Environmental conservation, sustainable development and environmental health are among the top priorities of Hong Kong. Managing the natural resources well and living in harmony with nature are the keys to economic sustainability and technological advancement in the future. What's more, recent health incidents and food scandals have refocused public attention to a healthy and clean environment together with proper food monitoring, handling and processing management systems for the prevention of food poisoning and environmental pollution.

By adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the major objective of the programme is to integrate management techniques into the technicalities of environmental protection and safeguarding public health. In addition to the conventional issues of environmental protection, the relationships among economics, regulation and policy, management techniques, health risk analysis, social and ethical value and environment conservation will be explored in detail.

The programme is offered on a part-time basis, normally, spanning two years. However, there is also the flexibility to choose different study durations ranging from a maximum of four-year part-time to a 12-month full-time mode. A student could also, initially, choose to enrol in individual courses and then apply for the units earned to be credited when he/she decides to enrol in the full MSc programme. In this case, students must fulfil the complete course requirements and earn the specified units for graduation. Lectures, tutorials and seminars will be conducted on weekday evenings or Saturdays.

The distribution of workload is given below, basing on the calculation that one credit indicates 12 hours of lecture or 42 hours of research project: