Study Environmental Science

Environmental Science at Victoria University of Wellington is an exciting, multi-disciplinary programme. You will approach and study environmental issues that face our world today, looking at biological, physical and chemical perspectives. You will meet scientists who are actively researching in the field of Environmental Science. You will develop world class skills in problem-solving, research and communication. For example, part of your assessed coursework will be contributing a post for this blog!

As part of the major you will undertake an original piece of research in the field of Environmental Science, under the supervision of an expert. This is an unusual opportunity for undergraduate students to gain experience in field and lab work, towards advancing the current state of knowledge in Environmental Science. Previous projects have included: heavy metals in urban streams, the impacts of 1080 on native and exotic fauna, post-glacial environmental change in New Zealand, the impacts of landscape change on freshwater quality, bioaccumulation of heavy metals in crustaceans, isotopic analysis of freshwater invertebrates, carbon sequestration in wetlands, late Holocene vegetation reconstruction, kaka nest success analysis, geochemical analysis of lake sediments, the role of riparian planting in freshwater stream health, nitrate movement in an agricultural landscape…

Undergraduate Environmental Science at VUW is taken as a major in the Bachelor of Science (BSc) (duration 3 years). There are two mandatory courses in the Environmental Science major: ENSC 301 Topics in Environmental Science and ENSC 302 Directed Individual Study. Both courses must be taken to complete the major. Environmental Sciences must be taken as a co-major with another from within the Faculty of Science. This could include biology, marine biology, earth sciences, physical geography, chemistry, mathematics, physics and so on.