6 July 2004 Lincoln's Unique Link with Austrian University

From the great opportunities for Lincoln students department, here's a chance to study in Europe and earn a unique "international degree".

Lincoln University's 14 years as an autonomous university have been marked by many enterprising and innovative initiatives in the delivery of courses and qualifications. For example, Lincoln was the first New Zealand university to teach a New Zealand degree off-shore, when it offered its Bachelor of Commerce and Management programme through Tenaga University, Malaysia, in the mid-1990s.

Now in an equally innovative move, Lincoln and a European university have collaborated to offer what is believed to be the world's first jointly taught and jointly awarded masters degree in natural resources management and ecological engineering.

The collaboration is between Lincoln University and the Universitat fur Bodenkultur (BOKU), in Vienna, Austria, known in English as the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences. The degree on offer is a Master of Natural Resources Management and Ecological Engineering.

The collaboration has its origins in a visit to Lincoln University by a party of senior BOKU staff members in February 2000 and a subsequent visit to the Austrian institution by Professor Roger Field in June that year.

From there the negotiations continued and matured until a New Programme Initiative case for a jointly offered degree was put to Lincoln University's Council in August last year. Council gave its approval and a unique "international degree" came into being.

This truly "international" degree prepares candidates for international careers in the areas of natural resources management, environmental management and ecological engineering. Because the teaching takes place in both the southern and northern hemispheres it can claim to be authentically "international".

Both hemispheres face many similar environmental and ecological issues but from contrasting perspectives. To work internationally, graduates must be familiar with both orientations, hence the new degree.

BOKU and Lincoln have strong common features, both being universities with a focus on primary production, resources and the environment.

BOKU is a member of a small but select consortium that includes the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Denmark, Wageningen University in the Netherlands and the Swedish Agricultural University. And there will be many advantages for Lincoln students in BOKU's association with this consortium.

There are four specialisations within the masterate programme – Ecological Engineering; Nature Conservation and Wildlife Management; Risk Management; International Business and Sustainability.

Currently Lincoln University has five students from BOKU studying on the campus and opportunities exist for Lincoln students to take up study at the BOKU. Professor Ian Spellerberg of the Environment, Society and Design Division says it is a marvellous opportunity for appropriately qualified Lincoln students to become involved in an international programme.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand