Natural Resources & Environmental Studies (PhD) at University of Northern British Columbia

The PhD in Natural Resources and Environmental Studies [PhD(NRES)] offers students the opportunity to develop an advanced level of understanding and training in any one or a combination of scientific discipline(s) related to natural environments, the processes (e.g., biological, chemical, physical) that govern them, or the human dimensions (e.g., social, economic, political, cultural) that interact with them. The PhD(NRES) promotes an integration of the linkages between social, ethical, political, and cultural dimensions, and an understanding of basic ecological, biological, and physical attributes of natural resources. Emphasis is placed upon the student to acquire an interdisciplinary base upon which to found a “disciplinary” area of concentration. Graduates from this program who have an area of concentration and a familiarity with how other disciplines can contribute toward solving environmental problems should be capable of addressing a variety of natural resources and environmental issues from a number of perspectives.

Students must pass three separate checks on their academic progress towards a PhD: a qualifying exam, a defense of thesis proposal, and a defense of the thesis. The qualifying exam is tailored to ensure a cross-disciplinary aptitude, and tests the student's grasp of the interdisciplinary nature of natural resource and environmental issues. The thesis proposal defense is tailored to ensure that a student has a grasp of his/her area of concentration, and therefore examines the level of knowledge within the area of concentration. Upon successfully passing both the qualifying examination and the thesis proposal defense, a student is granted candidate status, and embarks upon the thesis work under the supervision of his/her faculty advisor. Following completion of the research, the candidate must defend his/her thesis to an examination committee.