How to apply

Admission is limited. Applications are evaluated both independently and in relation to each other.

Prior studies

You must have an honour’s bachelor with a minimum average of B (or 70%), preferably in one of the following disciplines:

• Environmental studies
• Geography
• Economics
• Environmental science
• Political science
• International development
• Environmental engineering
• Law

We may also consider applicants from other disciplines as well as applicants with a non-honours bachelor’s degree. 

Please note that you must submit an official transcript from each establishment of higher education that you have attended, including for educational exchanges.

Language requirements

Compulsory courses are offered in English. If your mother tongue is not English, you might have to submit proof of language proficiency.

See our language requirements.

Apply online through the Ontario Universities Admission Centre (OUAC). Learn more about the steps to apply.

You must submit these documents to complete your application:

Recommendation letters

We require two (2) academic letters of recommendation. They must come from qualified academic scholars who can attest to and demonstrate your potential for graduate-level study or research.

The information about the individuals providing letters of recommendation is entered in your uoZone account, the student portal. You will receive an e-mail, with instructions, after your submit your OUAC application.

• Let the individuals know that the University of Ottawa’s letter of recommendation process is done online and is entirely confidential. They will receive a link by email to the secure online system.
• It is helpful to provide the individuals with a deadline in order to ensure they submit their letters of recommendation before the application deadline. Your application will not be considered complete (and thus not evaluated) until all your letters of recommendation are received.
• Letters of recommendation must be in English or French.
• We do not accept letters of recommendation from family members, friends, students, former or current classmates, employees or teaching assistants.
• It’s best to provide academic or work email addresses for those providing letters of recommendation. Email address from Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, etc. are discouraged.

Research proposal
Students must write a short research proposal in order to be accepted to the program. The proposal is used to gauge the student’s writing, background knowledge, and creativity. Students are not required to conduct research in exactly the same field as their proposal. Your research proposal should be a maximum of 2 pages of single spaced text. It should (1) provide some background context on the topic, (2) state a research question, and (3) explain (at a high level) how the research question might be answered. It may also be useful to (4) relate the proposed research to other similar scholarly literature. Examples of recent student Major Research Papers are available here.

CV
An updated CV with your academic, professional and volunteer experience in environmental sustainability.

Submission of documents 

Once you have submitted your application and it has been transferred to uOttawa’s servers, you will receive an email with instructions on how to access uoZone, where you will be able to upload your documents.

You must upload a full set of documents for each program you are applying to through uoZone, the student portal.

If you prefer, you may submit the above mentioned documents via e-mail at [email protected] instead.

• We highly recommend that you convert your documents to PDF formats.

Students must identify a professor that is willing to supervise their major research paper or thesis in order to be accepted to the program. Any regular professor with graduate student supervisory privileges at the University of Ottawa is eligible to supervise an MRP or thesis in the Master’s of Environmental Sustainability program. Professors that have already indicated their willingness to supervised in the Environmental Sustainability program are listed on this page, along with their research interests. When approaching a professor to request supervision, remember that professors receive a large number of e-mails and your request is most likely to be responded to if it is polite, well written, and non-generic (i.e., tailored to the professor you are interested in working with). A screenshot of an e-mail from a professor confirming willingness to supervise is sufficient for confirming supervision.

This section contains specific information for international students. See the other sections for general information.

Deadline to apply: December 1 (to begin in September of the following year)

If you completed your postsecondary education outside of Canada, see the admission equivalencies for international students. You will see the minimum degree and grade you require.

The grade average required for this program is 7.0. Admission is limited. Applicants are evaluated both independently and in relation to each other.

Compulsory courses in the program are currently offered in English. If your mother tongue is not English, you must submit evidence of proficiency in English (scroll down to “Language requirements”).  Schedule your language proficiency test as soon as possible.

We accept supporting documents (such as TOEFL scores) after December 1. However, we cannot process your application until we have received all your documents. 

Please note that you will need to submit an official transcript from each establishment of higher education that you have attended, including for educational exchanges.

For questions about your application or the application process, contact Institute of the Environment:

• 613-562-5689
• [email protected]