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Policy and Administration

Administered by the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources

The Policy and Administration Option develops knowledge and skills about policy processes and sciences, public and private organizations, natural resource law and policy, public governance and involvement, and their applications to natural resource management and conservation.

Job Opportunities

Persons graduating from this discipline have obtained employment with state and federal natural resource agencies, environmental consulting firms, nongovernment conservation organizations, international development organizations, forestry management organizations, local, county, and state planning agencies, sustainable farms, private firms, and other organizations.

Faculty Contacts

Curriculum

Prerequisites

A Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts degree is the only prerequisite required.

Master of Natural Resources Core Curriculum (required)

CourseDescriptionCredit Hours
NR 500Natural Resource Management3
NR 571Current Issues in Natural Resource Policy3
ST 5**A graduate level statistics course3
FOR 801FER Graduate Seminar (or equivalent seminar course)1
FOR 803Research Methods1
  Total Credit Hours11

Technical Option Core Curriculum

Students are required to take 9 credits in public administration, environmental law, or policy. Courses may be taken from the list below, or others may used as substitutes with approval of the advising committee.

CourseDescriptionCredit Hours
NC State  
PA 507The Public Policy Process3
PA 509Applied Political Economy3
PA 511Public Policy Analysis3
PA 513Public Organizational Behavior3
PA 514Management Systems3
PA 515Research Methods and Analysis3
PA 525Organizational Development and Change Management3
PA 546Seminar in Program Evaluation3
PA 550Environmental Policy3
PA 553Disaster, Crisis and Emergency Management and Policy3
PS 536Global Environmental Law and Policy3
PS 539International Politics and Economy3
ECG 515Environmental and Resource Policy3
FOR 784Practice of Environmental Impact Assessment3
FOR 509Forest Policy1
COM 598OSeminar in Environmental Communication3
NR 560Natural Resource Management and Policy3
NR 595Protected Species Conservation3
DUKE  
LAW 285Environmental Law3
ENV 835Environmental Law3
ENV 274Natural Resource and Environmental Policy3
ENV 826Global Environmental Politics and Policy3
ENV 557Social Science Surveys for Environmental Management3
UNC  
PLAN 301Design of Policy Research3
LAW 241/261Environmental Law3
LAW 262Environmental & Coastal Law3
PLAN 240Land Use / Environmental Policy3
PLCY 480Environmental Decision Making3
  Total Credit Hours9

Additional Courses/Requirements

  • 10 additional credits of selected courses are required as selected in cooperation with the student’s advisor and advisory committee, which may include:
  • NR 695 Master’s Thesis Research or
    NR 693 Master’s Supervised Research (up to 6 credit hours)

Students who do not have a background in natural resources or a related field may be required to take up to 12 credit hours of undergraduate course work that cannot be counted towards the MNR degree program, but this is seldom required.

Total Credit Hours:  30 Credit Hours

Projects

Recent Project Titles:

Links / Additional Information

Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources Prospective Graduate Students website.