• Introduction to Climate Change and Sustainable development
  • Operational Research in Development (coursework)
  • Operational Research in Development (minor dissertation)

EGS5031F INTRODUCTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Convener: Dr M-A Baudoin (HEQSF level 9, 23 NQF credits)
Course entry requirements: Acceptance for EGS5012W or by permission of the convener
Course outline: This course provides a broad, integrated, knowledge on key issues in climate change and sustainable development, making students conversant across the spectrum of climate change issues and history.
Topics covered include: sustainable development; the climate system, anthropogenic forcing and climate system response; African climate variability and change; international climate change legal frameworks, negotiations, and politics; the economics of climate change and climate change financing; the concept of climate compatible development. The course is lecture, seminar and group work based. Each section of the course will involve basic framing lectures, supported by either an essay exercise or a group work exercise and seminar.

STA5010W OPERATIONAL RESEARCH IN DEVELOPMENT COURSEWORK (May not be offered in 2016)

Convener: Dr L Scott (90 NQF credits at HEQSF level 9)
Course entry requirements: Entry to the course requires a good Honours degree including a strong quantitative component (normally at least two years of Mathematics at a tertiary level). In selecting candidates for admission to the course, consideration will also be given to recommendations from at least two referees who are able to attest to the applicants’ academic abilities and suitability.
Course outline: The aim of this one year course is to provide a broad professional training in the principles and tools of operational research (OR), with particular emphasis on application in the context of development and the developing world. OR has been defined as the discipline of applying advanced analytical methods (system analysis, and computer and mathematical models) to help make better decisions.
The OR in Development programme focuses on preparing graduates for a career in applying OR to the unique problems of the developing world, such as conflicting objectives in balancing, for example, socio-economic development and corrective actions, less reliable infrastructures, and a post-colonial need for community participation in all levels of planning. The first academic year is based primarily on coursework, supplemented by group discussions and case studies. The coursework includes the basic techniques of operational research and statistics, specific developmental issues, problem structuring and decision analysis.

STA5011W OPERATIONAL RESEARCH IN DEVELOPMENT MINOR DISSERTATION (This course may not be offered in 2016)

Convener: L Scott (HEQSF level 9, 90 NQF credits)
Course entry requirements: STA5010W
Course outline: On successful completion of the coursework component, students will undertake an individual, supervised applied research project on a suitable topic, the results of which are to be written up as a minor dissertation. In some cases, the project might be undertaken on a local problem at the student's home base.