GeoScience

Overview

Geoscience plays a crucial role in finding, extracting and managing earth resources. These minerals and energy resources are essential to almost every aspect of our day-to-day modern life. You will expand your knowledge of our planet's composition, structure and natural geological systems, and hone your skills in managing the earth's resource to secure their continuing contribution to our socio-economic wellbeing in the future.

Why study the Bachelor of GeoScience with UNE?

University of New England's Bachelor of GeoScience  is the only geology degree in Australia that you can complete online. By choosing UNE, you are choosing an industry leader in the provision of online lifelong learning. In fact, year after year, students award UNE 5-star ratings for Overall Experience and Student Support, year after year in The Good Universities Guide.

Whether you are studying online or on campus, you will have opportunities to take advantage of UNE's convenient location in the heart of the New England region, which provides an excellent natural laboratory for studying all aspects of geoscience. We capitalise on our location by undertaking regular and diverse field trips in our local area. We are fortunate to have an array of spectacular geology easily accessible within a short drive of our campus. We also run field trips for locations further afield including overseas to countries such as New Zealand and Bhutan.

In each year of your course, you will complete a specialised Applied Geoscience unit, learning from industry professionals, and leading and up-and-coming researchers. Focusing on forming connections between industry and academic, this innovative suite of units is designed to serve your specific needs whilst studying the Bachelor of Geoscience. Focusing on developing work-ready skills, research methodology and scientific communication skills through a combination of seminars, tutorials, and hands-on field, laboratory and/or workplace experiences, you will reflect on your ongoing development and keep a portfolio of key skills throughout.

UNE has a long history of excellence in teaching and research in earth science. Our geology research has been independently ranked as well above world standard. Our internationally recognised staff have diverse expertise in vertebrate and invertebrate palaeontology, biostratigraphy, tectonics, as well as economic geology, geological mapping, GIS, sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic geology. Our small class sizes mean you will have excellent access to our teaching staff.

Career outcomes

You will graduate with a well-rounded knowledge of geoscience and a skillset that incorporates lab, fieldwork and geology-specific GIS/geospatial mapping, highly valued by employers. Geoscience graduates work as geologists, geophysicists, palaeontologists, academics and earth scientists. The industry professions are in especially high demand and have excellent employment prospects. Careers you could consider include:

• mineral exploration and mining
• environmental consultancies
• scientific organisations (e.g. CSIRO, Geoscience Australia)
• government agencies (e.g. state and federal geological surveys)
• energy resources and exploration (e.g. coal and petroleum industries)
• museums
• academia.