us at our Ambleside campus, where you’ll live and study surrounded by mountains, forests, rivers, and lakes—an unparalleled setting for outdoor education. Become part of an international network of leaders who are redefining outdoor and experiential learning for the future.

Our graduates go on to inspire and lead in a variety of roles, including educators, outdoor practitioners, environmental consultants, sustainability leaders, mental health and wellbeing specialists, development trainers, and social change advocates.

To reflect this contemporary trend, there are three pathways to choose from which reflect current applications of experiential learning:

- Outdoor & Experiential Learning: The core pathway, designed for those passionate about outdoor education and innovative learning.

- Outdoor & Experiential Learning (Bushcraft): Master traditional skills and explore the deep connections between humans and nature.

- Outdoor & Experiential Learning (Health & Wellbeing): Investigate the role of nature in mental health, therapeutic landscapes, and personal development.

On this course you will...

  • Think beyond boundaries – Challenge conventional ideas about experiential learning, outdoor education, and your own personal and professional journey.
  • Learn across disciplines – Draw from anthropology, philosophy, eco-psychology, bushcraft, therapeutic landscapes, pedagogy, and the arts.
  • Gain immersive experience – Learn in real-world environments, from remote wilderness settings to community-led initiatives.
  • Be inspired by experienced lecturers – with global research expertise and pioneering approaches to education.
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Download our Prospectus

Course Structure

What you will learn

There are three pathways to choose from in order to complete the MA qualification.

The Outdoor & Experiential Learning pathway engages with current debates around environmental empathy, displacement, social equality, adventurous journeying, embodiment, outdoor recreation, nature-culture philosophies, colonialism, globalization and management of people in organisations, sustainability and alternative forms of education, for example.

The Bushcraft pathway deeply engages the learner with both practical and theoretical concerns within the emerging academic field of Bushcraft. This field speaks to wider implications for educational, therapeutic, commercial and recreational ideas.

The Health and Wellbeing pathway offers a reflective exploration of the student’s own therapeutic relationship with ‘the outdoors’ as well as personal and planetary wellbeing and ill-health. Utilising experimental walks and residential settings, alternative narratives of human-environment relations will be developed whilst exploring historical, traditional and contemporary perspectives of nature based psychotherapies and therapeutic landscapes.

Compulsory modules
  • Introduction to Outdoor and Experiential Learning
    Explore the processes and definitions of Outdoor and Experiential Learning.
  • The Reflexive Practitioner
    Examine the concept of ‘world views’ and explore their impact on professional practice.
  • Independent Inquiry
    The aim of the module is to support students in planning, conducting and writing up an applied research or evaluation project within the field.
  • Dissertation
    Design and conduct a substantial piece of independent supervised research.
Pathway modules

Bushcraft Pathway

  • Histories and Principles of Bushcraft
    Explore the history and growth of bushcraft as a practice and an ideology.
  • Cultures and Practices of Bushcraft
    Taking as its starting point the concerns articulated by contemporary Indigenous scholarship, about the appropriation of traditional cultures by both Westernised global commerce and academy, we explore the problems and the potentials of Bushcraft as a transformative concept in the modern world.

Outdoor & Experiential Learning Pathway

  • Know Your Place: Place Responsive Approaches to the Outdoors
    The module explores different ways in which we and others create space and how that can help us consider how these different “lenses” shape our place.
  • Learning from Adventurous Journeys
    Adopting a field-based journey approach the module will enable students to reflect critically on their work with adventurous journeys and develop new, innovative and challenging experiences with enhanced knowledge of the theory underpinning professional practice.

Health & Wellbeing Pathway

  • Querying Therapeutic Landscapes & Outdoor Psychotherapies
    Introduces and critiques the theoretical underpinnings of outdoor psychotherapies and therapeutic landscapes research and applications. Utilising experimental walks, alternative narratives of human-environment relations will be developed to explore the concept of ‘assemblages of health’.
  • Therapeutic Opportunities in the Outdoors
    Reflectively explore individual therapeutic relationships with the outdoors. This module typically contains a residential aspect.
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  • Location

    Ambleside Campus

    Nestled in the Lake District National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Ambleside campus is the perfect place for world-savers, animal lovers, and adventurers. There is never a dull moment when surrounded by such natural beauty and opportunity.

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Find out more about studying with us

Attend an Open Day at Cumbria

An Open Day is your opportunity to explore one of 5 campuses, meet your lecturers, and find out how the University of Cumbria could become your new home.

Take the next step towards achieving your dreams.
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