Environmental Science

Throughout the BSc Environmental Science degree you’ll gain:

• Knowledge about the structure, processes and linkages of Earth’s physical environments, the way that these establish and distribute a variety of conditions for living things, both globally and locally, and the effects of disruption by natural and human agency.
• Understanding of human attitudes, behaviours and priorities about the environment, and how these shape our actions to damage, protect or restore both living and non-living environments.
• Skills in the concepts, science and technologies through which we assess, monitor, evaluate and effect beneficial change in the environment.

As you progress from the first to the final year, you’ll gain incredible opportunities to apply the topics you learn across both our own campus at Hartpury and on sites in some of the surrounding areas such as the Forest of Dean and the River Severn valley. The campus at Hartpury offers a hugely diverse range of environments including woodlands, lake and waterways, arable fields, and livestock pastures, all of which you will explore within the teaching on this degree. This practical experience will give you a strong basis to conduct your own individual research project in the final year. You’ll also receive increasing amounts of career-relevant input to your studies through live briefs and through case studies or guest lectures from professionals in relevant practice. In the second year you can take an embedded work-experience module; you can also elect to take a year-long work placement between your second and final year which could be taken anywhere in the world depending upon your own interests. Throughout your degree you’ll benefit from the guidance of your academic tutor, the University’s wider student support services and careers guidance.

In your first year, you’ll establish a firm foundation of knowledge about the structure, processes and linkages of Earth environments and the opportunities these provide for living things around the globe. We’ll examine how variety among plants and animals arises and is distributed, globally and locally. We’ll investigate some of these ideas in practical work on our campus and in our laboratories,  and you’ll make the most of having these amazing environments right on the doorstep of our teaching facilities through activities ranging from species identification and monitoring to gathering samples we can take straight into the lab to analyse. We’ll explore the concept of environmental systems, how this helps us understand resilience and vulnerability in the environment and the effect of disruption such as pollution. Your academic tutor will support you in gaining academic skills in research, data literacy and scientific communication.

The topics you will study will include:

• The physical environment – structure and processes of the atmosphere-ocean, lithosphere and hydrosphere, and how these environments change over time and space
• Biological organisation from cells to ecosystems and the interactions between organisms and their environment
• Global and local ecosystems
• Human societies, sustainability and environmental governance
• Environmental management
• Academic and professional skills to be a successful environmental scientist
• Fundamental specialist technical skills, e.g. laboratory practice, manipulation of digital spatial data in geographic information systems (GIS)

In Year two you’ll continue to build your understanding of issues in the abiotic and biotic environment with core modules in Environmental Pollution, Climate Change and Conservation Biology and select a specialist option (which may be engagement with professional practice).  You’ll start to prepare for independent research in your final year, by practising a range of investigative methodologies and applying these in a field course. We’ll examine the extent to which sustainability can be built into a business model and explore methodologies, such as Environmental Impact Assessment, for environmental protection.

The topics you will study will include:

• Environmental pollution sources, pathways and effects
• The science and impact of climate change
• Fundamental principles of wildlife conservation
• How the principles of sustainability are applied in practice
• The process of academic research, methods of research and analysis
• Field techniques for collecting data on a wide range of plant and animal taxa

An optional integrated placement year between your third and final years gives you the opportunity to put your knowledge and skills into practice and gain valuable industry experience.

In your final year of study, you’ll continue to study contemporary issues in environmental science, with a focus on applying your knowledge from earlier years to find solutions. You’ll undertake an extensive research investigation of your choice, with the guidance of staff and select option modules to increase your focus on topics that interest you most. Finally, we’ll support your preparation for a graduate career in environmental science by making a critical assessment of emerging environmental challenges at both global and local scales with a panel of experts and by practising skills of environmental management and communication.

As well as conducting your own independent research project with one-to-one support from an academic supervisor, the topics you will study will include:

• Social licence and One Health within the agricultural industry and their impacts on sustainability
• Professional competencies such as project management, costing, tendering and reporting
• Biodiversity conservation challenges and develop practical management recommendations