Find out about your options for Environmental Studies qualifications and discover what you'll learn.

• Master of Environmental Studies
• Postgraduate Diploma in Environmental Studies

Through postgraduate Environmental Studies, you will explore theory and practice of working with, in and for environments and communities. You will engage with theories that help make sense of the world around us, and can help guide us towards more just and fair futures. You will also learn about case studies from around the world that expand our understanding of the environment and ways of living well.

Environmental Studies at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington will challenge your thinking, build your skills for working in the environment sector, and cultivate your ability to engage as citizens and community members.

Core courses

The PGDip is the same as the first year, or Part 1, of the Master’s programme. Both qualifications include two 15-point core courses—Environmental Management and Research Methods for Environmental Studies and Research Methods for Environmental Studies. Environmental Management critically explores environmental decision making and engagement. Research Methods gives you the chance to design a research project. You’ll study research design, data collection and analysis, working with communities, and how to communicate research findings. This course gives you a grounding in how to do excellent research, and develop skills and knowledge that are transferrable across numerous contexts.

Elective courses

You’ll then need to select around 60 points from other ENVI coded courses. These courses cover a range of critical approaches to environmental issues (psychology, law, political ecology, environmental ethics, mātauranga Māori) and explore diverse case studies and contexts from around the world.

The remaining points can be made up of 400- or 500-level courses from across the university. Talk to the ENVI postgraduate coordinator about what courses might align with your interests and ambitions.

Master’s thesis and practicum

If you are doing the Master’s programme, you’ll go on to a second year (Part 2) and complete a research thesis. You can choose to do the 40,000-word option, or complete a 25,000-word thesis and do a 30-point practicum. The practicum is a supervised work placement at an organisation that specialises in environmental or resource management.

You’ll need an average grade of B+ across your courses in Part 1 for entry into Part 2 of the Master’s programme.

Through your course work in Part 1, and particularly the Research Methods course, you will explore different approaches to doing research. The topic you decide to research for your thesis should be something you are passionate about, and that we have the right expertise to supervise. The Environmental Studies team has a lot of experience supervising research that is engaged with communities and seeks to contribute to improving environments and societies. Our thesis students do rigorous, important, and cutting-edge research.

The Master’s degree (MEnvStud) will take you up to two and half years of full-time study to complete—or up to five years if you are studying part time. The Postgraduate Diploma (PGDipEnvStud) can be completed in one year full time or usually two years part time.

If you are studying full time, you can expect a workload of 40 to 45 hours a week for much of the year. Part-time students doing two courses per trimester will need to do around 20 to 23 hours of work a week.