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Course overview

The World is facing a number of global crises – biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, climate change and threats to food and energy supplies. 

The Environmental Management and Sustainability programme is built around the water, energy and food nexus. Expertise in areas including climate change adaptation and mitigation, water management, sustainable energy, land use and food security are integrated into this programme to train a new generation of professionals. A key focus will be practical approaches to the productive management of land whilst balancing the needs of society for a healthy environment. This will include thriving biodiversity, clean water and air, and safety from natural hazards (such as floods and extreme weather) wrought by climate change, agricultural intensification and the demands of a growing UK and global population.  Graduates will develop the skills to address sustainable development issues.   

This course will provide a combination of underpinning theory and practical application to demonstrate key concepts and allow students to develop their own specialist areas of interest.  This programme is interdisciplinary in nature and students can expect to gain a wide variety of insights into environmental management and sustainability. In addition, students will develop transferable skills for use in graduate employment or in the pursuit of postgraduate research. 

Each year of the programme includes fieldwork and there is a residential field course in every year. There are international field courses in the second and final year. The final year course is currently in South Africa, while the L5 course will be in Europe. These residential field courses are supplemented by a wide range of field trips to local sites to contextualise material introduced in lectures and seminars. The programme has a strong applied focus using standard industry techniques underpinned by science.  

Industry best practice has been driven by technological advances in remote sensing, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and geographical information systems (GIS). The application of these technologies is embedded in the course to promote environmental management and sustainability.  

The university is situated in a rural location with easy access to the countryside of Cheshire and Shropshire, including the Meres and Mosses and the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The university also has its own estate of 400ha including a range of agricultural and semi-natural habitats. The estate and local sites are used in the course for site visits and practical exercises.  

This course builds on a long history of related courses, taught by staff with a wide range of academic and professional expertise. 

A version of this course with a placement year is also available. 

View the placement year route

Find out more about placement years

How will I be taught?

The course comprises modules covering environmental and sustainability themes along with cross-disciplinary subjects in fieldwork, personal development and project management. Each module is worth either 10 or 20 credits (although the final year research project is weighted at 40 credits) and each academic year of the course carries a weighting of 120 credits. 

Each module has a web page on our Virtual Learning Environment. Here tutors upload material such as presentations, videos, and links to key sources for independent study. Material used in face-to-face teaching is uploaded in advance of classes, so that students can prepare and subsequently follow up to reinforce their understanding. Many modules also include practical work in the university laboratories, on the university farm, or at locations (e.g. nature reserves) nearby. Each year includes at least one residential field course. 

The first year of the course comprises ‘Core’ modules (meaning all students study the same subjects).

The second year of the course builds on the themes introduced in the first year. There are two optional modules (students must select one) and also an elective module. For the elective, students can pick a specialist module delivered by the Environmental Sustainability Wildlife team or any other elective module offered across the university.

A key aspect of the final year is the individual research project where students get to investigate a topic of personal interest. This might involve the collection, analysis and interpretation of data from field surveys, designed pilots or a questionnaire, to answer research questions which they have developed with support of their project supervisor. There are two pairs of optional modules, including a module focussing on forestry that builds on the second year module on woodland management. Students select one optional module from each pair.

See module table for full details of each module. 

Careers

Graduates will find a diversity of employment opportunities from environmental consultancy and advisors specialising in sustainable business management and environmental land management, to professionals working in renewable energy, sustainable food production and catchment management. Employers include public and private organisations including NGOs such as the National Trust through to local authorities and the Environment Agency.