High quality, integrative research plays a critical role in identifying pathways towards sustainability. The Sustainability Studies major builds the fundamental understandings and skills necessary to develop research projects that effectively address complex problems of environment and sustainable development. It focuses on a core set of research skills- and design-based courses, with key choices in areas of quantitative, qualitative and spatial approaches. The skills developed in these courses are extended and applied in a wide range of research and policy relevant courses. This is a 'hands-on' major, with many opportunities to conduct small-scale research built into its components.

The major is intended to complement more topic-related minors (e.g. Soil and Land Management, Climate Science and Policy, Environmental Policy) by developing and strengthening broad-based research skills and embedding them in an understanding of the role of research in addressing complex sustainability issues. Its completion at the appropriate level is good preparation for fourth-year Honours, and is recommended for students considering a sustainability-related career or research higher degree.

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Learning Outcomes

1. Build an understanding of the role of research in sustainability, both within and beyond academic domains.
2. Learn and apply the fundamental skills and processes of research design, as they apply to sustainability-related challenges.
3. Learn and apply a range of research methods from different disciplines.
4. Integrate different forms of disciplinary research into more complex, problem-oriented approaches.
5. Develop and conduct research both individually and in teams.
6. Apply a range of written, oral and visual communication skills to communicate research outcomes effectively.