ARTICLE

Master of Natural Resources Management and Ecological Engineering (NARMEE)

By Prof.Dr. Dr.h.c.mult. Winfried E.H. Blum

Director of the Institute of Soil Research
Department of Forest and Soil Sciences
University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU)
Vienna, Austria

A jointly taught and jointly awarded master's programme - the Master of Natural Resources Management and Ecological Engineering (NARMEE) - has been established between the Universität für Bodenkultur (BOKU), Wien, Austria and the Lincoln University (LU), New Zealand. Its main feature is sustainability in national and international settings.

The NARMEE is based on the two-year Master's degree model, with about half of it being a taught component and the other half a research component. Students may enrol for the degree at either BOKU or LU and are required to choose one of four specialisations, which were selected on the basis of the existing expertise of the two Universities and the complementarity of their teaching and research. E.g. for the risk management specialisation, BOKU's main strengths are in maintain hazards and risks, while LU's strengths include risks associated with agricultural production (e.g. water contamination).

The four specialisations are:

• Ecological engineering:
  This specialisation deals with engineering, including river engineering, water resources management, soil management, waste management, renewable energy resources and organic production methods.
• Nature conservation and wildlife management:
  Topics include the ecological basis of wildlife and natural resources management, land use practices and conflicting wildlife issues, economic aspects and European and international dimensions of wildlife and natural resources management.
• Risk management:
  Topics include natural hazards, including slope, mountain and surface water hazards and mitigation methods and risks arising from human activities, e.g. contamination of water resources.
• International business and sustainability:
  Aspects covered include introductory economics, research methods and skills, environmental impacts of business and trade, environmental management systems and practical problem solving.

Due to the different Master's degree conventions at the two universities, a "dual pathway"-model was adopted: For BOKU- registered students, about 75% of the programme is taught material and slightly less than 25% is research, while for LU-registered students, the balance is 50:50.

The Master's degree has a compulsory core, which includes:

• insights into the global aspects of sustainability; this included material on multi-lateral and international agreements, such as the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the UN Convention on Climate Change, zhe UN Convention on Biological Diversity, and the UN Convention on the Combat of Desertification.
• In addition, all students must at some stage enrol for a "generic research methods"- or "methods of analysis"-paper, e.g. statistical methods, ecological research methods, social science methods, computer modelling methods or GIS as a general mapping tool.

Students are required to take a minimum number of course credits at the partner university. This ensures the joint nature of the degree. The research can be taken at either university or at both, but is always jointly supervised. Students graduate with a NARMEE degree, which is awarded jointly by both universities.

The language of the Master's course is English. As the academic year is different in the two hemispheres, the two semesters at BOKU and LU begin at different times. Therefore it is not always possible for students to complete the course work within one year. There may be some weeks between the time one semester ends and the next semester begins at the other university.

This Master's degree, involving innovative cross-planetary collaboration has been established with two main features: sustainability in an ever-changing international context and learning by contrasts (in two contrasting countries and in two hemispheres). The students benefit from the considerably wider "spectral breadth" of taught material and opportunities for supervision than is available at either university. They also have the opportunity to observe directly different visions of and different solutions for sustainable development.

The mix of students on the programme has come from beyond New Zealand and Austria and includes other EU countries, the USA and Canada. Particularly valuable are student's own contributions to the learning progress. Thus the programme is not just about material selected and delivered by university staff. All participants have different values, goals, believes and experiences. This diversity is widened in a class from diverse backgrounds. Encouraging students to learn from and respect each other and engage in discussions has proved to be particularly valuable in addressing many of the 18 principles of the Rio declaration.