Lincoln University has reformed its bachelor degree courses after consulting a number of primary industry companies and organisations.
The university has retained its flagship degrees of agricultural science and commerce but has introduced new degrees such as a Bachelor of Agribusiness and Food Marketing and a BA in Environment and Society.
Assistant Vice-Chancellor for academic programmes, Professor Sheelagh Matear, says the university has made sure it aligns its degree courses around land-based industries and the themes of feeding the world, protecting the future and living well.
She says all Lincoln graduates will have a strong research base in their first year and they will all understand multiple perspectives of land.
Professor Matear says they will also be able to talk to each other across disciplinary boundaries so when they leave Lincoln they can engage effectively with other land-based professionals they will be working with.
She says the changes are a clear response to what Lincoln, as a specialist university, stands for in terms of supporting the development of land-based industries and that includes tourism, sports and recreation and landscape architecture.
"We are a specialist university and our degrees need to really align well with that specialisation and with that strategic direction of the university."
Lincoln University has joined the Euroleague for Life Sciences, a network of universities involved in agricultural and animal sciences.