Welcome and session overview

Welcome to the National Virtual Expo, joining from Garigal land in Sydney. Welcome to this session on Study for a Changing World. Because let's face it, there's a lot going on in the world right now. This session is specifically for you if you're interested in marine science, agricultural science, or environmental science. We're going to be hearing from colleagues at the University of Tasmania about some of the programmes they run, and also to help you understand what some of these fields of science are actually really working on at the moment, and where you might be able to help drive some positive change through your career.

If you've got questions as we go, drop them in the chat. If you're on the Session Hub page or on social media, just put them in the comments and we'll answer every single question as part of the live stream. If you're watching on demand, download the slides or jump on the Discord for Choosing Your Uni, or the Facebook group -- and every single question will get a personalised answer.

Thanks, everyone, for joining us this evening for this climate action webinar. My name is Rhiannon Markwell. I work in the Future Students Engagement team at the University of Tasmania. We also have a number of wonderful academics joining us: Dr Harriet Walker from the Bachelor of Agricultural Science; Stuart Corney from the Bachelor of Marine and Antarctic Science; Nicholas Owen Jones from the Bachelor of Natural Environment and Conservation; and Owen Mason from the Bachelor of Science. We also have representatives from our international recruitment team and our interstate domestic students team. Welcome, everyone.

We'll start with an acknowledgement of country. We want to take a moment to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land across all of the places you're joining us from. Here at the University of Tasmania, that's the Palawa and Punca peoples. Respecting indigenous knowledge and perspectives is something this university is very committed to, and something you'll see throughout your time studying with us.

Tonight we'll be covering some reasons why you might choose to study at the University of Tasmania, and specifically why you might choose to study a climate action course with us -- some of the course options available within that focus, fees and scholarships for both domestic and international students, the application process, and of course a Q&A session.

Why UTAS for climate action and sustainability

The University of Tasmania has a number of accolades relating to climate action and sustainability. Most notably -- you may have seen it in the news -- we have yet again been awarded number one in climate action globally by the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings. When we talk about climate action and sustainability from a UTAS perspective, we know of what we speak.

In terms of the student experience, you can expect above-average student satisfaction -- data gathered from our student engagement survey conducted annually. We can also boast a very strong full-time employment rate for our undergraduate and postgraduate students, and we have a host of student support available for both groups.

As mentioned, we are yet again number one in the world for climate action. Specifically tonight we'll be talking about the courses that address climate action at UTAS: the Bachelor of Marine and Antarctic Science, the Bachelor of Natural Environments and Conservation, the Bachelor of Agricultural Science with Honours, and the Bachelor of Science, which encompasses a whole range of different specialties and majors.

Bachelor of Marine and Antarctic Science: why the ocean matters

So, the Bachelor of Marine and Antarctic Science -- it's one of our science courses and one where climate action is a critical component. It's a three-year degree, up to seven years, and we have five majors. So, why would you want to study marine and Antarctic science? Australia is an island nation. Eighty-five per cent of the population lives within 50 kilometres of the coast. That presents opportunities and challenges: tourism, energy generation, fisheries. But sea level rise, coastal inundation, and cyclones all pose risks.

You might think the Great Barrier Reef is the big fish when it comes to marine sites in Australia, but actually the Great Southern Reef -- which extends from Sydney all the way around the coast -- is even bigger. It's worth $10 billion to the economy each year in terms of fisheries, tourism, and recreational services. What happens in the ocean and coastal regions really affects all of us, and managing them to ensure sustainable use is critical for managing our future and driving climate action.

UTAS is ranked number one in the world for climate action, but also number one in the world for Southern Ocean sciences, fourth in the world for marine and freshwater biology, and seventh for fisheries. We're big in this space, so it's a perfect place to come and study what is going on in the ocean -- and for us, that includes the impact that Antarctica and the Southern Ocean has on global climate.

Marine and Antarctic Science: the five majors

Our five majors are: Aquaculture, Marine Resource Management, Marine Biology, Oceans Ice and Climate, and Marine Antarctic Governance. The first two -- Aquaculture and Marine Resource Management -- are really about vocational training, ensuring we produce graduates who can contribute to marine industries in ways that are sustainable, good for the planet, and providing food into the future. Marine Biology is about conservation of iconic species, but also less iconic species like kelps, phytoplankton, and zooplankton. Oceans, Ice and Climate is about the impact of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean on global climate -- sea level rise, changes in rainfall, changes in extreme events. Marine Antarctic Governance is where we really make a difference: it's not enough to just have good science. You've also got to be able to convince people to change their minds and behave differently, and that's what that major is all about.

So why study Marine and Antarctic Science? Tasmania is a living laboratory with World Heritage-listed natural environments. It's also a global hotspot for climate warming -- on the east coast of Tasmania, warming is four times greater than the global average. We offer hands-on learning: we get into the labs, we get into the field as often as possible, we put you on boats. We make it exciting, and we give you exposure to real-world learning with industry stakeholders and partners such as the Antarctic Division and CSIRO.

Bachelor of Natural Environment and Conservation: climate content across three years

The Bachelor of Natural Environment and Conservation is also a three-to-seven-year course available in Hobart or online, although there are three field-based units where you need to be in person -- one on Bruny Island, one in the Central Highlands of Tasmania, and another on Maria Island. So we also get out in the field. The entry requirements are on screen. You'll study eight unit majors encompassing natural environment management, with eight core units covering topics like sustainability management, geography, ecology, data and statistics, and of course climate. Our outcomes give you very broad employability, spanning geography and all sectors related to the natural environment and conservation. Career opportunities include environmental protection, land management, parks, resource industries, natural resources, and climate-specific roles -- like being a climate change officer at a local council. Some of our students have ended up in jobs like that, which is pretty cool.

The degree prepares students to engage with climate challenges across all three years of study, with units focused on understanding climate change and its implications for the future. First-year units introduce students to past, present, and future climate, and the changes to people and the planet. One of the electives -- the Introduction to the Science of Climate Change -- looks at natural versus human-induced changes. If you look at the graph of global average temperature and CO2 over 800,000 years -- that's roughly 8,000 lifespans -- temperature and CO2 have just mirrored each other throughout that entire period. But if you focus right at the end, over the last 50 to 60 years, you can see how humans have impacted this: CO2 has gone straight up and temperature is poised to catch up. We've increased atmospheric CO2 by 100 parts per million in the last 60 years alone, something that would naturally take thousands of years. In the degree, we explore how and why this is happening -- including, as a bit of a spoiler, burning coal for energy -- and we look at global geographies of change and how we are responding.

In second year, you'll learn about weather phenomena and how they're changing with climate change, including things like the Bridgewater Jerry -- a local cold-air drainage phenomenon -- and you'll be collecting, analysing, and interpreting climate data. In third year, you'll get experience with climate modelling: you'll do your own modelling of how the climate will change in the future, and analyse short-term changes like El Nino patterns. Our teaching is based on research that happens in geography, planning, and spatial science at UTAS, including groundbreaking research through Climate Futures, embedded within geography, that is respected globally. We also have world-class palaeoclimatologists teaching in our courses -- researchers like Kathy Allen and Lydia Mackenzie, who are leading researchers in these fields as well as lecturers. We've got a lot to offer.

Bachelor of Agricultural Science: adaptation, mitigation, and career demand

My name's Harriet, and I'm a researcher and lecturer at the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture -- TIA -- which is a joint venture between the Tasmanian government and the university with a remit to do great research for agricultural industry locally, nationally, and globally. All of our researchers are involved in teaching bachelor's units.

So what is agricultural science? It's a degree where you're exploring biology, ecology, chemistry, technology, and a whole range of different sciences that come together in a really applied way, ultimately to manage land, water, and food production. It's a three-to-four-year degree, depending on whether you choose the optional fourth honours year, where you undertake a research topic of your choice -- often embedded with industry -- and really hone in on a specific area that interests you, like climate action. The degree is offered in both Hobart and Launceston. We have a Sustainable Agriculture major and a Crop Science and Plant Health major. You can double major, which means a full study load with no electives, or you can choose one major with eight major units, eight core agricultural science units, and eight electives -- which you can choose from anywhere across the university, so there's already a lot of nice crossover with some of the other bachelor degrees mentioned today.

One of the key benefits of doing this degree is that you're more than likely to get a job. There is a real need for agricultural scientists in Australia right now: there are six jobs for every graduate. That reflects the diverse career pathways that come from a science degree -- crop consultancy, agronomy, natural resource management, policy, biosecurity, foreign affairs and trade, and more. Not all of these jobs are in regional areas, either. At least one third are predicted to be in major cities, so if that seems like a barrier, it shouldn't be.

When it comes to addressing climate action through the degree, there are two key pathways for agricultural land specifically: adaptation and mitigation. In adaptation, we're adjusting our practices to cope with climate impacts, with a focus on resilience -- strategies that can be reactive or proactive. In mitigation, we're trying to reduce our footprint when it comes to climate change, with a focus on emission reduction, largely preventative. Many of our units are directly related to the Sustainable Development Goals, and specifically to climate action. Soils is a huge component of the degree -- ultimately, that's mostly where our food comes from -- but soils also play a critical role in mediating greenhouse gases. They hold double the carbon of all vegetation and most atmospheric carbon dioxide. Any time we disturb the soil, whether to plant crops or construct buildings, we're influencing those carbon stores. Research into how we can mitigate the loss of carbon from our soils is a central focus, and industry support for this work is strong. There are also a whole heap of scholarships available for students in this space, so feel free to reach out after the presentation.

Bachelor of Science: ecology, chemistry, geology, and solving the climate crisis

I'll be talking about the Bachelor of Science. I'm a lecturer in environmental geology, which is a combination of words that sometimes surprises people. The Bachelor of Science includes a whole range of different majors: physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, geology. Biology is itself split into sub-disciplines -- ecology, zoology, and others -- all of which provide different ways to gain skills that can help solve aspects of the climate crisis. By doing a Bachelor of Science, you develop a detailed understanding of how your particular field works, and then you can apply that in various jobs that all help to solve and mitigate the changes we hope to limit in the coming century.

There are not as many experts in many of these fields as we would like, and the University of Tasmania is committed to training as many new scientists as possible. In ecology, for example, there's a clear link to climate -- helping the environment adapt to growing challenges like changing fire regimes, new diseases moving around the planet at speeds never seen before, and the direct effects of climate change. Jobs available in that area include restoration ecologist or natural resource manager, which is quite a prominent role, with lots of positions across Tasmania in water, grasslands, and marine environments. In chemistry, you might be looking at monitoring pollutants and finding solutions to complex environmental remediation -- there's a great deal of work remediating old mining sites and petrol stations where hydrocarbons are left behind, involving detection, monitoring, and solutions. In zoology, Tasmania is an excellent place to study -- with significant research on Tasmanian devils and other unique animals -- and career pathways include environmental consulting and even biomedicine.

You have the option to study one major -- normally two undergraduate-level subjects in first year, two in second year, and then four in third year -- or a double major, such as chemistry and geology, or ecology and zoology. You can also combine your Bachelor of Science major with units from Agricultural Science or the Bachelor of Natural Environment and Conservation. You have many options to make your degree what you want it to be.

Environmental geology: real-world research and the energy transition

In environmental geology -- one of the subjects I teach at third-year level -- some of our former students have been working up in the northeast of Tasmania on a lake that looks quite beautiful but is actually full of copper and aluminium. That milky, whitish-blue colour comes from its use as a former mine waste storage site. Students worked on understanding the properties of the water to develop remediation solutions for that part of the state, where there was significant mining activity in the past.

Some of the problems we work on include resources for the energy future. Moving away from coal is a very good idea, but you still need to produce metals to build the infrastructure -- solar panels contain silicon and copper wiring, and semiconductors contain elements like gallium. Finding sources of those materials within Australia and understanding how to produce them responsibly is really important. We're also looking at monitoring legacy contamination -- whether we can clean up old mining areas to recover resources or even use them to store carbon dioxide in old mine tailings, which is increasingly prominent. There are sites in Tasmania that are perfect for that. And there are innovative solutions to geoscience problems across a huge range of jobs, far beyond just mining -- including roles in state and federal government managing and protecting natural resources. Geology underpins the landscape in ways that link directly to ecology, soils, and vegetation. If you do the Bachelor of Science, you'll learn to solve problems, and then you'll go out into the world and apply those skills in the career you end up in.

Scholarships, applying, and support for domestic students

We have over 200 scholarships available for incoming students, and it's extremely simple to apply for dozens of them. You simply complete approximately a 200-word response to five different questions in the scholarships portal, and that will bring up a list of dozens of scholarships you are able to apply for. You then click on each scholarship listed and hit "quick apply" at the bottom, and you're automatically entered for that list. There are also donor-based scholarships that require individual applications -- these are set up by families or institutions for very specific applicants. We strongly encourage prospective students to apply for as many scholarships as humanly possible. There is no limit to how many you can apply for. If you look at a scholarship's eligibility criteria and you meet some but not all of them, please still apply -- you may still be the best applicant, and we don't want cost to be a barrier. University is for everyone.

Applying for our courses is also very straightforward. Go to the University of Tasmania website, click the red "apply" button, and it will prompt you to apply for an undergraduate degree. You can apply for up to five courses, and if you're successful you'll receive your offer by email. If you need assistance applying or enrolling, our Future Students Engagement team is on hand -- either over the phone or via a face-to-face appointment. Our contact details will be in the email you receive a few days after this webinar, along with the recording.

Information for international students

The application process for international students is also very easy and straightforward. You can follow the link provided and click the apply button at the top right of the screen, or contact one of our authorised agents accessible through our website. Fee information for international students is listed on the website for 2025 and 2026. We have very generous scholarships for international students, with the most popular being a 25% scholarship. The most interesting thing about that scholarship is that you don't have to separately apply for it -- when our admissions team processes your application, they check your eligibility, and if you're eligible, the scholarship offer will be included in your offer letter. You can also view all other scholarships available through the link on screen. If you have further questions or would like to know more, you can email our international student team or book an appointment with one of our representatives, and we're very happy to discuss the courses, structure, application process, and any other useful information in detail.

Life at the University of Tasmania

At the University of Tasmania, you can study outstanding courses in some of the world's most breathtaking places. Our fieldwork and hands-on learning experiences take you on the water and across our incredible island. We have three main campuses around Tasmania and a campus in Sydney, amazing opportunities to study abroad, and a range of pathway options developed with schools and the government so there's always a place for you -- online or in person.

We offer lots of support, including academic help, free counselling, and the Riawunna Centre for Indigenous Students. You can make friends and find like-minded people by joining a club or society -- learn to scuba dive, go on bush walks, chat about anime, or join a social justice club. You can also study online from wherever you are, choosing from over 100 online courses including short courses. We have generous scholarships, including relocation support to help you move and get settled, as well as study and career services to help you thrive on campus.

We have more than 100 quality courses covering a broad range of disciplines. In agriculture, you'll learn from industry leaders in a state that produces some of the world's finest food. You can complete some degrees in just two years through accelerated bachelor programmes. Study Marine and Antarctic Science to contribute to the global climate change conversation. The Bachelor of Natural Environments and Conservation -- where you'll learn about conservation and ecotourism -- is the only course of its kind in Australia. Exercise science gives you the opportunity to work with professional athletes at the Tasmanian Institute of Sport. Study music and performing arts at the Hedberg, our brand new Performing Arts Precinct, which is a state-of-the-art space for rehearsing, performing, and recording, with work experience opportunities through internationally acclaimed festivals, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and visiting artists. In architecture and design, you can work alongside industry professionals at events such as MONA FOMA and Junction Arts Festival. And our Australian Maritime College is the only tertiary institution of its kind in Australia, with strong links to industry, government, and research. Applying to the University of Tasmania is easy and free -- you can apply directly through our website to start your journey in a place unlike any other.