Higher Education in Environmental Sciences : The Effects of Incorporating Expert

In 1987, the curriculum of Environmental Sciences was introduced at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich ([Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zurich], ETHZ). The curriculum was motivated by demands and pressures that characterize our post-industrial age, particularly the necessity to understand complex environmental problems and assess their long term impacts from an interdisciplinary natural science perspective (Gigon, 1997). Environmental problems and catastrophes, such as the nuclear power plant accident at Chernobyl, the dioxin contamination at Seveso, and the chemical industry’s accidental contamination of the River Rhine, which all occurred in the 80’s, contributed to this motivation (Frischknecht & Imboden, 1995; Gigon, 1997; Scholz & Tietje, 2002).