WHAT is environmental science? There are 56 institutions in England and Northern Ireland that award degrees in the environmental sciences, but no two seem to agree on what knowledge and skills undergraduates should acquire during their studies.
A review by the higher education funding councils says: “There is no consensus about the extent to which the physical sciences should underpin environmentai education, nor about the insights offered by the social sciences, law, philosophy and ethics.” Fieldwork, environmental impact assessment and laboratory analysis are central to some degrees but virtually nonexistent in others.
The report also bemoans the fact that students considered “environmental sciences” courses to be more rigorous than “environmental studies”. The reviewers found no evidence that this was true.
