Environmental Management, MSc at University of Aberdeen

This MSc is ideally suited for students looking to gain a greater understanding of environmental science and environmental management. This degree aims to address environmental issues within the local, regional and global context.

Within the programme students will cover courses in environmental pollution, environmental management planning, catchment management and environmental impact assessment. During these courses they will develop key skills in environmental policy, legislation, risk assessment models and writing management plans. The students will gain a wide understanding of landscape science within a context that develops upon empirical details.

These skills will make the graduates ideal candidates for positions in environmental consultancies, regulators and NGOs.

How You'll Study

A wide range of teaching methods are used at Aberdeen to ensure that you are able to learn in a way that suits your learning style and enables you to achieve the best possible outcome. Our class sizes are small and we have a low student to tutor ratio, meaning you will have the full support of your group tutors.

Our great diversity in teaching methods is coupled by the use of latest digital technology to ensure course content is accessible to all students through a wide range of electronic formats.

The MSc also provides students with ample opportunity to learn outside the classroom so you can apply both theory and practice to real life situations. The majority of courses regularly extend activities and learning to outdoor field work, visits by industry experts and insights into real-life situations and problem-solving. The MSc programme includes, without additional cost, a one week residential field course (at Ballater, Aberdeenshire) plus several day-long field trips from Aberdeen.

The dedicated research project you will undertake as part of your MSc provides training in study design, technical skills, recording results and observations and analysing results. Great flexibility is available in project selection; projects can be chosen from a list of developed by the students themselves in collaboration with supervisors. Projects can be field, lab and/or computer based and flexible to fit the student’s interests, aspirations and skill set.

Learning Methods

• FIELD TRIPS
• FIELD WORK
• GROUP PROJECTS
• INDIVIDUAL PROJECTS
• LECTURES
• TUTORIALS

Why Study Environmental Management?

• Aberdeen provides you with a unique learning environment with unrivalled access to coastal, mountain and freshwater habitats for both fieldwork and recreation. You will carry out field work in various different locations, including the North Sea, the agricultural and forested areas of NE Scotland, National Nature reserves and Sites of Special Scientific Interest.
• The University has an international reputation for excellence in inter-disciplinary research in terrestrial, aquatic and marine environments.
• The programme is skills-based, meaning that as well as learning theory, you will also have the opportunity to gain experience of applying your knowledge to real life and environmental situations.
• The University has a long tradition and excellent reputation for teaching and research in Environmental and Ecological sciences and is home to one of the largest and most vibrant groups of academics in this subject area in Britain.
• Award winning Climate Change research was carried out by the University's Professor Pete Smith winner of the British Ecological Society Marsh Award 2014.
• Dr Jon Hillier and his team at the University developed the award winning ‘Cool Farm Tool’ a greenhouse calculator used by Unilever, Marks & Spencer’s, Costco and Heinz.

Careers

The programme focuses on providing training in state-of-the-art methods that will be invaluable both for careers in academic research and outside of academia. This programme brings together a range of courses that will equip you with the knowledge and skills suited for the environmental sector.

In addition to acquiring discipline-specific skills, the course work activities within our programme are designed to provide you with ample opportunity to develop generic skills required by employers including critical thinking, time management, problem-solving, team work, presenting work both as written reports and as oral presentations.

On graduating you will have several career options available to you, some of which include:

• Further study (PhD)
• Academic jobs in university settings, e.g. researcher
• Careers in the environmental science industry in roles such as Environmental Consultant, Nature Conservation Officer, Water Quality Tester, and Eco-toxicologist