Jamie Lynds:

Kia ora, I’m Jamie. I’m from Tauranga, and I’m an Environmental Management student at the University of Otago. I started studying Environmental Management because I’ve always felt strongly about environmental issues and that we need to make a change and do more. This has led me to educating myself further and has led me to studying the human impact on drought as a post-grad student.

Eugene Kavale:

Hi, I’m Eugene. I came to Otago in 2016 not knowing exactly what I wanted to study, but Geography was my favourite subject in high school. After three years of studying, I realised I really liked studying Geography, and I really liked living in Dunedin. So I decided to continue further into the Master of Applied Science programme, studying Environmental Management, which I loved because I got to study a whole range of disciplines—not just Geography, but Physics, Planning, and Chemistry too.

Associate Professor Michael Hilton:

Tēnā koutou katoa, greetings to you all. I’m Associate Professor Mike Hilton at the School of Geography at the University of Otago, and I’m here to tell you a little bit about the Bachelor of Applied Science programme in the Environmental Management section of that programme.

This is an undergraduate degree. It’s a three-year degree, and it’s really designed to equip you as students to address very significant environmental issues. There are really three sets of issues that we’re concerned with. We’re concerned with the climate change crisis, we’re concerned with the loss of biodiversity, and we’re concerned with the impact of people—what they do in their day-to-day lives and activities—on the wider environment.

So we encourage you to take a suite of papers, a set of papers that prepares you to address those sorts of issues. I’m one of a number of colleagues in the School of Geography concerned with these and a range of other issues. They are all very active field scientists, working not only in New Zealand but globally on these sorts of issues.

I guess one thing that you’ll get when you come to Otago and take this degree is some exposure to the international aspects of these problems and how we might address them. My colleagues in the School of Geography are concerned not only with the physical nature of these problems but also with the social dimension of these issues. It’s really the interaction between the social, the cultural, and indeed the physical that distinguishes the Bachelor of Applied Science degree.

We’re concerned with science fundamentally, but we’re applying that science to help you understand how issues can be addressed. We’re interested in the methods and mechanisms of addressing issues. You’ll get to understand the laws, the international agreements, the policies, and the plans and regulations at a local level that are designed to address these issues.

So there’s a suite of, if you like, regulatory or law-based methods, but there are also a number of others that include community involvement, cultural engagement, and a range of other techniques and issues that I think you’ll find very interesting.

So, welcome again to Otago. We hope you make it here, and thank you for this opportunity.