Course presentation

The Degree Course in Nature and Environmental Sciences is activated at the Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability (SCVSA) of the University of Parma (Department of Excellence for the five-year period 2018-2022), belongs to the Degree Classes in Environmental Sciences (L-32), and is aimed at all those who want to make the knowledge, enhancement, protection and management of nature and the environment their future profession.
Classes, laboratory exercises and numerous field activities provide students with a solid grounding in the basic subjects and familiarity with the methods of collecting, analysing and processing environmental data. The Naturalistic-Environmental Campaign offers the opportunity to work in groups and to experiment in the field, with the assistance of professors/instructors, what has been learnt during classroom training activities. The internship activities place the student in close contact with research (in the University's laboratories), with the working realities of the territory (companies, public administration structures, laboratories, natural parks, protected areas) and, within the framework of the numerous international agreements, with other universities in the European Union. The Degree Course has its own main campus (Cascina Ambolana - Science and Technology Campus) where advanced research in the fields of Ecology, Biology and Environmental Biotechnology also takes place and where the student will find himself/herself in a welcoming and very stimulating environment.
Summarised in numbers: the Degree Course in Nature and Environmental Sciences lasts three years, divided into six semesters, and comprises 20 course units with a total number of 180 ECTS credits.
The range of course catalogue includes the possibility of deepening interests in nature or the environment in the third year through specific optional integrated course units or individual elective course units.
At the University of Parma, graduates in Nature and Environmental Sciences can access (with full recognition of the 180 ECTS credits acquired) the Second-Cycle Degrees in Ecology and Ethology for Nature Conservation (LM6, with an order compatible with the LM60 class) or in Science and Technology for the Environment and Resources (LM75).
Attendance at course units is compulsory. For certain categories of students, there is the possibility of enrolling on a 'part-time' basis. Information on this can be found in the Regulations for the Enrolment of Part-Time Students, published on the University's website (https://www.unipr.it/node/11534). The programme of study for part-time students can be found in the University Regulations for the academic year of enrolment of the Degree Course (https://corsi.unipr.it/it/node/10315). Given the interdisciplinary nature of the degree awarded, the elective fields of employment of graduates in Nature and Environmental Sciences lie in various areas:
- Authorities responsible for the planning and management of natural resources, conservation, dissemination and enhancement of the natural heritage (Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of the Environment, regional, provincial and municipal departments, Mountain Communities, Protected Areas, Museums, Botanical Gardens and Herbaria).
- Public and private social-health facilities and multidisciplinary professional firms engaged in the organisation and coordination of environmental monitoring, in the remediation of contaminated sites, in the formulation of protocols for environmental and quality certification; in the control of waste disposal and treatment; in environmental communication and information activities.
Graduates can enter the following professional registers: Agrotechnicians and Graduate Agrotechnicians, Biologists jr., Architects Landscape Planners and Conservators Section B (Planning sector).
The Degree Course also lays the foundations for building an educational pathway that, with the contribution of the Second-Cycle degree, can lead to teaching.