Environmental Studies
ufv.ca/planning-geography-environmental-studiesEnvironmental Studies represents an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to examining human-environment relationships. The Bachelor of Environmental Studies (BES) equips graduates with the tools needed to engage in proactive environmental citizenship. Graduates of this program will be prepared to work as environmental professionals in Canada and abroad. They will have developed the depth of knowledge required to graduate or to continue on to other professional studies.
Students who plan on working in environmental science fields, and who may seek additional related professional accreditation after graduation, are encouraged to consider the Bachelor of Environmental Studies (Natural Sciences).
Applicants who are unsure about which credential to pursue (BES or BES-NS) should make an appointment with the Advising Centre or or contact Environmental Studies for more information.
Note: Students may also present English 12, English Literature 12, English 12 First Peoples, AP English, IB English A (standard level or higher level), or out-of-province equivalent.
Completion of 9 university-level credits with a minimum CGPA of 2.00 on all attempted credits.
Applications are accepted for entrance to the Fall, Winter, and Summer semesters. For application deadlines, see Specific intake application process.
Applicants who meet the entrance requirements will be admitted in order of their application date. This date is set when an application, all required documentation, and the application fee have been submitted.
See the Fees and Other Costs section. Additional fees for course field trips and practicum courses will apply to all students enrolled in Environmental Studies courses, and students enrolled in courses within the degree, e.g. Geography.
The Bachelor of Environmental Studies program can be completed in four years of full-time study, with students taking 10 courses per calendar year.
Most courses are offered in Abbotsford. Students may choose to complete a practicum in order to meet requirements. Practicums may be Canada-based or international.
To be eligible for the BES students must satisfy the following general requirements:
In addition, students must complete courses in three streams:
The remaining credits required to meet the 120-credit requirement for degree completion may be chosen from among university-level courses in any discipline. Please check the course descriptions section of the calendar for details.
BES students are required to take the following:
Course | Title | Credits |
CMNS 257/ GEOG 257 | Environment: Science and Communications | 3 |
ENV 200 | Living in Our Watershed | 4 |
ENV 310 | Leadership in Environmental Professions | 3 |
ENV 410 | Environmental Seminar | 4 |
GEOG 111 | Environmental Issues and Strategies | 3 |
PHIL 318 | Environmental Ethics | 3 |
One of: | 0–6 | |
COOP 110 | Co-op Work Term I (see Note 1) | |
GEOG 412 | Environmental Geography Practicum | |
or | Demonstration of previous environmental work (see Note 2) |
Note 1: Students must be admitted to the Co-operative Education program in order to take COOP courses. Co-op students may use two additional COOP courses in place of electives.
Note 2: Demonstration of previous environmental work (paid or unpaid) corresponding to professional competency learning outcomes is subject to program chair review. See the BES website for more details.
Course | Title | Credits |
CMNS 125 | Communicating Professionally to Academic and Workplace Audiences | 3 |
or ENGL 105 | Academic Writing | |
ENV 212 | Environmental Field and Lab Techniques | 4 |
GEOG 253 | Introduction to Geographic Information Systems | 4 |
or GEOG 357/ BIO 357 | Conservation GIS | |
PHIL 100 | Reasoning: An Introduction to Critical Thinking | 3 |
One of: (see Note 1) | 3–4 | |
PSYC 110 | Applied Statistical Analysis in Psychology | |
STAT 104 | Introductory Statistics | |
STAT 106 | Statistics I | |
STAT 270/ MATH 270 | Introduction to Probability and Statistics | |
Plus: | One course from List 2B: Professional and Research Skills (see Note 2) | 3–4 |
Note 1: Students are encouraged to complete the Statistics requirement within the first 30 credits (direct entry) or first year in the program (transfer students).
Note 2: Environmental careers are very diverse, with many requiring practical experience in communications and media, GIS, statistics, and others demanding graduate-level study. Because students will choose to pursue different pathways, they are encouraged to select the Professional and Research Skills course of greatest relevance to their goals.
Course | Title | Credits |
One course from List 1A: Society and Culture | 3–4 | |
One course from List 1B: Political Economy | 3 | |
GEOG 103 | The Physical Environment | 4 |
GEOG 201 | Climate and People | 4 |
or GEOG 202 | Understanding Your Earth: Landforms and Processes | |
One of: | 3 | |
AGRI 124 | Introduction to Horticulture | |
AGRI 163 | Pest Biology and Identification | |
AGRI 203 | Fundamentals of Integrated Pest Management | |
AGRI 204 | Introduction to Soils and Soil Fertility | |
AGRI 220 | Plants in the Landscape | |
AGRI 237 | Introduction to the Health of Farm Animals | |
AGRI 238 | Equine Production and Management | |
AGRI 239 | Management and Production of Beef, Sheep, and Goats | |
AGRI 256 | Management and Production of Poultry and Swine | |
AGRI 306 | Field Techniques in Integrated Pest Management | |
One of: | 4 | |
BIO 106 | Ecology from an Urban Perspective | |
BIO 210 | Introduction to Ecology | |
BIO 219/ GEOG 219 | Biogeography | |
Plus: | ||
GEOG 331 | Environmental Assessment and Management | 4 |
Two courses from List 2A: Society, Culture, and Economy | 6–8 | |
One course from List 2B: Professional and Research Skills | 3–4 |
Students will also complete 34–47 elective credits. A minimum of 45 upper-level credits are required to complete the degree.
Some of the following courses have prerequisites. Please check the course descriptions section of the calendar for details.
Course | Title | Credits |
AH 270 | Architecture and Nature: Building Between Earth and Sky | 3 |
ANTH 268 | Culture and Environment | 3 |
ENGL 215 | Creative Writing: Creative Non-fiction | 3 |
GEOG 109/ GDS 100 | A World of Development | 3 |
GEOG 130 | Geography of Canada | 3 |
GEOG 140 | Human Geography | 3 |
HIST 100E | Introduction to World History | 3 |
IPK 102 | Introduction to Indigenous Peoples Knowledges | 3 |
MACS 240 | Media, Money, and Power | 3 |
SOC 247 | Culture of Capitalism | 3 |
SOC 260/ ANTH 260 | Food for Thought: Food, Culture, and Society | 3 |
SOC 289 | Sociology of Animals in Western Society | 3 |
Course | Title | Credits |
ECON 100 | Principles of Microeconomics | 3 |
ECON 101 | Principles of Macroeconomics | 3 |
ECON 242/ GEOG 242 | Economic Geography | 3 |
Course | Title | Credits |
AGRI 371 | Agroecology | 3 |
ECON 361/ GEOG 361 | Environmental Economics | 3 |
ENV 330 | Sustainable Fashion | 4 |
GDS 332 | Refugees, Displacement, and Development | 4 |
GEOG 311 | Global Resources and Environment | 4 |
GEOG 312 | Political Ecology | 4 |
GEOG 314 | Geography of Food | 4 |
GEOG 340/ GDS 340 | Geographies of Development: Landscapes of Inequality | 4 |
GEOG 360 | Introduction to Regional and Community Planning | 4 |
GEOG 364 | International Planning and Development Policy: Adapting to Climate Change | 4 |
IPK 386 | Braiding Indigenous Knowledges, Practices, and Worldviews | 3 |
IPK 401 | Indigenous Worldviews and Spirituality | 3 |
PSYC 364 | Environmental Psychology | 3 |
RLST 380 | Religion, Nature, and Science (discontinued) | 3 |
SOC 346 | Environmental Justice | 4 |
SOC 348 | Social Movements | 4 |
SOC 368/ ANTH 368 | Power, Inequality, and the Environment | 4 |
Course | Title | Credits |
CMNS 312 | Public Relations Campaigns | 3 |
CMNS 325 | Writing for the Sciences and Technologies | 3 |
CMNS 335 | Advanced Public Speaking | 4 |
CMNS 360 | Advocacy Writing | 3 |
CMNS 465 | Grant and Proposal Writing | 3 |
CMNS 480/ MACS 480 | Crisis Communications | 4 |
ENV 345 | Invasive Species Management | 4 |
GD 469 | Design Inquiry: Practice (formerly MEDA 469) | 3 |
GEOG 252 | Explanation in Geography: Quantitative Methods | 4 |
GEOG 353 | GIS Applications | 4 |
GEOG 357/ BIO 357 | Conservation GIS | 4 |
GEOG 453 | Remote Sensing of the Environment | 4 |
GEOG 454 | Geospatial Data Analysis and Modeling | 4 |
IPK 344 | Research in Action: Indigenous Meaning Making (formerly also offered as ANTH 344/SOC 344) | 3 |
JRNL 301/ CMNS 301 | Multimedia Journalism | 4 |
PLAN 366 | Resiliency Principles and Spatial Planning | 4 |
SOC 255/ MACS 255 | Introduction to Social Research (formerly also offered as ANTH 255) | 3 |
SOC 355/ MACS 355 | Quantitative Research Methods (formerly also offered as ANTH 355) | 4 |
SOC 356/ MACS 356 | Qualitative Research Methods (formerly also offered as ANTH 356) | 4 |
SOC 357 | Advanced Research Methods | 4 |
STAT 307 | Data Visualization | 3 |
STAT 315 | Applied Regression Analysis | 3 |
STAT 330 | Design of Experiments | 3 |
STAT 350 | Survey Sampling | 3 |
VA 390 | Community Arts Practice | 3 |
Note: Students choosing to take lower-level courses in List 2B must ensure that they still meet the prerequisites for the required upper-level courses.
Course | Title | Credits |
AGRI 311 | Sustainable Soil Management | 3 |
AGRI 321 | Vegetable Crop Production: Science and Practice | 3 |
AGRI 323 | Fruit Crop Production: Science and Practice | 3 |
AGRI 324 | Protected Crop Production: Science and Practice | 3 |
AGRI 327 | Nursery Production and Propagation: Science and Practice | 3 |
AGRI 328 | Forage Crop Production: Science and Practice | 3 |
AGRI 331 | Dairy Herd Management: Science and Practice | 3 |
BIO 307 | Anatomy and Diversity of Plants | 4 |
BIO 310 | Conservation Biology | 3 |
BIO 330 | Plants and Animals of British Columbia | 4 |
BIO 335/ GEOG 335 | Freshwater Ecology | 4 |
BIO 340 | Population and Community Ecology | 4 |
BIO 360 | Insect Biology | 4 |
BIO 370 | Introduction to Mycology | 4 |
BIO 380 | Ornithology | 4 |
BIO 390 | Animal Behaviour | 4 |
BIO 410/ GEOG 410 | Plant Ecology | 4 |
BIO 418 | Ethnobotany | 4 |
BIO 426 | Environmental Microbiology | 4 |
BIO 430 | Forest Ecology | 3 |
ENV 321 | Science of Waste Management | 4 |
ENV 345 | Invasive Species Management | 4 |
GEOG 302 | River Geomorphology | 4 |
GEOG 303 | Environmental Hydrology | 4 |
GEOG 304 | Coasts and Climate Change | 4 |
GEOG 307 | Urban Climatology | 4 |
GEOG 308 | Climate Change and Variability | 4 |
GEOG 315 | Soilscapes | 4 |
GEOG 318 | Water Resources Management | 4 |
GEOG 319/ BIO 319 | Swamps and Bogs | 4 |
GEOG 402 | Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology | 4 |
GEOG 419/ BIO 419 | Paleoecology | 4 |
IPK 477/ BIO 477 | Traditional Ecological Knowledges | 4 |
Note: No more than four credits may be in directed studies/directed readings courses.
Students in the Bachelor of Environmental Studies degree program are strongly encouraged to apply for Co-operative Education. Co-operative Education is common to most Environmental Studies programs. The Co-operative Education option provides students with the opportunity to acquire paid, career-related work experience in conjunction with their studies in the Bachelor of Environmental Studies program. Co-operative Education experiences can be used to meet the program's professional competency requirement. See the Co-operative Education section for more details.
Co-op students will use COOP 110 to satisfy part of the Environmental Core requirements, and two additional COOP courses in place of electives.
Students completing the Bachelor of Environmental Studies may combine this with any existing minors or extended minors offered at UFV, with the exception of Biology, Geography, Environmental Studies, or Physical Geography. In such cases, the transcript will specify both the BES and extended minor or minor program completed.
In order to complete the degree in a timely fashion, students wishing to combine the BES with any permitted minor and/or extended minor must seek approval of the appropriate program advisors. Students who wish to combine the degree with a minor or extended minor may need to complete more than 120 credits and will need to meet the graduation and program requirements for both the degree and the selected minor or extended minor.
UFV students who wish to take academic work at other institutions for credit toward the degree must obtain permission in advance from an Advisor. A Letter of Permission request is available at ufv.ca/registrar/forms or can be obtained from the Office of the Registrar. Students must be in good standing (CGPA > 2.00) to receive a Letter of Permission. When approval has been granted, the Office of the Registrar will issue a Letter of Permission to the student.
Course Repeat policy (86): Students may not register for a course more than twice without the permission of the department head/director for the discipline or their designate. All attempts will be recorded on the transcript, but only the highest grade will be included in the GPA. Transfer courses are considered in the number of attempts. A “W” or “AU” course is not counted as a duplication. Multiple repeats of the same course count as a single duplication.
Undergraduate Continuance policy (92): Students must have a CGPA of at least 2.00 to remain in good academic standing. Failure to meet or maintain a 2.00 will result in restrictions on registration and may lead to academic suspension.
Subsequent and Concurrent Bachelor Degree policy (98): Students who have already completed a degree at the bachelor’s level may be granted an additional bachelor’s degree provided that the two degrees are different, and that the student has met the program requirements. Students will complete at least one third of the total credits required for the additional degree, including at least 30 additional upper-level credits, beyond the credits taken in the first or concurrent degree. All 30 upper-level credits must be obtained through completion of UFV courses.
Transfer Credit policy (107) and Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) policy (94): Students who successfully complete academic course work at another post-secondary institution can transfer this credit to UFV to satisfy BA degree requirements. They can also earn academic credit through an assessment of prior learning.
Of 120 credits for the BES, at least 60 must be completed at UFV. At least 30 upper-level credits must be completed at UFV.
It is the student’s responsibility to ensure all program requirements are met. This should be done by regular consultation with an Advisor. To be eligible to graduate, students must have completed the BES program with a minimum program GPA of 2.00.
Students must apply for graduation in the first month of their final semester. Visit the Graduation webpage for more information. The final deadline for students who wish to attend the June Convocation ceremony is April 1 of each year, with all program requirements completed by April 30.
For complete details on courses see the course descriptions section.