Landscape Sciences (M. Sc.)

The Faculty of Natural Sciences has brought together closely related disciplines which study ecological and landscape-related issues to create an interdisciplinary teaching programme incorporating elements which cross-link the various disciplines, and university and real-life applications, too. The subject matter dealt with in the Master’s programme is broadly based and covers a wide range of systems; it focuses on the analysis and prediction of processes taking place in the landscape and the application of sound scientific methods and models. Investigations focus on the boundary between atmosphere-vegetation-soil-rock, the processes taking place therein and the control options available to us humans. The programme forges a link between the scientific and ecological basic principles and professional fields of application. The students are thus equipped with both a sound understanding of the environmental system and the advanced methodological skills needed to analyse the processes occurring in the ecosystem.

The experts educated and trained on the Master's programme in Landscape Sciences are expected to have detailed knowledge of the specialist scientific content, and methodological skills in particular, to thus be able to utilise their broad understanding of the system in the analysis and modelling of processes occurring in the landscape, and then take this as the foundation for developing solutions for today’s land use and environmental problems and concepts for future management strategies.
The students will be taught the key skills required for this in a wide variety of ways. The broad-based training is directed towards seven learning outcomes and is the ideal preparation to meet the increasing demands that practical applications are placing on methodological competence and detailed knowledge. Moreover, the applied landscape sciences component will provide students with optimum training in integrated thinking, an absolute ‘must’ in this field, regardless of their research focus, compulsory optional subjects and Master thesis.

Double Degree in cooperation with Yamagata University in Tsuruoka, Japan

The Faculty of Natural Sciences at Leibniz Universität Hannover has teamed up with the Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences at Yamagata University in Tsuruoka, Japan to offer a Double Degree programme. A maximum of five students per year have the opportunity to study for an M.Sc. in Landscape Sciences at Leibniz Universität Hannover and an M.Ag. in Bioenvironment, Bioresources Engineering or Bioproduction at Yamagata University in parallel over four semesters.

How to apply for the programme
You apply to do a Master’s degree in Landscape Sciences at Leibniz Universität Hannover and at the same time state that you are interested in the Double Degree programme with Yamagata University. You must also prove that you have sufficient command of English at B2 level. After enrolling on the Landscape Sciences Master's programme, the students for the Double Degree programme are selected by means of an internal selection procedure at the start of the winter semester.

Studying in the Double Degree programme
As a student on the Double Degree programme of the four-semester Master’s programme, you will spend two semesters at Leibniz Universität Hannover and two semesters at Yamagata University in Tsuruoka. You will obtain 60 credits at each university. You are enrolled at Leibniz Universität for the complete duration of your studies. You are exempt from the tuition fees payable at the Japanese partner university. Your first semester will be spent in Hanover, where you will take compulsory and compulsory optional modules in German or English from the Landscape Sciences Master's programme. You then continue your studies at Yamagata University. All classes at the Japanese partner university are held in English. Your fourth and final semester will be spent back in Hanover. This is the semester in which you write your Master thesis, which can be supervised jointly by a German and a Japanese lecturer. As a graduate of the Double Degree programme, you will have obtained a degree on each the two accredited Master’s degree programmes in four semesters.

Advantages of the Double Degree
The combination of the Landscape Sciences Master's programme at Leibniz Universität Hannover and the Master's programme in Bioenvironment, Bioproduction or Bioresources Engineering has several advantages: a new and challenging study and research environment, becoming acquainted with a different university system, obtaining two Master’s degrees in four semesters, broadening your professional career options, developing social and intercultural skills in an international environment, intense familiarisation with the culture and way of life in the host country.

For further information please contact:

Dr. Jens Groß
E-Mail: gross@phygeo.uni-hannover.de
Tel.:     +49 511 762 4488

Yamagata University - Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences in Tsuruoka

The main fields of study on the Tsuruoka campus of Yamagata University (YU), which is situated in the north-east of Honshu, Japan’s main island, are agriculture, forest sciences and environmental sciences. This creates a great many interfaces to the subjects taught and studied at the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH), especially in the landscape sciences.

LUH and YU have been in close collaboration since 2012, working together on joint research projects, the exchange of students and doctoral researchers, and regular summer schools in Germany and winter schools in Japan.