Environmental Management BSc(Hons)

Course structure

You'll focus on four key themes, allowing you to develop a programme of study that matches your interests and career ambitions.

Challenges for the environment – covers issues to help understand and put into context human impacts on the environment at a national and international level.

Vocational skills for environmental managers – focuses on how to apply key skills in critical thinking, data analysis and emergent technologies to environmental management.

Physical environments – covers the physical environment, systems and approaches across different timescales and multiple domains.

Cultural environments – considers cultural environments, developing critical skills in understanding and analysing multiple interpretations of landscapes and resources and the challenges around their use and exploitation.

You have the option to enrol on this course part-time, giving you more flexibility in the way you choose to study.

Year 1

Designed to give you a broad understanding of environmental management, our first year introduces you to the key areas of physical geography, human geography, environmental issues, statistical and spatial analysis (GIS). You will also gain an understanding of geology through a module on the earth and ocean system. 

Modules

• Fundamentals of Physical Geography

  This module will provide a theoretical and practical introduction to a range of azonal (tectonic, climatic, hydrological, fluvial, coastal, slope, aeolian, and biogeographical) and zonal (glacial and periglacial) physical geographical systems. You will examine the ways in which these systems interact with and influence human activities, both at the present day and over archaeological timescales.

• Global Environmental Issues

  This module will introduce you to a range of pressing global environmental issues which are explored from both natural science and social science angles, via a range of case studies. The module focuses on scientific, social, economic and political aspects of current and past environmental issues and explores how some of the issues may be addressed through interdisciplinary management and mitigation. Workshop sessions involving targeted pre-reading and small group working will take place at specific intervals.

• Academic Learning and Field Skills

  This module will introduce you to a range of academic study skills, fieldwork skills and transferable skills for geography and environmental sciences. The module will support you in how to learn at university, and in particular, with learning independently and autonomously. The module also involves a residential field course where you will learn field data collection and analysis techniques, methodology design and how to present research findings.

• Human Geography

  This module provides a critical introduction to key themes in human geography. You will develop an appreciation of geographical concepts such as nature, space, place and scale through consideration of geographies of global political-economic change, past and contemporary cultural geographies and geographical imaginations, and social geographies of everyday life.

• The Earth and Ocean System

  In this module you will explore and discuss the four ‘spheres’ of the Earth system: the lithosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, and how they interact to produce the stratigraphic record of Earth history.

• Statistical and Spatial Data Analysis

  This module will introduce you to a variety of techniques utilised in both the academic and professional world for the analysis of geographical and environmental data. Emphasis is placed on developing skills and abilities to graphically/visually display data and assess patterns/relationships through statistical testing, and geospatial display and analysis. The module will introduce you to and allow you to become a competent user of statistical software.

Year 2

A set of core modules deepens your subject-specific knowledge and skills. You will gain a critical understanding of issues such as those placed on landscapes from sectors including: energy generation, flood management, drinking water, historic environment resources and biodiversity; and environmental pollution including water pollution, air quality and waters.

You will develop employability skills relating to environmental management. Option modules allow you to study areas that interest you most.

Modules

• Professional Practice
• Research Design and Analysis with Dissertation Planning
• Fieldtrip: Managing Landscapes
• Climate Change

Options*

• Ice Age Earth
• Environmental Pollution
• Sustainable Development
• GIS and Remote Sensing: Principles and Practice

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Placement year

A placement year offers you a great opportunity to:

• apply the knowledge and skills gained during your studies to a professional environment and discover new ones
• build knowledge of real-world businesses and organisations
• make contacts in industry and commerce
• increase your confidence
• improve your time management
• draw on the experience gained on placement to inform your final year studies.

Students from our geography and environmental sciences courses have secured placements in organisations such as the Department for Energy and Climate Change, Transport for London, the Field Studies Council, and with environmental firms and consultancies.

Final year 

The focus of your final year is your dissertation, for which you will undertake live research in a specific area of environmental management.

Option modules enable you to tailor your studies to support your dissertation and future career aspirations. This includes the opportunity to develop a more in-depth understanding of environmental policy and law through masters level options available in this year.

Modules

• Dissertation 
• Environmental Impact Assessment
• Systems for Environmental Management

Options*

• Waste Management and the Circular Economy
• Aquatic Environments
• Water, Sanitation and Health
• Atmospheric Environments
• Political Ecology: Contested Environments
• Advanced GIS and Remote Sensing
• Environmental Policy and Law

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Learning facilities 

Our facilities include:

• environment and public health laboratory equipped with bench top spectrophotometers, membrane filtration equipment, centrifuge, and sterilisation equipment for public health microbiology procedures and genetic profiling methods
• soil and water analysis laboratories equipped with a range of spectrometers for different uses, gas chromatographs, pH meters and experimental cells for experimental work into the electro-kinetics of contaminated sediments
• soil and sediment analysis laboratory with drying ovens, and Malvern Mastersizer 2000 laser particle size analyser
• hydraulics laboratory equipped with a recirculating flume with sediment transport system and interchangeable weirs, wave tank, a river basin for river/floodplain simulation and two further flumes with interchangeable weirs
• environmental simulation laboratory with hydraulic stream table
• scanning electron microscopy facility with dedicated technician support
• air quality laboratory with instrumentation to understand global atmospheric composition
• computer suites running GIS and other professional software
• equipment for field-based geophysical surveying
• field collection equipment.

International requirements and visas

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visas and immigration advice

Course fees

If you choose to take the professional placement (sandwich) year offered on this course you will pay a reduced fee during this year. Our fee for the professional placement year is £1,290 for home students and £2,076 for international students. This fee may be subject to small increases, in line with inflation.

What's included

You may have to pay additional costs during your studies. The cost of optional activities is not included in your tuition fee and you will need to meet this cost in addition to your fees. A summary of the costs that you may be expected to pay, and what is included in your fees, while studying a course in the School of Environment and Technology are listed here.

• Travel and accommodation costs are included for all mandatory taught residential field trips, but you’ll need to provide your own food and drink.
• Where taught residential field trips are optional, a contribution will be required towards travel and accommodation. This will vary depending on where and how long the field trip is but you should budget approximately £1,500.
• The independent mapping project is a mandatory part of the Geology BSc(Hons) involving independent fieldwork that is undertaken in the summer between years 2 and 3. The cost of this fieldwork is not included in the fee, and you will need to meet this additional cost yourself.
• Some students require specialist outdoor equipment and/or personal protective equipment (PPE) and should budget up to £100.
• If you choose to take an optional paid placement you’ll be expected to cover your own travel, accommodation, food and drink.
• You will have access to computers and necessary software, however many students choose to buy their own hardware, software and accessories. The amount spent will depend on your individual choices but this expenditure is not essential to pass any of our courses. Find out what free software is available. from the University of Brighton
• In most cases coursework submissions are electronic but students may wish to print notes which would involve an extra cost. View our standard costs for printing

You can chat with our enquiries team through the Stay in touch panel at the end of this page if you require further information. Or check our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships as well as more information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status.

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2020–21.

Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK/EU students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee.

You can find out more about our fees in the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full-time or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

Local area

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Maps