I’ve picked up by word of mouth that a number of people in our course feel that there is not much environment stuff in our syllabus. We’re here to learn about the environment, right? How can we become good at environmental communication without knowing about the environment?
This is something you should know about, if you’re considering this programme.
There really isn’t much focus on learning more about the environmental issues per se in this programme, except for indirectly through case studies, and even then it’s not much.
I imagine this is tough for the students who enter this programme with a communication or sociology background and are interested in environmental issues. You might not learn much in the lectures.
But remember the #1 thing about university that is different from earlier studies, which also is the biggest difference between a master and bachelor degree, and will be even greater if you go into a PhD:
We’re adults now. We are now responsible for our own learning.
It is a huge transition from school where we sit passively and are told everything we need to know. Now it’s up to us.
And if we’re just a little bit resourceful, it’s not even a big challenge to take matters into our own hands.
Do we have a university library full of environment-related books and journals? Yes!
Are there more environment-focused programs where there may be passionate students who would love to share their knowledge with you? You bet!
Are there entire departments of environmental scientists and field workers on campus? Yes! The biggest focus of SLU is on environmental science. The ambition of SLU is to be a world-leading environmental science uni. Might they be happy to give some time to interested students? Absolutely!
Do we have access to the internet? How much quality information on environmental science is available there? How many contacts could we reach from there?
It’s not even difficult, if we just apply ourselves a little bit.
The difficult thing is getting over our own habits of passive learning and expecting others to give us direction. Why won’t we help each other out with this?
I really hope that you’re hearing me right now, regardless of what programme you’re going toward.
Because it will be the same no matter where you go. It’s a phase of life we’re now entering, where we are becoming more and more independent. We all love independence and freedom. Will
we gracefully embrace the responsibility that follows?
