New online interdisciplinary undergraduate program at Athabasca University empowers students to design their own learning journey—grounded in liberal arts and blended with science and real-world experience—to champion global change
Addressing today’s environmental and ecological issues is complicated. That’s where the new Bachelor of Environmental Studies (BES) program in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (FHSS) comes in.
This flexible, interdisciplinary program is rooted in the liberal arts, informed by science, and focused on sustainable, community-centred solutions. It provides the kind of education that equips people to think across systems and engage with these global environmental challenges in meaningful ways in a variety of professional contexts, ranging from environmental consulting to policy development to research and development.
Environmental studies explores the evolving and complex relationship between people and the natural world. As such, it ranges from being very science-oriented, to looking at natural resources management, to human behaviour, through to the fine arts and literature. Students hone the critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving skills needed to identify practical environmental solutions.
The BES embraces this diversity and offers a unique opportunity for student-led customization that delivers both a breadth and depth of knowledge, while making a high-quality education more accessible.
“We developed the Bachelor of Environmental Studies in response to growing labour-market demand for graduates who understand the complexities of today’s environmental realities from multiple perspectives,” said Dr. Manijeh Mannani, FHSS dean.
“As a fully online program, we are removing barriers and expanding opportunities for learners to play an active role in addressing some of the world’s most pressing issues, regardless of where they live.”
Applications are now open and students can begin this undergraduate program any month of the year.
Developing system-thinkers to champion change
Environmental studies associate professors Dr. Lorelei Hanson and Dr. Heather McLean recognized the benefit—and necessity—of structuring this new program in a way that lets students personalize how they explore sustainability and the environment with a focus on the human and social aspects.
“The BES certainly touches on science,” Hanson said. “But it covers a broader range of interdisciplinarity—it’s business, health, social sciences, humanities, fine arts, and science.”
Hanson explained how some people would say that we are experiencing a polycrisis—a cascading series of crises that interrelate—and it’s not science alone that will help us find the answers to these problems.
“We need champions to help people think about all these converging issues and imagine something different, something better,” she said.
“We absolutely need people who are going to be transition-focused and recognize that this is going to take deep structural change,” Hanson said. “We need people to be prepared to think through the diverse parts of that system to move that system forward.”
We need champions to help people think about all these converging issues and imagine something different, something better.
Dr. Lorelei Hanson, Athabasca University associate professor in environmental studies
Making the world better, from anywhere in the world
By offering the program online, ÐÇ¿ÕÓ°ÊÓis providing access like no other to an environmental studies education—students can enrol alongside their professional and personal commitments and remain in their home communities.
As students will identify many of their own learning goals, Hanson said the program will be particularly appealing to those who already have some established interests, passions, and goals within the environmental sector and who are ready to work towards something specific.
As a fully online program, we are removing barriers and expanding opportunities for learners to play an active role in addressing some of the world’s most pressing issues, regardless of where they live.
Dr. Manijeh Mannani, dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Personalization that leverages real-world experiences
As Hanson and McLean developed the program, they agreed it was important to tangibly illustrate the value ÐÇ¿ÕÓ°ÊÓplaces on alternative ways of knowing.
The results include three requirements that Hanson sees as unique to AU’s program—creating a program-long e-Portfolio, participating in student forums, and completing a capstone project that puts research into practice.
Starting with Environmental Studies 201, the first course of the program, students identify courses from across multiple disciplines to create a program plan that is uniquely tailored to their learning interests and career goals. Students also start an e-Portfolio to document their learning experiences and acquired knowledge, adding to this e-Portfolio throughout their program.
Hanson shared how the student forums—a first for an undergraduate program in FHSS—integrate opportunities for community building and peer-to-peer learning.
“This is a way for students to hone their presentation and communication skills, which is regularly noted by employers as key skills to have and develop,” said Hanson. “As a bonus, they get to know each other, see the diversity of what people are doing, and get to know the other faculty members at ÐÇ¿ÕÓ°ÊÓwho are doing environmental work and research.”
Halfway through the program, students will refine their program plan and identify a topic for their capstone project. Students put their ideas into action, whether it’s through fieldwork or creating a real-world project, all while working with a supervising professor.
Additionally, students have the flexibility to explore topics or special interests through service learning, field courses, and practicums, as well as to gain Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) credits.
PLAR recognizes learning and knowledge acquired through life and work experiences. “The BES program itself allows for 21 credits in PLAR. It’s meant to be open,” said Hanson.
Finding hope through different ways of thinking
Reflecting on the gravity of the problems the world is facing, from plastics pollution to climate change to the devastating loss of insects across the world, Hanson shared how working in the environmental sector can feel like a heavy burden.
But over the past few years, she has started working with Indigenous scholars, researchers, and Knowledge Keepers, and through this work she has found a renewed positive outlook.
“Indigenous people have a lot of knowledge about how to get to the other side of this—how you transition, how you deal, with the ravages of what our industrial society is doing,” said Hanson. “And so, they give me hope.”
Hanson reiterated how the program is designed to prepare students to build connections to the knowledge that exists in the world. Students are required to incorporate coursework that includes Indigenous Ways of Knowing, service learning and community development, and methods of collaborative research.
Moreover, learning to approach problems from a systems design perspective will see BES graduates well-positioned to predict and evaluate the environmental consequences of a proposed action or undertaking and champion environmental change in a variety of roles that span government, non-profit organizations, education, community development, conservation, and sustainability.
“The facts change so quickly,” said Hanson. “So, it’s the ability to think about what that fact means, what the interrelated components are, and to understand the system that that fact sits within, that will prepare students to imagine something different.”
The facts change so quickly. So, it’s the ability to think about what that fact means, what the interrelated components are, and to understand the system that that fact sits within, that will prepare students to imagine something different.
Dr. Lorelei Hanson, Athabasca University associate professor in environmental studies