Future Students

Welcome to the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at the University of Sydney! The Faculty provides excellence in training in agricultural and horticultural sciences, land and water sciences, and in agricultural and resource economics, through both undergraduate courses and postgraduate programs.

Outlined below are the different areas you can visit on our site to find out information about our courses and what you need to apply. We are happy to answer any questions or queries you may have so feel free to contact our Faculty Office for more help.

The Postgraduate section offers graduates full details of all the Faculty's current opportunities for further study. An extensive range of both Coursework and Research programs are available.

The Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources offers 5 undergraduate programs - 3 applied science (Agricultural Science, Horticultural Science, Land and Water Science) and 2 applied economics (Agricultural Economics and Resource Economics) degrees. They are NOT farming or farm management degrees but strong science-based and economics-based programs. The degrees are 4-years in duration and include honours (based on academic performance in second, third and fourth years). Typical graduate starting salaries are strong, around $55K but are often more and can increase rapidly, quite often within a year but typically within 2-3 years. Graduate employment rates are exceptionally high (94% within three months of completion maintained for the past 15 years).

Degrees in this Faculty offer many advantages. Small class sizes means you get to know your lecturers, help is readily available, and you make friends easily. You do professional experience, gain research skills through the completion of a fourth year project and learn how to solve problems on your own, skills highly valued by employers.
Your qualification makes you ‘Stand Out’ in the crowd. Applied degrees give you options that generalist degrees do not offer as they provide that something extra which differentiates you from the thousands of other graduates in the market place.

WHERE ARE THE GRADUATES EMPLOYED?

Agricultural Economics and Resource Economists:
Half of all Agricultural Economics graduates work in finance (merchant and commercial banking, futures trading, and accounting), 30% are employed in agribusiness, marketing and commodity trading, 15% in policy making and economic research and 5% in economic journalism and managing large corporate farms. Graduates are employed with the premier organisations in the cities, regional areas and overseas eg KPMG, Macquarie Bank, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, Rabobank, HKSB, BNP Paribas, Prime Minister’s office, NSW Treasury, ABARE, the Productivity Commission, Hassall & Associates and Coca-Cola Amatil. Graduates can work in development economics including World Bank, FAO and OECD etc after further study and experience.

Resource Economists are trained as generalist economists with special skills in resource and environmental economics. The degree is composed of a first year science-base with mathematics and introductory economics followed by 3 years of economics sequences where students can elect either resource science or resource economics electives according to interest. Students can complete units in energy and mining economics, water, fisheries and forestry economics, and terrestrial and ecosystems economics. BResEc graduates have stronger quantitative skills than most other economics/commerce graduates and their mathematical modelling skills, which are generic, make them in-demand in the market place. BResEc graduates are employed by the banks, ABARE, the Productivity Commission, Reserve Bank, Department of Environment and Conservation, Energy Australia etc. This is a ‘degree for the future’ and BResEc graduates have many opportunities associated with the resources boom and with our need to respond to local and global environmental challenges, eg. water trading, carbon trading etc.

Agricultural, Horticultural and Land and Water Scientists:
Agricultural Science graduates have a high level of flexibility in their choice of specialisations and career paths. They can specialise across a wide range of fields including agronomy, agricultural economics, agricultural chemistry, entomology, food science, horticulture, livestock production, precision agriculture, plant breeding, molecular genetics, and soil science. Ag Science graduates are employed in scientific research, management, as technical experts and consultants in agronomy, agribusiness, plant biosecurity, commodity trading, food and beverage industries, marketing, plant breeding, and sustainable agriculture etc.

Horticultural Science graduates are in strong demand as this is the fastest growing sector in agriculture. These graduates can start on up to $70K plus a car with opportunities to work all over the world in management and advisory roles and as research scientists in production horticulture, amenity horticulture, postharvest and ornamental horticulture. Graduates are employed in a wide range of areas including ornamental plant breeding, molecular genetics, viticulture, turf management, species conservation, horticultural biotechnology, biosecurity and quarantine, irrigation science etc.

Land and Water Science is a cross-disciplinary environmental science degree that deals with the science to manage water quality and supply, soil erosion, acidification, native vegetation loss, salinity etc. It balances environmental science with knowledge related to rural land-uses and socioeconomics. Graduates are in strong demand and are readily employed as technical experts, researchers, and consultants in environmental science, total catchment management, and water resource management.

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