Environmental Studies - Sustainable Development and Policy

1. Description
2. Application
3. Curriculum
4. Tuition

Program URL: https://www.uis.edu/environmentalstudies/curriculum/graduate/masters/

Campus: Springfield

Program Type: Master's Degree

Total Number of Credit Hours: 40 Sem. Hr(s).

The curriculum for the Master of Science in Environmental Studies is designed to allow students to gain an understanding of ways to balance social and economic needs with environmental realities, to learn how to use resources imaginatively for sustainable development, and to become aware of the role of values in issue formulation and policy making. Objectives are to enable students to:

• develop basic literacy in the natural and social sciences and the humanities as they contribute to an understanding of environmental affairs;
• critically analyze environmental problems; and
• identify, research, and evaluate environmental problems.

The Sustainable Development and Policy concentration explores theories of sustainable development and policy in order to:

• understand the historical context and critically evaluate the current framework of natural resources and environmental policy,
• gain a comprehensive understanding of the three conceptual elements of sustainability (biophysical, policy/social, and economic),
• communicate and evaluate issues in sustainable development policies and practices, and
• assess the feasibility of and strategies for natural resources and environmental policy changes toward sustainable development.