Environmental Assessment and Management - 2010 entry

MSc / PGDip

The MSc in EAM has Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) accreditation: graduates are eligible to commence the RICS APC. They can also take the exams for the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) Associate Membership.

The MSc in Environmental Assessment and Management (EAM) is a dynamic and well-established course. It has a strong reputation for promoting best practice and innovation through links to our research expertise in the broad field of UK and international environmental policy and practice, and the course appeals to graduates and practitioners from around the world. It adopts an integrative approach to demonstrate the complementary roles of natural resource management and planning within core areas of EAM such as Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), as well as new and evolving fields such as mitigation banking, climate change adaptation, and strategic policy making. The course has an excellent employment record, and the combination of a varied array of option modules and practical experience of methods provides the opportunity to develop the knowledge, skills and experience needed to develop a rewarding career in this field

Course content

The MSc course consists of four core modules, two optional modules and a dissertation, representing 180 master's-level credits. The PGDip consists of four core modules and two options (representing 120 master’s-level credits).

(Please note: as courses are reviewed regularly, the module list you choose from may vary from that shown here.)

The core modules:

• Principles of Environmental Assessment and Management (20 credits) considers the context within which EAM is carried out: the principles of sustainability, international and national policy, approaches to valuing the environment, attitudes to conservation, and the role of the public in environmental decision making.
• Ecosystem Degradation and Management (20 credits) reviews the nature and extent of ecosystem degradation resulting from human activities, and considers possible methods for avoiding degradation and managing, conserving and restoring ecosystems.
• Procedures and Methods of EIA (double module, 40 credits) examines the processes and procedures in carrying out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) or Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), and provides a practical introduction to methods for assessing, predicting and mitigating a wide range of ecological and socio-economic impacts. The module emphasises fieldwork and case studies.

The dissertation comprises:

• Research Methods (half module, 10 credits), which develops the skills needed to research environmental issues, including the formulation of research problems and methodology, data collection and analysis.
• Dissertation (50 credits), which is an individual research study on a topic relevant to EAM chosen by the student.

One single module generally involves one taught session per week over the 12 weeks of the semester.

Optional modules provide an opportunity for students to widen or deepen their field of study. There are three types of optional module as follows:

a) Recommended optional modules are considered to be particularly relevant to the course and include:

• Environmental Management Systems introduces environmental management, the systems and approaches which are being increasingly used in industry and commerce to meet the challenge of sustainable development and to monitor and improve environmental performance.
• GIS and Environmental Modelling is concerned with the practical application of geographical information systems (GIS) and a variety of other computer-based techniques and models (such as expert systems, and spreadsheets) as tools to assist in environmental management and decision making.
• Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) examines SEA principles and SEA’s status worldwide; links between SEA, environmental impact assessment, and strategic decision making; and a wide range of SEA tools and techniques, and their advantages and disadvantages in various settings.
• Spatial Planning in Action presents an analysis of the structure, objectives and responsibilities underlying the practice of spatial planning from a UK perspective. The legal basis, administrative aspects and current issues in planning decision making are introduced, including development plan making, development control and the appeal process.

b) Alternative optional modules are normally selected from an approved list of courses currently running in the University, including Management of Waste and Contaminated Land; Globalisation, Environment and Development; and Pollution Measurement and Analysis. However, a student may seek approval from the programme leaders to take a suitable unit that is not included in the approved list.

c) An Independent Study module involves individual work on an appropriate topic or set of topics, conducted under supervision and with prior approval of the course leaders. No more than one Independent Study unit may be included in a programme.

Teaching, learning and assessment

Teaching and assessment methods reflect the wide variety of topics and techniques associated with environmental assessment and management, including lectures, directed reading, workshops, seminars, and practical and project work. Some modules also include site visits and fieldwork, which provide direct experience of the more practical and current issues in environmental assessment and management. Each module on the course is assessed individually. Assessment methods include essays, seminar papers, in-class tests, project work and oral presentations, workshops, simulations and practical exercises. In keeping with the course emphasis on practical application, the majority of the assessment is based on coursework.

Scholarships and funding

The course regularly attracts scholarship candidates from across the globe, including sponsorship from the World Bank, DFID, and British Council Chevening Scholarships

For general sources of financial support, see:

• funding for students from the UK and EU
• funding for students from outside the EU

Quality

Oxford Brookes University is a leading international centre for teaching, research and consultancy in the field of environmental assessment and management. The course is distinctive in being delivered jointly by the School of Life Sciences and the School of the Built Environment, which encourages a lively, inter-disciplinary approach to environmental issues. Staff who teach on the MSc have published widely, including authoring the leading textbooks in EIA and SEA. The team regularly undertake related consultancy work with clients such as ERM, Haskoning UK, and Land Use Consultants, as well as the EU, government departments, local authorities, and NGOs. Our cutting edge, applied research has been funded by the Research Councils including the ESRC, NERC, EPSRC and BBSRC. This wealth of research and consultancy experiences means our teaching is always informed by the latest developments, and our network of contacts from industry, research bodies, and government agencies provide further inputs, bringing real world experience to the course.

Student feedback:

'Thank you very much for a fantastic master's course, we all thoroughly enjoyed it and we have learnt a lot. The course has such a good reputation that I think most of us had jobs to go straight into after our dissertations.'

'I have started at Scott Wilson and have been here just over three weeks. I'm working on four projects at the moment, and all are very interesting. There is EIA work for a desalination plant in London, a waste facility in London, and a windfarm in Cornwall. There is also some other work on a second runway for Birmingham International Airport. I have responsibility as well, and am not just doing photocopying.'

'Job hunting was really easy thanks to you guys, all the interviews I went for seemed to know you and the course.'

'I also wanted to thank you for the MSc course, which has stood me in good stead ever since. I spent my first year in asbestos consultancy, before being allowed to transfer to the EIA team working predominantly on a large (200km) gas pipeline running between Wales and England. I thought I'd bring this up, as I was delighted to have the main input into the cumulative effects section, which you may recall I covered in my dissertation.'

'Thank you for all the recruitment ads, tip-offs, recommendations, and advice that you have given not only to me, but all the group, it has been very much appreciated. What has been most apparent is the preponderance of Oxford Brookes MSc graduates who are all very successful in the consultancy business. It is a great measure of the quality of the course that you offer.'

Comments from employers:

'…a number of members of staff in our department have attended various courses on planning and EIA at the University from 1 day seminars on specialist topics up to degree and masters level qualifications and we have generally been very impressed with the results and the contribution this has made towards staff development.'

RWE npower

'Scott Wilson has a long history with Oxford Brookes University, in particular the Departments of Planning, School of the Built Environment and Life Sciences. Both our environmental and planning teams have recruited graduates from the Oxford Brookes MSc courses. We find that the graduates from these courses have a wide range of interests and are well rounded candidates in terms of their environmental and planning knowledge. The practical nature of the modules (such as EIA and SEA) means that once started, they can integrate and contribute to projects almost straight away. We currently have graduates from Oxford Brookes in offices around the world, from London to Brisbane undertaking projects from assessing the UK's impact on global biodiversity to assessing the impacts of major infrastructure projects.'

Scott Wilson Ltd

'Developing strong links with our nearby universities is proving important in supplying new EIA recruits for the Environment Agency's National Environmental Assessment Service. We currently employ a couple of members of staff who have passed through Oxford Brookes University and who come with considerable understanding of environmental assessment. Additionally, several of my team have attended and got a lot from the Oxford Brookes training events over the course of the past few years.'

Environment Agency, National Environmental Assessment Service

External examiner comments:

In their formal quality reporting the external examiners for the course have said:

'…the course is of an extremely high standard, with a strong practical emphasis and fulfils a real need in terms of the jobs market, as demonstrated by the success of the graduates in readily gaining relevant employment in the environmental field'.

'….I remain extremely impressed by the imaginative range of teaching approaches, the high degree of interdisciplinary, the overall marking and feedback, and the strong practical approach. '<

'I was particularly impressed by the group EIAs, which are really weighty and read like real consultancy reports, with outstanding feedback.'

'…the curriculum is informed by the latest research in the field'

Career destinations

The course has been running for nearly 20 years and has an extensive network of more than 400 alumni, some of whom have achieved partner- and technical director-level appointments in consultancies such as EDP, ERM, WSP Environmental Ltd and URS Corporation, while others have secured high-level environmental positions within organisations such as the European Commission and the World Bank.

Career destinations include:

• Environmental consultancy, including leading IEMA registered assessor companies such as Entec UK, Environ UK, Golder Associates, Nicholas Pearson Associates, Parsons Brinkerhoff, Pegasus Planning, RPS Group, Savills Ltd, and Waterman CPM, amongst many others.
• Environmental managers and EIA / SEA officers with regulatory bodies such as the Environment Agency and SEPA, Local Authorities, and government departments both in the UK and internationally
• Officers with non-statutory bodies and non-governmental agencies in Europe and overseas

A number of graduates have progressed to undertake research degrees (PhD).

Credit transfer

Oxford Brookes operates the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). All postgraduate single modules are equivalent to 10 ECTS credits, double modules to 20 ECTS credits, and treble modules to 30 ECTS credits. A full master's course will carry 90 ECTS credits. More about ECTS credits.

Admission

Upper second class honours degree, or equivalent. Applicants with additional experience but without this entry requirement are considered on merit.

If your first language is not English, you must satisfy our English language requirements by providing us with evidence of an IELTS level of 6 (preferably 6.5) in the academic test, with a minimum score of 6 in reading and writing. For TOEFL the required score is 550-575 (paper-based) or 79-91 (internet-based), with a score of 4.5 in the Test of Written English (TWE).

How to apply

You apply for this course through UKPASS.

Conditions of acceptance

When you accept our offer you agree to the conditions of acceptance. You should therefore read those conditions before accepting the offer.