Science for Sustainable Societies: a new interdisciplinary bachelor’s programme
How do you tackle environmental challenges and societal transitions from an interdisciplinary perspective? Starting from September 2025 students will examine this in the new Science for Sustainable Societies bachelor’s programme.
Climate change, loss of biodiversity, pollution, sustainable agriculture and the energy transition: these are an examples of challenges that students in the new bachelor’s programme will be studying. A distinguishing factor of this programme is its strong emphasis on interdisciplinary education.
Thijs Bosker, associate professor of Environmental Sciences, explains: ‘This means that students gain knowledge not just of a single discipline, but they learn to make connections between different disciplines, such as ecology, earth sciences, psychology, anthropology and public administration. It’s crucial not only to understand the science behind an environmental problem, but also to think about societal transitions needed to address it.’ The programme is a collaboration involving three faculties: Social and Behavioural Sciences, Science, and Governance and Global Affairs.
‘In over half of our subjects, natural and social scientists will be teaching classes together.'
An interdisciplinary approach
Marja Spierenburg, professor of Anthropology and one of the initiators of the programme, stresses the importance of an interdisciplinary approach: ‘If we’re going to work on sustainability, we need expertise from the natural sciences. At the same time, we also want people to change their behaviour and we want the benefits of changes to be fairly distributed in society. So we need a broad societal approach.’
‘You can’t resolve complex environmental issues by working only as a biologist, for example, or only as an anthropologist. We need one another, and we need to approach these problems together,’ says Bosker. He adds that many disciplines are still too compartmentalised: ‘Different disciplines often operate in separate worlds. Our programme will bring these worlds together.’
Activating learning and two researchers teaching a class
The focus of the programme is on activating learning. As well as attending lectures, students will take part in small-scale tutorials, fieldwork and excursions, where they will be encouraged to think critically about the study material and engage in discussion. In addition, students learn how to approach a challenge from different angles via co-teaching: ‘In over half of our subjects, natural and social scientists will be teaching classes together. We will show per theme what the common ground is and how you can look differently at the same issue,’ Bosker explains. ‘So there is real integration between the disciplines.’
Graduates from this bachelor’s programme will have a unique profile as bridge builders, and will be essential for the upcoming sustainability transition. They will be well suited for a broad range of jobs, from policy officers at government institutions and NGOs to consultants in the business sector. ‘When we talked with potential employers, they stressed the need for professionals with a broad perspective. There is a demand for people who can connect different aspects of sustainability problems, who know the right people to involve and what questions have to be asked,’ Spierenburg explains.
Global challenges
The challenges dealt with in the bachelor’s, such as climate change and pollution, are global in nature. However, the same solution will not be successful for every region of the world. That’s why the programme is entirely English-speaking and thus available to international students. They learn from the global context, from one another and about local differences.
Even though the bachelor’s does not start until September 2025, the team of lecturers is already enthusiastically working on the content. ‘We’re doing something that we also find inspiring, namely working together with very different types of researchers. We’re stepping outside the bubble of only environmental scientists, psychologists, public administrators or anthropologists, and that generates interesting ways of thinking about innovative and inspiring education,’ Bosker says.
The Science for Sustainable Societies bachelor’s programme starts in September 2025. Are you interested in attending the open day, or would you like to register already? If so, go to the website of the bachelor’s programme in Science for Sustainable Societies.