Research-Based Programs

The Vancouver School of Economics (VSE) graduate programs owes its strength to the quality of its research faculty, opportunities for intensive training in theoretical and applied work, and a diverse offering of specializations. VSE faculty members specialize in a wide range of topics, including economics of gender and the family, applied microeconomics, public economics, monetary economics, labour, development, international economics, and experimental economics.

The Faculty of Forestry offers excellent courses and cutting edge research across a spectrum of disciplines related to forestry, and opportunities for interdisciplinary learning. The forestry graduate program and UBC as a whole strive to ensure that our graduates not only have access to excellent courses and engage in cutting-edge research, but also develop the professional skills that will allow a smooth transition into their working careers.

The Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems (ISLFS) program is for graduate students wishing to work within emerging interdisciplinary fields. It encourages you to use holistic approaches that integrate knowledge from across disciplines to find solutions relevant to diverse communities. Graduates from the ISLFS program have the skills necessary to work for government organizations and NGOs creating policy on food security and food sovereignty, community gardens, large and small-scale agriculture firms, education and school nutrition advisory boards, poverty outreach organizations, and many others.

The Resources, Environment and Sustainability (RES) graduate program is home to a diverse and dynamic collective of interdisciplinary students focused on a wide range of problems and issues under the umbrella of the environment and sustainability. RES has approximately one hundred current graduate students spread across three degree programs: Master of Arts (MA), Master of Science (MSc) or Doctoral of Philosophy (PhD). Over fifty percent of our core faculty are Canada Research Chairs and faculty mentoring has led to a high success rate of our students winning major fellowships and scholarships.

Professional Programs

The Master of Food and Resource Economics (MFRE) is a unique one-year professional masters program combining economics, policy and business as understood from an agriculture, food, natural resources and environmental perspective. This degree blends the economic and analytical rigour of an MSc with the business and management elements of an MBA, and equips you to analyze real-world issues through applied economics and quantitative skills. You’ll develop and refine the necessary critical thinking and analytical abilities to make informed, evidence-based decisions, and to apply them to the very real issues our world is grappling with.

The Master of Sustainable Forest Management (MSFM) program provides students with bachelor’s degrees in allied disciplines the opportunity for advanced scholarship and professional growth in the principles and practices of sustainable forest land management. The objective of the MSFM program is to prepare students for careers as forestry professionals in North America and overseas, and set the stage for life-long learning. Graduates of this program will know how to design and implement site and landscape level plans that integrate the environmental, social and economic components of sustainability.