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The University of Waterloo BES (Geography and Aviation) and BSc programs are unique in the Canadian post-secondary educational system.

UW has a very strong science, environmental science, geomatics and technology base that will provide many of the essential underpinnings of aviation and aerospace.

In the Faculties of Environment and Science, several aviation-congruent areas can be identified, including solid-state physics, wireless communication, astrophysics, energy cells, fuels, materials, remote sensing, climatology/meteorology, environmental sciences, computer cartography, geomorphology, global positioning systems (GPS), geographic information systems (GIS), and many others.

Students interested in the Aviation program will have a choice of pursuing the BES or BSc program. In the BSc program students will have a further choice of specializing in either Earth Sciences or Physics or remaining in the broadly based unspecialized program. Students in the BES program will automatically recieve a Geomatics option.

Through the strong partnership with the Waterloo-Wellington Flight Centre, students will complete a Professional Pilot Program where courses are offered over a period of six academic terms, beginning in second semester. Overall, the flight-training component is offered concurrently with the courses, with some blocks of training concentrated in Spring/Summer seasons (academic off terms). The benchmarks are:

Who should apply for this program?

Our Science and Aviation and Geography and Aviation programs are designed for students who love to fly, and who want a University education to supplement their flight training. It is an intensive program, coupling a full university degree with a commercial pilot’s licence. Students with a passion for flying that are able to multi-task and schedule their time well are ideal candidates for either program. In University classes, you will learn concepts that complement your flight training, such as the physics of aerodynamics, atmospheric science and meteorology, and how global positioning systems (GPS) and geographic information systems (GIS) work.