The Department of Environmental science is one of the founding departments of the university of Botswana, having been a constituent unit of the then branch of the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland established in 1971 in Gaborone. Until 1979, the Department was known as the Department of Geography. Geography has always been a discipline concerned with both the biophysical and human environments. The change of name was intended to make the name and philosophy of the Department more explicit.
D programme is largely a research programme.
The Department is currently having close to 2000 undergraduate and graduate students.