Study with us
Studying at University is a rewarding and exciting experience full of opportunities to learn new things, meet extraordinary people and share your enthusiasm for your subject. Higher education is about your development as an independent learner.
At the Department of the Natural and Built Environment, we aim to give you the knowledge and skills you need to develop your career – whether you're just starting out or want to progress from your current role. Our undergraduate and postgraduate courses focus on the academic disciplines and professional practices associated with understanding, planning, designing and managing sustainable places and environments in both a local and a global context.
We're also committed to your employability. Work placements, real life work simulations and specialist events help prepare you with the skills employers are looking for, whilst our courses are developed with and accredited by professional bodies to make sure you get the most up-to-date knowledge.
Our tutors combine academic excellence with relevance in the field, using their expertise to advise government, professional bodies and multinational companies on a range of issues from climate change mitigation to urban regeneration, sustainability and surveying. They'll use a mix of lectures, seminars, studio workshops, laboratory sessions and field work to help you study.
You'll be given work to prepare in advance of many of these sessions including directed reading, poster presentations, design work and preparation for debates. As well as this directed learning, we'll expect you to read around your subject. We have an excellent learning centre, which will support you in your own reading and research, as well as our own online virtual learning environment, to provide additional resources and information.
Fieldwork is an important element of all of our courses. As well as local field visits around Sheffield and the Peak District National Park, there are also residential field courses in the UK and overseas. A final year dissertation or design project also allows you to focus on a subject of particular interest and work independently with one-to-one advice from a project supervisor.
As well as the subject specialists you meet in your lectures and seminars, you'll also have a personal tutor who you'll meet for a regular programme of personal and professional development tutorials, as well as one-to-one academic advice. We want you to enjoy your learning here and we will support you to be successful in your studies.
Use our online prospectus to search for courses in the following areas
- Architecture
- Construction, building and surveying
- Environment
- Geography
- Planning, Housing and Regeneration
- Real estate