MSc in International Environmental Studies

This program concerns the environmental challenges of our time and seeks solutions that combine both natural and social science approaches. This degree qualifies students to contribute to international, sustainable development.

What can you use this qualification for?

Graduates can work in national and international agencies, ministries and environmental organizations. It also qualifies for jobs in development aid agencies, education, research institutions, media, consulting companies and international non-governmental organizations.

What will you learn?

Students will learn about causes and effects of global environmental problems related foremost to climate change, loss of biodiversity, desertification, water availability, and land degradation. The program provides an in-depth understanding of the interactions between social and natural processes through which global environmental change takes place, and how governance structures and power relations influence current trends.

Short description

The program is international in two ways: The curriculum covers topics that are relevant for many countries, and students on the program come from many different countries throughout the world. The program is interdisciplinary, consisting of courses that focus on both natural and social aspects of the environmental challenges of our time, and students with both natural and social science backgrounds may be accepted into the program.

Roles of international political bodies, national states and state policies, markets, and civil society are emphasized. Poverty alleviation and health issues are core aspects of sustainable development with strong links to environmental factors.

Learning outcomes

After completing this study program, students should have the following competencies:

Knowledge:

• A common understanding of socio-environmental relations and the drivers of environmental change.

• A critical ability to analyze complexity.

• Demonstrate knowledge of theories and knowledge of understanding concerning environmental change.

Skills:

• Utilize competence in planning and carrying out field research, project management, and development work. Critically assess new academic developments within the environmental studies field as well as policy directions.

• Carry out interdisciplinary analyses of environmental change and evaluate solutions related to socio-environmental relations in collaboration with colleagues from other academic fields.

• Use various understandings and methods of socio-environmental relations and drivers of change in fieldwork.

• Analyze new directions within social and natural sciences in understanding climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation.

• Evaluate and use primary, secondary and tertiary sources of data in the elaboration of papers and specific arguments and with the correct use of references.

• Develop a critical perspective on power relations, ethical issues, and conflicts of values related to environmental change.

General competence:

• Plan and carry out independent research, develop innovative research questions and engage critically and informed in policy formulation and project development.

• Solve theoretical and methodological and project/policy problems independently.

• Apply insights and knowledge in new settings, such as development or environmental management, teaching or business. Engage in public debates, in media, in voluntary organizations, community meetings, popular dissemination and in meetings with policymakers.

• Contribute to developing solutions for environmental problems by bringing out strategic development and institutional issues, project collaboration and create and lead networks and centers.

• Building research teams and inter-personal communication across cultures and across academic fields.

NMBU's research and study programmes are enabling people all over the world to tackle the big, global challenges regarding the environment, sustainable development, how to improve human and animal health, renewable energy sources, food production, and land- and resource management.

Campus Ås

Campus Ås houses Norway's largest interdisciplinary academic environment in the life sciences.

The Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) consists of seven faculties, of which six are located at Campus Ås and one is partially located at Campus Adamstuen (until 2019):

• Biosciences
• Chemistry, Biotechnology, and Food Science
• Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management
• Landscape and Society
• School of Economics and Business
• Science and Technology
• Veterinary Medicine

A new research and teaching building for veterinary science will open in 2020, meaning all seven faculties at NMBU will then be consolidated in Ås. The Norwegian Veterinary Institute will move to Campus Ås at the same time.

Campus Ås is also home to one of Norway's most beautiful parks, with a number of historical buildings, as well as Ås Farm, where research and teaching on traditional livestock are conducted.

Campus Ås covers a total area of 600 hectares in the municipality of Ås.

Two other major institutions are also co-located with NMBU at Campus Ås: key parts of the Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Research (Nofima) and the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO).

Campus Adamstuen

Campus Adamstuen is home to Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. The faculty is Norway’s only institution of higher education for veterinarians with competence in two distinct academic fields: veterinary medicine and veterinary public health.

Veterinary medicine addresses animal health and well-being. Key areas include knowledge about diseases, diagnostics, and treatment. The field includes both production animals, including farmed fish, and companion animals.

Veterinary public health pertains to all aspects of preventing the spread of disease from animals to humans and is a field that is in increasing demand.

On 1 January 2014, the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science (NVH) and the University of Life Sciences (UMB) were merged to form the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), consolidating research and teaching on the entire biological production chain under a single umbrella. Faculty of Veterinary Medicine comprises four departments at Campus Adamstuen:

• Basic Sciences and Aquatic Medicine (Basam)
• Food Safety and Infection Biology (Matinf)
• Production Animal Clinical Sciences (Prodmed)
• Companion Animal Clinical Sciences (Sportfamed)

Campus Adamstuen is also home to the University Animal Hospital, consisting of the Companion Animal Clinic, the Equine Clinic, and the Production Animal Clinic.

The University Animal Hospital treats sick animals from the entire country and is closely linked to the research and educational activities at NMBU School of Veterinary Medicine.

The Norwegian Veterinary Institute is a biomedical research institute that shares premises with Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Campus Adamstuen. The Norwegian Veterinary History Museum is also located here.

Campus Adamstuen is scheduled to close in 2019, and NMBU School of Veterinary Medicine and the University Animal Hospital will then move into state-of-the-art veterinary premises at Campus Ås, meaning all three faculties will finally be co-located in one place. The Norwegian Veterinary Institute will move to Campus Ås at the same time.

A brand new veterinary science research and teaching building are currently being built at Campus Ås.

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine also has a division located in south-western Norway: the Section for Small Ruminant Research in Høyland, Sandnes.