Learning and teaching
You will be taught by internationally recognised research-active staff through a range of methods including lectures, seminars, tutorials, field work, and laboratory sessions. Throughout the programme emphasis is placed on developing your practical hands-on expertise, grounded by sound theoretical knowledge. We embed important environmental science skills within modules, including GIS, remote sensing and data analysis. We include a wide range of local, national and international trips and you will engage in fieldwork of all varieties and in many different environments throughout your programme of study.
At the University of Exeter, we have developed novel methods of hands-on interactive teaching, which you will benefit from in the Environmental Science degree. From your First Year you will engage with hands-on enquiries using databases, maps and satellite data, developing GIS tools to help you understand the local, regional, national and global picture of the natural world and all of its processes. Lecture material will be global in scope but practical work will build from a local focus in Year 1 to a global perspective by Year 3. By the end of your degree you will be able to use spatial datasets to answer environmental questions important to the future of our planet.
As a student of the programme you will benefit from excellent student:staff ratios, small group tutorials and accessible staff. In all three years you will be offered personal tutoring in small groups with an academic member of staff. In addition to participating in taught modules you are expected to undertake extensive independent and self-motivated study as part of your degree. You will learn to work independently and become a scientific thinker during this programme – learning these skills is not easy but we will be on-hand to guide you throughout the programme. Your independent study will culminate in an individual project (dissertation) in Year 3 where you will research an environmental subject of your choice.
