Environmental Studies Degree Requirements

Environmental Studies at Yale-NUS offers students a Bachelor of Science or a Bachelor of Arts degree. Our major combines elements of the world’s strongest Environmental Studies programmes with the opportunities provided by a liberal arts and sciences college in a vibrant and unique Asian city. Our students and faculty work together on environmental topics both local and global, drawing upon the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Coursework and applied experience expose students to a range of environmental issues from the familiar, such as energy choices and climate change, to the less well-studied, like the rise of consumerism and the impacts of changing settlement patterns.

To make all this happen, the major is organised around an Area of Specialisation (AofS) designed by students in consultation with their advisor in the third year of study. The AofS is supplemented by a rigorous one-year research or practitioner project, and is often informed by study abroad and internship experiences. Students prepare for their AofS by completing introductory and follow-up courses that interrogate the range of approaches to environmental studies while developing key concepts and approaches in the field. The College’s Common Curriculum also informs the AofS, as do independent readings and other close work with the Environmental Studies faculty.

Requirements for a Major in Environmental Studies

Students may pursue a Bachelor of Arts (BA) or a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Environmental Studies.  Degree designation in Environmental Studies depends upon the composition of the courses in a student’s 20 unit Area of Specialisation (AofS).  A preponderance of natural-science courses in the AofS leads to a BS in Environmental Studies.  When social-science and/or humanities courses dominate, a student receives a BA.  Additionally, the BS degree requires that students complete a capstone project centered on the natural sciences.

Students majoring in Environmental Studies will typically complete 45 units of coursework, usually satisfied by nine 5-unit courses. Students may apply one 4-unit course to major requirements with their advisor’s permission and thus fulfill this coursework requirement with 44 units.  Students also complete a final-year 10-unit capstone project, for a total of 54 – 55 units of work for graduation in Environmental Studies.

The requirements are as follows:

• One introductory course (taken in Year 1 or 2): Introduction to Environmental Studies
• Two courses in Conceptual Approaches to Environmental Studies (ordinarily taken in Year 2): Courses numbered at the 2000-level in Environmental Studies satisfy this requirement
• One elective course that can be adjacent to the student’s AofS, chosen in consultation with their academic advisor
• Four courses in a student-designed  AofS (taken in Years 3 and 4). By the beginning of their third year of study, students will develop and declare, in consultation with their faculty advisor, a 20-unit (typically four 5-unit courses) AofS.  The AofS may be in a specific disciplinary sub-field or address a specific environmental problem. All courses for the AofS must be upper-level or advanced courses, or approved by the Head of Studies in consultation with the academic advisor.  Prospective majors may peruse the AofS of current Environmental Studies students on this website.  Academic advisors in Environmental Studies may also provide working templates for AofS in a variety of fields.

Examples of Environmental Studies AofS include but are not limited to the following:

• Tropical Forest Degradation and Revitalisation
  • Air Quality in Southeast Asia
  • Public Health and Environment
  • Global Environmental Politics
  • Ecological Economics
  • Global Consumption and Consumerism
  • Natural Hazards and the Human Condition
  • Biofuels in Southeast Asia
  • Biodiversity and change in Southeast Asia
  • Waste and Water in Singapore
  • Global Food Transitions
  • The Interplay of Science and Politics in Climate Change
  • Environmentalism and the Poor
• Methods (taken in Year 2 or 3): An analytic methods course appropriate to a student’s AofS and capstone project, selected in consultation with the student’s academic advisor.  Conventional data analysis/statistic courses meet this requirement, as do analytic methods courses from other fields, e.g. literary analysis or ethnographic research methods.  Congruence with a student’s chosen area of focus is key.
• Capstone (taken in Year 4): A 10-unit research project, with the final grade awarded at the end of semester two. The capstone project must extend and further develop a student’s AofS.

To see a visual representation of your journey through the Environmental Studies major, click here.

To learn more about the course offerings within the Environmental Studies major, click here.

Requirements for a Minor in Environmental Studies

Yale-NUS students receive a minor in Environmental Studies by completing five courses.  The gateway course the (YID 1202) and at least one 2000-level “Conceptual Approaches” course are required. One-half of this 25-course-credit requirement may be met by courses taken outside of Yale-NUS, subject to approval by the Head of Studies for Environmental Studies.