Nipissing University’s Bachelor of Community Planning program provides tomorrow’s planners with highly relevant skills and knowledge to inform planning for today, tomorrow and beyond.

Focusing on Community Planning for small to mid-sized communities, northern regions, and Indigenous communities, and acknowledging the impact of planning activities on the environment while ensuring human activities are sustainable and respectful of the communities and the land, our future graduates will offer highly sought after perspectives and experience.

This program provides opportunities to engage in the field through internship work experience, studio-based courses and a capstone project that enables the transition from the classroom to the field. In addition, this program ensures that our graduates are on the path to becoming professional planners.

In this unprecedented time of change, graduates of Community Planning at Nipissing University will be part of the solution to the challenges of northern rural and urban regions, armed with the ability and experience in planning to meet the world’s challenges today and for generations to come.

The BSc Honours Specialization, Specialization, Major, and Minor in Environmental Science offer an interdisciplinary curriculum designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills needed to tackle pressing environmental challenges. The program provides a foundation in biology, chemistry, geography, earth sciences, mathematics, and data science, preparing students to develop solutions to contemporary environmental issues through scientific reasoning and various approaches.

Rather than just imparting environmental knowledge, the program transforms how students perceive environmental problems and the methods for studying and resolving them. Graduates are prepared for careers in environmental research, policy analysis, planning, consulting, and education.

The Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Data Science program leads to an undergraduate degree which provides graduates with the necessary mathematical and computational background to be a data scientist. It will introduce you to the applications of data science in your area of interest. Obtaining the degree will involve a combination of courses and experiential learning components in the form of a research paper, practicums and internships.

Whether you are interested in precision medicine, dealing with data sets on environment or business analytics, or understanding complex systems, you will learn how to use the tools and problem-solving skills of computer science and mathematics to work with data.

The Master of Arts (MA) in Sociology – Applied Social Research degree will focus on the application of social theories and research methodologies that assist in understanding and addressing the social problems and challenges of northern and rural communities, including Indigenous communities, in Canada and around the world. The program brings together faculty expertise in Sociology, Health and Populations Studies, Gerontology, Anthropology, Science and Environmental Studies, and Criminology and Criminal Justice. Active involvement in the community, government agency partners, a curriculum of research-intensive courses, and practicum placements will provide you with the theoretical foundations and quantitative and qualitative research skills to undertake applied research, evaluation and policy studies in government, not-for-profit and private organizations. There are three required courses that are the foundation of the degree and include: SOCI 5106 Advanced Sociological Theory; SOCI 5216 Research Design; and either SOCI 5217 Quantitative Analysis or SOCI 5417 Qualitative Analysis. You will be well prepared for more advanced studies in Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology at the doctoral level.​​​​​​

The Master of Science in Kinesiology (MSc) is a thesis-based degree program that offers students an opportunity to train in a world-class facility with state-of-the-art equipment and leading faculty researchers.

Areas of study can include topics broadly related to the natural health and physical sciences, such as biomechanics and ergonomics, exercise and environmental physiology, sensory-movement behaviour, physical activity and health promotion, coaching, and sport psychology. Graduate students are drawn to the School of Physical and Health Education to work with specific research faculty members and benefit from their expertise in specific content areas.

The MSc program operates using a mentor model. The benefits of a mentor model are numerous, including clarification of research and other funding support at time of application and focused supervision from the time of registration. The MSc program prepares graduates for further research training (e.g., doctoral and post-doctoral studies) and a broad range of careers in Kinesiology and related fields, such as medicine, health promotion, rehabilitation, sport, fitness, education, government, and industry.​​​

The BSW program at Nipissing University is designed in accordance with the Canadian Association of Social Work Education (CASWE) standards of practice to prepare students for generalist social work practice. The four-year degree is designed to provide a professional social work experience for students entering from high school, as well as college transfer students and mature students. The degree is structured to ensure that students have a solid grounding in the social sciences for two years prior to embarking upon the social work specific curriculum in the final two years of the program. The goal is to graduate self-reflexive and knowledgeable practitioners, with a solid background in the realities of northern and rural contexts. Graduates of the program will also possess research, communication and analytic skills. The practicum component of the degree will support Nipissing’s focus on service and experiential learning. A 700-hour practicum will be a core foundation of the program, designed to enable the development of practice skills and the integration of theoretical knowledge with practice

The program is grounded in principles of social justice, with a particular emphasis on the historical and contemporary position of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Concurrently, the program content will also focus on the practice of social work in rural and northern contexts.

Students in this program will be exposed to diverse articulations of human experience and cultures, and will discover how human beings in their diversity are all engaged in a project of making meaning in the world.

The mission of the Anthropology program is threefold:

• To develop graduates who can engage in dialogue between diverse cultural traditions and recognize them as valid  forms of human organization and expression
• To develop graduates who can critically examine our own cultural traditions and lineages and recognize them as merely one form of human expression among others
• To develop graduates who are trained in anthropological and ethnographical fieldwork techniques including a comprehensive understanding of the ethics involved in working with living cultures