Program of study
The Master's Degree in Environmental Policy and Management (EPM) is a program of full-time graduate study on campus that requires 44 units to graduate. Only a Plan II (Comprehensive Examination) MS degree is offered. Neither a thesis or research is required.
Course Requirements
Core Courses
The program is typically completed in 2 academic years and one summer (19 months) though we also offer a 12 month option. The total units needed to meet EPM degree requirements is 44 units. Core courses for this program include:
- ENV 200A: Climate Change Impacts, Mitigation and Natural Resource Management
- ENV 200B: Environmental Policy Evaluation
- ENV 200CN: Environmental Governance
- ENV 201: Environmental Law
- ENV 202: Policy Development and Implementation
- ENV 203 A-B: Policy Clinic (two quarters)
- ENV 203P: Policy Clinic Prep Seminar
- ENV 296: Practicum
- ENV 297: Professional Development Seminar (First three quarters)
Required Elective Courses
The program requires that students take one 3-unit elective in quantitative analysis. Examples can include:
- Approaches to quantitative analysis (e.g. ENV 224, Data Management and Visualization in R)
- Statistics for non-statistics majors (e.g., STA 100, Applied Statistics for Biological Sciences)
- Non-statistical quantitative methods (e.g., ABT 181N, Concepts and Methods in GIS)
One additional 3-unit elective in environmental justice is required (e.g. ESP 174- Environmental Justice Policy and Practice).
Electives must be approved by the program. Electives should be either upper division (100 series) or graduate (200 series) to count towards the degree. A minimum course load is 12 units each academic quarter, and per UC regulations students should not ordinarily enroll in more than 12 units of graduate level courses (200) or more than 16 units of combined undergraduate and graduate level (100, 200, 300) courses per quarter.
Grading
Required elective courses must be letter graded to count towards the student's degree requirements. Students are required to obtain a grade of B- or above in all required courses, including the Policy Clinics. If a student receives a grade of C+ or lower in any required course, the course must be retaken and satisfy the minimum grade requirement (B-) in order to satisfy program requirements.
Transfer of Previous Academic Credits
UC Davis Graduate Studies rules about transfer of previous academic credit allows up to six units of previous coursework to be applied to current graduate degree requirements, if those units were not counted towards degree requirements in previous programs. Essentially, previous classes must be “extra” classes that you did not count towards completing your previous degree. Graduate Studies confers discretion on the Environmental Policy & Management program and the academic chair to approve any transfer credits according to EPM program guidelines. At a minimum, the EPM program will only consider courses that were completed within 5 years of beginning the program. The coursework also must be judged as relevant for the goals and other curriculum standards of the program.