GreenChoices

University courses

There are thousands of university courses with 'environmental' in their title, and about sixty relating in some way to sustainability. Some are specialist such as Anglia Polytechnic University's course on Sustainable Tourism Development, or courses on sustainable design, many relate to environmental management, and some address environmental sustainability specifically. A lot of university courses are now modular and most environmental science and environmental management courses will include modules on sustainability. Most are three-year full-time degree courses but some are sandwich courses or available on a part-time basis. Postgraduate courses are also available. Universities also offer many other courses with relevance to environmental issues including agriculture, biodiversity, biology and biological sciences, botany, horticulture, forestry and geography.

• UCAS enables you to search for courses by subject or university or geographical region and has links to each university or college's website where more details of courses, entrance requirements and the institution generally can be found.

• The Open University offers degrees taught by distance learning. Environmental courses include Working with our Environment: Technology for a Sustainable Future, and other modules leading to an Environmental Studies degree.

The following universities run degree and/or postgraduate courses on sustainability or environmental sustainability and management. The list is not exhaustive, particularly at the postgraduate level.

• University of Aberdeen MA in Sustainable Development (4 years full-time).

• University of Wales, Bangor Sustainable Development degree (either BA or BSc, 3 years full-time) provides students with an appreciation of the need for sustainable development, and of the principles and practices of the disciplines which underlie it.

• University of Birmingham One option of the Special Technology Programme leads to a BSc in Sustainable Technology (3 years full-time).

• University of the West of England, Bristol BA in Environmental Management and Sustainability (full-time, sandwich or part-time course) considers the scope of the concept of sustainability and how its various strands might be translated into new reality, resulting in a better world. The course relates this to the management of the built and natural environment.

• Cheltenham and Gloucester College, School of the Environment offers programmes through their Undergraduate Modular Scheme. In the School of Environment there are 17 undergraduate subjects broadly covering the Environmental Sciences, Human & Cultural Studies and Design Studies. These lead to BSc (Hons) degrees in Environmental Management, Environmental Policy or Environmental Science.

• University of Glamorgan BA Environmental Sustainability (3 years full-time) - the 'Green Degree' enables students to study the environment within an interdisciplinary philosophical and social science framework. Aspects include green history, environmental economics, environmental philosophy, green political philosophy, protection and use of the environment through legal and institutional means, natural resource development and rural and urban issues and science and technology, with an emphasis on ecology and energy matters.

• Centre for Human Ecology, Edinburgh MSc in Human Ecology offers a Masters Degree with a difference! It includes core courses on ecological, scientific and qualitative thinking; relations with the land, with ourselves and our community.

• University of Edinburgh Centre for the study of Environmental Change and Sustainability MSc in Environmental Sustainability offers a flexible, interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental sustainability and sustainable development.

• Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh BSc in Sustainability and Environmental Management (4 years full-time): an interdisciplinary course focused on the issues and challenges raised by sustainability and sustainable development.

• UHI Millennium Institute Degree in Sustainable Development and Environmental Management (3 years full-time).

• University of Lampeter Centre for Environmental Management offers BA Environmental Management and Sustainable Development as Single, Joint or Combined Honours degrees.

• University of Leeds BA Environmental Management degree modules include Environment and Society, World Issues, Climate Change, Natural Resources for Sustainable Development.

• University of Liverpool. The Department of Civil Engineering offers an interdisciplinary BSc course in Information Technology and Management for Sustainable Infrastructure which aims to provide graduates with the appropriate skills and understanding of modern IT and management techniques essential to meet the challenges of planning, constructing and maintaining our built environment for the 21st century. The course includes the study of sustainable provision of materials and energy efficient buildings; safe and effective transportation systems; and systems for coping with global climate change, such as reliable water supply systems and river and coastal flood defences.

• North East Wales Institute of Higher Education BSc (Hons) Environmental Management (Sustainability); BSc in Environmental Studies aims to widen your awareness of environmental issues, to increase your ability to analyse them and to enable you to evaluate and influence policies. It will also enhance your understanding of the practicalities of environmental management for sustainable development.

• University of Portsmouth BSc in Sustainable Design and Environmental Management (4 years sandwich course) focuses on the overall environmental debate as an issue at the heart of contemporary culture. There are four key themes. 'Society' looks at the impact of culture on the environment and includes topics like planning policy, law and economics. 'Environment' embraces sustainable principles, global studies, environmental science, and conservation and heritage. The 'design' theme focuses on environmental solutions, including sustainable design, bioclimatic design, materials and resources. Finally, 'communication' considers the best ways to communicate issues and solutions to key audiences and includes management studies and personal skills development alongside specific topics like the media, or website design.

• Schumacher College MSc in Holistic Science provides an integrated framework of study and research that recognises the changes occurring in science as it goes beyond interdisciplinarity to the understanding of complex wholes and their emergent properties at the levels of organisms, communities, ecosystems and the biosphere. These changes are also responses to the limitations of conventional science in dealing with crises in the state of the environment, in food production, health, community structure, and quality of life. It has become evident that basic assumptions need to be re-examined so that values and ethics become integral to scientific practice, instead of add-ons. Holistic science includes qualities as well as quantities in our understanding of nature, our relationship to it and to each other.

• University of Stirling MSc in Environmental Management.

• University of Strathclyde Graduate School of Environmental Studies offers Master (MEnvS) / Postgraduate Diploma (PgDip) in Environmental Studies, with an Alternative Pathway intended for students with a special interest in International Environmental Policy and Sustainable Development Issues. They also offer a Master (MSc) / Postgraduate Diploma (PgDip) in Environmental Science.