Overview 2021
This course may not be available to international students. Please see the list of distance courses (i.e. online and taken outside Australia) that are offered to international students
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For years prior to 2015, please view the Course and Unit Handbook Archive
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A Bachelor of Natural Environment and Wilderness Studies gives you a broad, multi-disciplinary approach to understanding and tackling environmental issues, and develops your skills to build a better future for us all.
Nature, and especially wild nature, has become increasingly important for human mental and physical well-being. At the same time, it is fast being displaced, degraded and destroyed. An ability to think critically and creatively across disciplines, in the intersection between nature and human society, is vital for informing the management, protection, and use of the natural environment. People with this knowledge will work to protect and restore nature on our one planet.
There is no better place to study natural environments and wilderness than Tasmania. Our state is a living laboratory, with a fifth of it in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Areas, and 42% in protected areas, plus all accessible straight from the campus door. Tasmania also offers a vibrant variety of urban, social, and environmental enjoyments and issues to engage with, learn from, and live amongst.
This wide, interdisciplinary degree will enable you to contribute your skills and experience to a wide variety of occupations in a wide variety of places. Every nation, regardless of their level of development, has a natural environment which must be managed and protected.
Course objectives
This degree combines a breadth of environment-related disciplines plus gives you the option to widen your studies and include other approaches to the study of wilderness and natural environments.
It is a practical, field-focused degree, providing many options related to the management of the natural environment and environmental policy.
The structure of the degree ensures that you gain a broad cross-disciplinary understanding of the natural environments and wilderness, while being able to specialise in areas of interest. In addition to specialist knowledge and skills, this degree also develops a wide range of general abilities applicable to careers across any sector, including communication, data collection, fieldwork, analysis, information retrieval and presentation, planning and policy development.
Graduates will be able to draw on their multidisciplinary range of knowledge and skills as they seek to address complex socio-environmental problems that have no obvious solution, and often generate considerable public interest. For example, we know that communicating climate change science is only part of the challenge and that professionals working in this area need to be able to navigate politics and social values to effect change.
You could also look to address challenges where the solution involves an understanding of multiple disciplines such as ecology, planning, and environmental impact processes, and the ability to engage with a range of stakeholders who all have different views and experience levels based, such as helping maintain healthy populations of endangered species like eagles.
Graduates are forging their way into their dream jobs, traversing landscapes ranging from sheep farms to World Heritage areas to suburban bushland, where they work indoors and outdoors on challenges that are close to their hearts and move us into a kinder era of environmental stewardship.
Practical experience
Your study experience will be a combination of classroom, laboratory and in-the-field learning in the inspiring landscapes of Tasmania.
Tasmania is literally a living laboratory
The University of Tasmania has six diverse ecosystems all within 30 minutes of the Sandy Bay campus, and the world’s second largest temperate rainforest only an hour away. We’re the gateway to Antarctica and, as the birthplace of the green movement, celebrate our biodiversity and environmental sustainability. Many of your classes will be conducted outside in this natural environment, and your proximity to a wide range of pristine, diverse environments, and the researchers who travel from around the world to work in them, give you unparalleled practical field experience while you study. Plus, it makes Tasmania an amazing place to live!
Learn from the best, and learn by doing
Our world-class teaching staff bring their cutting-edge findings and examples to your lessons. And not just in the laboratory and classroom, but outside doing real-world tasks such as environment management plans and heritage assessments. Research in scientific fields of agriculture, chemistry, earth sciences, ecology, environmental science and management, fisheries sciences, oceanography, physical geography, plant biology, and zoology is ranked well above world-class*, meaning that you’re learning from some of the best in the world in the same environment where they conduct their world-class research.
*Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) 2018 National Report
Become a Student Ambassador
Improve your communication, teamwork and leadership skills, meet new people, inspire and help others, and developing lasting friendships and networks as a student ambassador. Our ambassadors proudly represent the University throughout Tasmania in schools, at University and community events, and support a range of recruitment and engagement activities. Though the Student Ambassador Program or STEM Outreach Team you will have many opportunities for training and professional development, experience in real-world community engagement and outreach, networking, and public speaking, plus end up with a key point of distinction on your CV.
Study overseas at one of our partner institutions
Our international exchange program offers opportunities to study at universities around the world, and it counts towards your degree. Exchange can allow you to have an affordable educational and cultural experience in a foreign country for a semester, or a full year. To facilitate this, we offer a range of scholarships and financial assistance. You may also be eligible for OS-HELP Loans or scholarship funding to assist with their airfares, accommodation and other expenses.
Find out more about Student Exchange.
Work placement
Units in this degree, including KGA331 Fire, Weeds and Ferals and KGA381 Environmental Impact Assessment involve you working with teams of students, undertaking intensive field work, and producing natural environment management plans. These plans are often utilised by the owners and managers of the land on which the students are assessing, providing direct benefit to the environment and community while you study.
Career outcomes
"The multi-disciplinary content of the Bachelor of Natural Environment and Wilderness Studies has provided an excellent basis for working with diverse groups on improving ecological management."
This interdisciplinary degree provides you with the knowledge and skills to gain employment in a wide variety of sectors related to natural environments and wilderness, vital as we continue to expand our presence on the earth and need to live in harmony with the natural environment to ensure our survival.
Opportunities include nature-based tourism, natural area management and natural area interpretation, across government, private and not for profit industries.
The broad nature of the degree also provides more general employability in the same way as the Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts. The skills you learn are applicable to industries and sectors all over the world. Anywhere there is interaction with the natural environment, your skills and knowledge can be utilised.
Career opportunities with natural environment and wilderness studies include:
- Environmental protection
- Environmental organisations and consultancies
- Land and heritage management
- Nature-based and eco-tourism
- Parks planning and management
- Resource-based industries such as forestry
- Natural resource management
Postgraduate study
If you successfully complete this course, you may be also be eligible to apply for a range of other postgraduate courses including Graduate Certificates and Graduate Diplomas and Masters by coursework and research. Filter the Course list by Postgraduate to view the current courses available.
Course structure
Entry requirements
Fees & scholarships
Domestic students
Scholarships
Scholarships for domestic students
Each year, the University offers more than 900 awards to students from all walks of life, including: those who have achieved high academic results, those from low socio-economic backgrounds, students with sporting ability, students undertaking overseas study, and students with a disability.
For information on all scholarships available at the University of Tasmania, please visit the scholarships website.
Applications for most awards commencing in Semester 1 open at the beginning of August and close strictly on 31 October in the year prior to study.
Scholarships for international students
There are a huge range of scholarships, bursaries and fee discounts available for international students studying at the University of Tasmania. For more information on these, visit the Tasmanian International Scholarships (TIS) website.
How can we help?
Do you have any questions about choosing a course or applying? Get in touch.
- Domestic
- 13 8827 (13 UTAS)
- International
- +61 3 6226 6200
- Course.Info@utas.edu.au
- Online
- Online enquiries