Capilano University announces two new Bachelor of Environment and Society degrees

Release date: August 29, 2024

Tag(s): News & Announcements

NEWS RELEASE: CapU announces new Bachelor of Environment and Society degrees (PDF)

NORTH VANCOUVER B.C. August 29, 2024 – Capilano University is pleased to announce two new baccalaureate degree options — the Bachelor of Environment and Society (Environmental Studies) and the Bachelor of Environment and Society (Environmental Sciences). These are interdisciplinary, modular, 120-credit degrees facilitating the study of environmental issues from multiple disciplines. Students will learn about issues through in-class learning; field work and community projects. The first courses for these degrees will be offered in fall 2024 with the full program launches set for fall 2025. 

The degrees’ unique architecture supports engagement by both Arts students and Sciences students. Depending on a student’s academic interests and chosen career trajectory, a student can choose an environmental studies or an environmental sciences pathway through these degrees. Students from both pathways will come together when taking a core of common courses each year of these degrees.  In the upper years, students can pursue concentrations in specialty-topic modules that will allow them to gain experience and expertise in critical topics such as Climate Change: Adaptation and Mitigation; Biodiversity and Conservation; and Urban Sustainability. Students in other degree programs at CapU will also have the option to minor in Environment and Society.

Through these degrees, students will have structured opportunities to work with community partners in the field, and while participating in work-integrated learning opportunities will deepen their ability to identify, address and mitigate environmental challenges. The degrees’ foundational course work and industry-informed upper-level modules will support graduate access to a diverse range of employment opportunities that align with the students' choice of upper-level specialty-topic module topics. Some examples include sustainable community and urban planning, conservation area planner, GIS mapping and spatial analysis specialist, climate change policy analyst, emergency preparedness planning, species at risk biologist, carbon/decarbonizing consultant, and ecological restoration planner.

These degrees will prepare Arts and Sciences students to work successfully in cross-cultural environments and will address the need for solutions to environmental issues to include traditional ecological knowledge and perspectives within B.C.’s and Canada’s expanding green economy.

Representing decades of dedication to environmental education and environmental issues at Capilano University, the developers of these degrees, biologist Marja de Jong Westman and geographer Cheryl Schreader, see these programs as signature degrees for the University as CapU is so well positioned to offer such unique programming with its academic expertise, regional focus, campus locations, access to a wide range of ecosystems and resources and community partnerships.  

It is with our partners such as the Átl'ka7tsem/Howe Sound Biosphere Region Initiative, that this degree will offer a regional-specific educational experience with opportunities for studio learning and place-based practice, and work-integrated learning. The learning outcomes also respond to Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action and the UN’s Sustainable Development goals. 
Students interested in more information on the Bachelor of Environment and Society (Environmental Studies) and the Bachelor of Environment and Society (Environmental Sciences) degrees are invited to contact the Academic Advising department at Capilano University: advising@capilanou.ca. 

Submitted by: Communications