Environment, Bieler School of

Note: The Graduate Option in Environment will NOT be offered in the 2025–2026 academic year.

About the Bieler School of Environment

The school is a joint initiative of the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Law, and the Faculty of Science. It offers a variety of programs, including:

• B.Sc.(Ag.Env.Sc.) Major in Environment
• B.Sc. Major in Environment
• B.A. & Sc. interfaculty program in Environment
• B.A. Faculty Program in Environment (Honours are available in all four of these programs)
• Minor in Environment 
• Diploma in Environment

Many of the Bieler School of Environment programs allow students to choose to study exclusively on the Macdonald or Downtown campuses, or to take advantage of both.

Unique Approach to Environmental Studies

McGill’s faculties of Arts, of Science, and of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, have forged a unique approach to the study of environment through the interfaculty, trans-disciplinary Bieler School of Environment. The rapid growth of technology, global economies, and global population have dramatic and significant environmental impacts that are felt locally and in the short-term as well as perturbations affecting large-scale global ecosystems felt over hundreds if not thousands of years. Solutions to the environmental challenges we face will come from an understanding of global ecosystems and the conflicting and complex ways in which human activities are intertwined with them. Studying environmental problems at the intersection of the natural environment and human-built world requires a depth and breadth of knowledge in both the social and natural sciences.

The approach of the Bieler School of Environment programs is to introduce students to a broad range of ideas early in the program to provide a foundation and an openness upon which more specialized, disciplinary knowledge can be built. The Bieler School attracts exceptional students able to comprehend and navigate the complex dynamics of environmental challenges and who are catalysts of change in their communities.

Mission of the Bieler School of Environment

The mission of the Bieler School of Environment is to:

• Provide a program that will develop a broad-based environmental literacy in the undergraduate population.
• Develop opportunities for graduate students to pursue studies of the environment at an advanced level to create future leaders and researchers.
• Generate new ideas, new insights, new technologies, and new approaches to understanding and redressing environmental problems through academic research and outreach that draws on the University's existing strength in research and spans disciplinary boundaries.

Graduate-Level Research and Training

Resolving environmental issues requires a dialogue between pure and applied sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. The degradation of the biological and biophysical environment has roots in the structure of human societies while solutions to environmental problems have an impact on human livelihoods.

A number of academic departments and institutes at McGill promote graduate-level research and training on environmental topics and have faculty members whose main research interest falls in this domain. As such, environmental research is widespread throughout the McGill community. The Environment option provides a vehicle whereby discipline-based graduate programs can easily and effectively incorporate collaborations from at least one other discipline into their research.

Goals of the Environment Option

The Environment option aims to:

• Provide thesis or non-thesis students with an understanding of how knowledge is transferred into action with regard to the environment.
• Develop an appreciation of the role of scientific, political, socioeconomic, and ethical judgments in influencing that process.
• Provide a forum whereby graduate students in environment throughout the University bring their disciplinary perspectives together and enrich each other's learning through structured courses, formal seminars, and informal discussions and networking.

Students admitted into the Environment option will be supervised or co-supervised by either a Bieler School of Environment appointed faculty member or a Bieler School of Environment associate member. Their advisory committee will include at least one individual from outside the home department. It is expected that the thesis, dissertation, or project—as well as the final seminar presentation—will contain an environmental component and will include a discussion of the applied implications of the research findings. Together with the courses common to the Environment option, specific course requirements for each program are given within the departmental listings cited below.

Environment Admission Requirements and Application Procedures

Note: The Graduate Option in Environment will NOT be offered in the 2025–2026 academic year.

Admission Requirements

Candidates must apply separately to the Bieler School of Environment for the graduate Environment option. Their admissibility will be based on their academic experience and performance, and the availability of a potential Bieler School-accredited supervisor or co-supervisor for their proposed research. 

Application Procedures

Additional Requirements

The items and clarifications below are additional requirements set by this department:

• Option application form
• Signed option supervisory form (a supervisor or co-supervisor must be affiliated with the Bieler School)

Application Dates and Deadlines

The application deadlines to the graduate Environment option may vary depending on the department you are applying to. For more information, please contact the Graduate Program Coordinator in the department you are interested in.

Note: The Graduate Option in Environment will NOT be offered in the 2025–2026 academic year.

Program List

Anthropology

• Anthropology (Thesis): Environment (M.A.) (45 credits) (Arts > Anthropology)

Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences

• Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences: Environment (Ph.D.) (Science > Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences)

Biology

• Biology (Thesis): Environment (M.Sc.) (45 credits) (Science > Biology)
• Biology: Environment (Ph.D.) (Science > Biology)

Bioresource Engineering

• Bioresource Engineering (Thesis): Environment (M.Sc.) (45 credits) (Agricultural and Environmental Sciences > Bioresource Engineering)
• Bioresource Engineering (Non-Thesis): Environmental Engineering (M.Sc.A.) (45 credits) (Agricultural and Environmental Sciences > Bioresource Engineering)
• Bioresource Engineering: Environment (Ph.D.) (Agricultural and Environmental Sciences > Bioresource Engineering)

Entomology

• Entomology (Ph.D.) (Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences > Natural Resource Sciences)

Geography

• Geography (Thesis): Environment (M.A.) (45 credits) (Arts > Geography)
• Geography (Thesis): Environment (M.Sc.) (45 credits) (Science > Geography)
• Geography: Environment (Ph.D.) (Science > Geography)

Law

• Law (Thesis): Environment (LL.M.) (45 credits) (Law)
• Law (Non-Thesis): Environment (LL.M.) (45 credits) (Law)

Medicine, Experimental

• Experimental Medicine (Thesis): Environment (M.Sc.) (Medicine and Health Sciences > Medicine)
• Experimental Medicine: Environment (Ph.D.) (Medicine and Health Sciences > Medicine)

Philosophy

• Philosophy: Environment (Ph.D.) (Arts > Philosophy)

Plant Science

• Plant Science (Thesis): Environment (M.Sc.) (45 credits) (Agricultural and Environmental Sciences > Plant Science) 
• Plant Science: Environment (Ph.D.) (Agricultural and Environmental Sciences > Plant Science)

Renewable Resources

• Renewable Resources (Ph.D.) (Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences > Natural Resource Sciences)

Location

Downtown Campus
Bieler School of Environment
3534 University Street
Montreal QC H3A 2A7
Telephone: 514-398-2827

Macdonald Campus
Bieler School of Environment
Rowles House
21,111 Lakeshore Road
Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue QC H9X 3V9

Website: mcgill.ca/environment