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Sustainability and Environmental Management

MSc, Postgraduate Certificate (PgC), Postgraduate Diploma (PgD)

Key Features

What is it about?

Fact File

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Key Features

This course develops the advanced knowledge, understanding and skills needed for progressing the environmental sustainability agenda in an organisational and business context.

Study part-time alongside work or other commitments to gain a PgC in 9 months.
Internet based study.
Interaction with tutors and other learners over the web.
Access to on-line electronic journals and your local University library.
Accreditation with IEMA - become an Associate Member (AIEMA)

Sustainable development and the effective management of environmental impacts have become key goals for policy action at global and local levels. It is now widely recognised that understanding sustainability and integrating its principles and methods into everyday practice is vital for the environmental, economic and social welfare of society. This course will challenge you to transfer the broad ideas and principles of sustainability and environmental management into implementation at a 'local' level and particularly within commercial organisations.

You will examine sustainable development as a concept integrating global environmental and development agendas and how environmental concerns need to be integrated into the day-to-day management and functioning of organisations and the evaluation and monitoring of their ongoing performance.

You will learn about a range of evaluation and monitoring techniques - such as environmental management systems, sustainability indicators and corporate environmental and sustainability reporting - and about the regulatory and legislative context within which organisations have to operate.

The course will also offer you an insight into how the combination of economic, environmental and ethical/societal factors are increasingly influencing business activities. You will explore whether businesses will need to fundamentally re-evaluate their philosophy and policies if they (and we) are to have any kind of sustainable future.

We have designed the course using our experience of teaching a wide range of postgraduate students interested in the sustainable development agenda and drawing on the expertise of a variety of academic staff in the School of Sciences undertaking research and teaching across a diversity of environmental concerns. The result is a course closely tied into recent developments, covering new perspectives on business and environmental management and addressing key techniques for planning, monitoring and auditing sustainability initiatives.

Prospective students based abroad should note that one of the modules has a distinct focus on the UK legislative, policy and regulatory system, although students will be able and encouraged to relate this to systems in other countries with which they may be familiar.

Fact File

Qualification:	MSc, Postgraduate Certificate (PgC), Postgraduate Diploma (PgD)
Faculty/School:	Faculty of Sciences
Location:	Stoke Campus
Course Start:	February and September intakes Teaching starts 27 September 2010
Course Length:	The full MSc. programme would normally be studied part-time over a 3 year period. The Postgraduate Certificate takes 9 months and the Postgraduate Diploma 20 months. It is also possible to just study individual modules from the programme or to agree you own programme of study.
Attendance:	The course consists of a series of modules studied independently through a carefully structured programme of work supported by an introductory two day workshop. You study one module at a time, taken simultaneously with other people on your course enabling you to interact with other students. Each module takes 16 weeks to complete. The full MSc programme consists of four 30 credit taught modules followed by a 15 credit pre-dissertation module, and then a 45 credit research project or dissertation. In the MSc and Diploma programmes the 4 30 credit modules examine the history and emergence of sustainability as a concept; the role of indicators, assessment methods and sustainability strategies at local, national and international levels; the consideration, design, implementation, operation, auditing and reporting of an Environmental Management System by or within an organisation (ISO 14001 and EMAS); sustainable business development and the integration of commercial, environmental and societal impacts into business strategy; the environmental policies, legislation and regulation that provides the framework for company operations; the tools that can be used for evaluating and assessing the environmental and sustainability performance of organisations; and case studies of key global issues such as global warming, sustainable transport, population, food security or marine management. If you progress through to Masters level you will undertake a 15,000 word research project dissertation on a topic agreed between yourself and your supervisor. You can focus your research on your own employment context if this is appropriate.
Entry Requirements:	The course is suitable for students with a range of backgrounds and motivations. For recent graduates it provides a focussed programme of work for moving into environment related posts in the private sector. It can also support public sector employment where the principles and techniques of environmental evaluation and management need to be applied. For such specific areas of work where competition is intense, a postgraduate qualification is increasingly seen as essential. Studying part-time whilst in paid employment provides an excellent way of developing your skills and career opportunities. For graduates who have been working for a number of years or are well into a career path, the course provides a way of developing your profile and expertise in your current job, or building towards a change of career direction. This is particularly the case for employees in-post who have acquired responsibility for environmental concerns within a business or organisation and need training and a formal qualification to back this up. By studying part-time via distance learning you are able to achieve these goals without pulling out of your existing source of employment. Studying individual modules can also contribute to a programme of continuing professional development for environmental professionals building up, if so wished, to a certificate, diploma, or MSc qualification. The full MSc programme can also provide the basis for further research at doctoral level.
Application:	Application is by our online application form, alternatively for a postal application pack please contact our Course Enquiries department. Your application should be accompanied by two references and copies of previous academic qualifications, these can be either be sent by post or by email to scienceadmissions@staffs.ac.uk.
Fees and Bursaries:	Fees and Bursaries
Other Notes:	Successful completion of the two accredited modules of this course can confer associate membership of IEMA after payment of the relevant IEMA membership subscription.