Course variations

Course summary

This program will develop skills in the analysis and understanding of environmental problems and issues by studying all major relevant biological, social and physical sciences. By emphasising interpretative, rather than quantitative, skills and integrative policy, as well as social and economic approaches relevant to environmental problem solving and management, the degree will enable students to develop an understanding of the complexity of the natural environment, and the important links between human society, economies, and nature. Program coursework joins scientific theory, practical methods and problem-solving techniques to address and resolve real problems associated with issues such as energy use, biodiversity and species loss, environmental behaviour, climate change, corporate environmental management systems, natural area protection, sustainable economies and cities, technology change, and genetic engineering. Teaching activities include lectures, multimedia resources, workshop activities and often field, laboratory, and small groups that cover individual and team project work. In first year students will engage in courses that overview and integrate the biological, physical, and social sciences that are fundamental to understanding environmental issues. In second and third years, the content of the program emphasises the social sciences in order to develop professional skills and knowledge for effective and efficient environmental problem-solving and management. Courses in ecology and other natural sciences can be taken throughout the main program. Environmental professionals with strong social science backgrounds are needed both in Australia and internationally, because sustainability and the environment now pervade nearly all aspects of government, business and recreation. Graduates from this degree are employed in a diversity of agencies, centres, consultancies and programs throughout the private sector and in local, state and federal government.

Entry requirement for international students

Students should have completed a senior secondary school qualification regarded as comparable to an Australian Year 12 award. International students whose native is not English should have the following requirements: a minimum overall band score of 6.0 on IELTS (Academic) with no sub-score of less than 5.5; a minimum score of 550 on TOEFL; an internet-based (iBT) TOEFL score of 79 (no score less than 19); no score less than three in each skill of the ISLPR (conducted by GELI or ISLPR Language Services only); a minimum grade of C on the Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English (CAE); a minimum grade of C on the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE).

Qualification

Bachelor Degree

Awarding body

Griffith University

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