Dr Uche Oke introduces the MSc Sustainability and Environmental Management video transcript

Hi my name is Dr Uche Okere and I'm the academic lead for the MSc Sustainability and Environmental Management program here at the University of Derby. I'd like to thank you for your interest in the program and for the next few minutes I'm going to provide you with some more information that will hopefully help you make a decision about whether or not you'll be coming to study with us. So a bit about myself, some background about myself. Like I said I am the academic lead for the program and for my PhD I studied environmental microbiology. I researched the interactions between microorganisms and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soils, soils mostly and with very low levels of exposure to contaminants. I have been teaching environmental management now in UK universities both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels for close to 15 years. I'm a senior fellow of the UK higher education academy and I've worked with IEMA which is the institute for environmental management and assessment, to develop and accredit programs both for professionals and also for delivering higher institutions for a number of years now. I've also got some consultancy experience working with organizations to implement environmental management systems and it's also helped them achieve certification to the iso 14001 standard. And finally my ongoing research interest in my current research is around education for sustainable development and most specifically how sustainability can be embedded into curriculums across different programs and how students can learn how to contribute to sustainable development or the achievement of sustainable development through their professional practice and also through their personal life, the choices they make in their personalized irrespective of what they study. Also on the team that deliver the program is Dr Becky Rawson. Becky is a lecturer in the MSc sustainability and environmental management program and Becky has been teaching environmental management in UK universities for over 10 years now and her current research interests around education for sustainable development and environmental management and well-being to issues around for example eco anxiety and also pedagogy in online learning environments. We've also got Bruce Birkett. Bruce is a senior lecturer in environmental health and is the academic lead for our environmental health program but also contributes to the environmental management and sustainability program. Bruce's experience and background, is in the environmental health sector. He's worked within the oil industry in environmental health for for over 30 years now he's currently interested in decent home standards, housing risk assessment and applications, food safety legislation and also inspections and he's worked with local councils for many years and brings all of that experience into delivering the environmental health program and also supporting our environmental management and sustainability programs. We've also got a team of associate academics who teach and deliver some of the modules on the program and some of these are Dr Paul Beers. Paul runs his own consultancy and has many years of experience many years experience of teaching in higher education but also working in industry so he brings all of that experience into delivering some of our modules and also supervising some independent projects at the end of the MSc. We've got Lucy Harbor whose experience is in Lucy's experience is in air quality and so she brings that experience in as well and we've got Claire Kirk who works with environment agency and delivers some of the modules on the program.

So I'm going to talk to you now about the reason for the program so what's informed the development of the MSc Sustainability and Environmental program here at the University of Derby and I'd like you to think about the sustainability challenge so the challenge that we face as a race to live sustainably. And putting it very simply, to live in such a way that we're not destroying our ecological ceiling so that we're not exacerbating those those environmental ecological issues to the point of no return. Some of those issues or the most significant ones are climate change, land conservation, changing land use, biodiversity loss. We've got to live in such a way that we do not stretch our biophysical environment to the point of no return but also on the other side if you like the other challenge is the issue around our social foundations. So we need to provide food for ourselves we need to have we need to have water, issues around gender equality, issues around peace and justice around the world, issues around education and most of these are covered in in the sustainable development goals. So finding that balance of living in such a way that we do not overshoot ecological boundaries and also we do not destroy the social foundations upon which our societies are built is a challenge of our time. It's a challenge in which we find ourselves. Another way to look at it obviously is around the concept of sustainable development. So this is what the challenge is about, it's about living sustainably it is about developing in such a way that we don't compromise people so the social values that we need as a race are maintained and also we don't compromise our planet, we protect our planet so that the resources we need to sustain ourselves as a race are protected for future generations but also that our economies are protected so striking that balance if you like for want of a better word between people, planet and profit is a challenge of our time. It is a challenge of sustainable development and that is what we need to achieve. That is what we need to find a way to strike. That's the balance that we need to find a way to strike and while this is important on a personal level and individuals need to find that balance in their lives and need to live in a more sustainable way, businesses and organizations corporate organizations have a very critical role to play in this for a number of reasons. First of all because the impacts on the environment are potentially more significant.

Organizations have greater tendency to use more resources. Organizations have a greater tendency to impact on the environment most significantly organizations have have a tendency to affect those interactions between profit and planet and in a way that the planet could be compromised for the purpose of making more profits. So the challenge of sustainability therefore is perhaps more significant for corporate organizations, for businesses and for organizations and that what we like to refer to as a challenge of the corporate sustainability challenge. How to keep organizations behaving and performing in such a way that people's values, the social foundations of our society are protected. People still have food and there's equity, there's justice people should have resources provided for them and our planet is not destroyed but also so that those those organizations would also be making profit especially if they are businesses because that's the reason businesses exist primarily isn't it, to make profit and to be able to continue to be a sustainable business in that sense going forward so that's the sustainability challenge okay and what that means therefore is that organizations need people. Organizations need professionals who can help them steer that direction, who can help them become such sustainable, if you like, organizations. Become organizations who can make profit to be profitable organizations without destroying the environment and without destroying the social foundations upon which our societies are built. So to be this individual. So those individuals require specific skills beyond the skills of just being able to solve biophysical environmental problems. They need specific skills that include business skills and leadership. So being able to spot opportunities for change in culture, being able to to make a business case within an organization. Being able to be creative and innovative and to be flexible and leading and driving change and helping organizations change in that way. So those business skills and leadership skills become very critical now for those individuals to have but also collaboration skills. The ability to not just work with people of like mind or people of of similar skills but being able to network across departments or areas within organizations and work in teams and create allies and be able to create, to put pressure in the right way, on parts of an organization that could lead to change, being able to listen and collect views and use those views to drive the sustainability change within organizations. These are skills that are needed for organizations to become sustainable and these skills need to be possessed and need to be heard by people who will drive the sustainability change within organizations. Being able to tailor messages in a specific way and repackage those messages depending on the audience. Being able to influence both within and without an organization for the purpose of driving sustainability change within organizations and also having the technical knowledge that is needed. Having a technical knowledge that is needed to make a sustainability case. To develop a program for environmental management to be able to develop programs for training within organizations. Being able to get things done and be resilient through the process. These are all skills that are needed by the sustainability and environmental management professional who will be able to drive sustainability change within an organization and that's why we've created the MSc Sustainability and Environmental Management program as a program that is relevant to the current needs of organizations to become sustainable organizations who can deal with the biophysical challenges, the environmental challenges that they are causing but also look into the future and transform themselves into sustainable organizations. That's the reason we've created the MSc Sustainability and Environmental Management. To be an innovative program. A program that uses innovative teaching and assessment technology and providing real life experiences and opportunities for students so that even if you are studying online you are able to solve real problems. It's not a program where you just acquire knowledge, head knowledge about the issues but you have opportunities throughout the program to solve problems, to deal with these issues as you deal with them if you were working already within an organization. The program also provides opportunities for the development of of digital skills and employability skills and as a matter of fact for every assessment you complete on the program, part of the feedback you receive is an acknowledgement and a reinforcement of the digital skills you've developed by completing that assessment or that you need to develop and get better in using as part of studying on the program. It's a program that is flexible because it's delivered online, gives you the option to study at your own time studying your own place and as a result most of our students are in full-time employment but they do make the time to study and are able to study on the program because of the flexibility that the program affords and then finally the program is accredited by arguably the largest environmental management and sustainability body in the world IEMA, the institute for environmental management and assessment and also the chartered institute for water and environmental management and I'll be telling you a few more things about these accreditations as we proceed. So that is why this is the program that we've developed that's all the features of this program as we've developed it in response to the sustainability challenge and more specifically the corporate sustainability challenge, with the aims of developing professionals whose role first of all be able to solve biophysical environmental problems in a sustainable way so this is the typical environmental management or these are the typical environmental management skills which an environmental management professional would have. They would be able or they should be able to solve biophysical environmental problems but going ahead because this program goes beyond that to equip students with the skills and the knowledge and abilities they need to be able to embed sustainability within organizations so by studying this program you would not just develop the skills and knowledge expertise you need to solve biophysical and problems but you would also be able to lead sustainability change within an organization. You'll be able to drive sustainability cultural change within an organization and we believe that this is where this program stands out as a program that develops sustainability and environmental management professionals. So what would you be studying? How would you develop these skills to solve biophysical environmental problems and to embed sustainability within organizations? I'll just run through the modules that are available on the program but obviously and this is an overview. I won't be able to go into all the content that you will be studying on your programs. For your first year which is the postgraduate certificate level you will be studying International Environmental Policy and Law and the names of these modules are quite explicit. They tell you what the modules contain so as the name implies you will be studying environmental policy and law but from an international perspective so if you're not a UK student or you don't practice or live in the UK, we are a UK university, you have the opportunity to study environmental policy and law from where you were from where you live and one of the advantages of this program also is that we have students from all over the world and so you have that opportunity to interact with with those students and learn about environmental legislation from their parts of the world. A second module at the postgraduate certificate level is called Tools for Delivering Sustainable Solutions for Environmental Problems and in this module we discuss and you practice the use of environmental management tools ranging from environmental impact assessment environmental auditing environmental management skills and so on environmental management systems and so on and so forth and like I said earlier it's not just the head knowledge but you do have a hands-on experience. We use some innovative technologies including virtual reality to get you to audit environments as you will do if you were in person and finally at the postgraduate certificate level is the Sustainable Business Management module. Now this is a module where you are encouraged you to think like someone who is already working within an organization and to think of ways that you can drive sustainability change within that organization. We discuss some peculiarities about businesses and the challenges of driving sustainability change within an organization. You get the opportunity to make a business case, you get the opportunity to communicate your developed sustainability program within or to specific parts of an organization so to practice some of the sustainability skills I mentioned earlier. When you finish your first year, when you finish your postgraduate certificate level you move on to the postgraduate diploma level which is where you have a bit of flexibility and the option of choosing three out of five modules. Now these five modules are Global Resource Management, as the name implies it is what it is so it is what you would call the old waste management module but we come to the discussion of waste and with the mindset of waste as a resource and you also have your option to study Pollution Assessment and Remediation and Low Carbon Energy Management, Ecology and Conservation and Environmental Impact Assessment. So these are five option modules from which you can choose any three to study across your second year and finally upon completion of your postgraduate diploma level you you would be completing an Independent Scholarly Activity which is your research module. A triple module which you will study over three trimesters and basically involves the selection of the problem, the identification of a problem, an environmental management or sustainability problem and you would work with your assigned supervisor to use a methodology that you've identified, to research that problem and come up with a written document. You have a few options again this is where this program stands out because we don't only encourage you to to write a traditional thesis it's traditional ten thousand word thesis, that is an option, you can write a traditional ten thousand word thesis but you've also got the option to produce an academic paper for publication. I think that is quite unique for this program and we do have students who have studied with us and gone ahead to publish the papers which they wrote as as an outcome of the Independent Scholarly Activity. You've also got the opportunity to produce a report for your organization so if there is a challenge or problem which your organization is currently grappling with you can decide to use your one year Independent Scholarly Activity module to research that problem and produce a report for your organization so that you're not just getting an academic achievement but you're also solving a real problem or you're leaving the program having published an academic paper and that's something which we think is quite peculiar and unique to this program. So those are the modules which you will be studying on the program. Now if you wanted to have a taster of what the modules look like and you didn't want to make the decision straight away to come into or commit to studying the the entire MSc, we have a few standalone modules which you could study and get the 20 credits at level 7 upon successfully completing the module and of course if you do decide to come on to the MSc eventually after completing the standalone module, those module credits will be transferred onto the programme so you will not need to repeat the module which you have completed and this module is Environmental Impact Assessment, International Environmental Policy and Law, Sustainable Business Management and Tools for Delivering Sustainable Solutions to Environmental Problems. So you could take any of these modules as a CPD as a standalone CPD module and upon completion of it and you can walk away with your 20 credits or decide to stay back and roll onto the MSc and complete the the program. This is an option that quite a few students take to understand our learning environment, to understand how we teach and what the modules look like before they make the full commitment to study or some people just take these modules because it's an area that they've identified that they need some professional development and they just take the module and walk away at the end of it. Now what will you study? What does it look like studying with us? So each 20 credit module is made up of 10 units and the 20 credit modules are studied over 10 weeks so you study one unit per week. Each unit looks at a specific aspect of the module contents and you've got readings, you've got activities, you've got formative assessments which you'll be expected to complete while you're studying. You will work collaboratively using online discussion forums and journals so we don't just send you resources to go away and study on your own, we've got discussion forums where you engage with the tutors you engage with other students. We've also got weekly drop-in sessions where a tutor is available to interact with you, provide you feedback on maybe an ongoing assessment or content which you are studying and have not fully come to terms with and at the end of each module or within each module there are summative assessments which you are assessed on and these determine the outcome that you get at the end of the module. Now I mentioned earlier that the program is accredited by the Institute for Environmental Management and Assessment and some of the benefits of IEMA accreditation, bearing in mind that IEMA is the largest professional body for environmental and sustainability professionals in the world, so the fact that the program is accredited by IEMA means that IEMA has looked at the content which the program offers and also the way the program is delivered and has agreed to put its badge on the program making a statement that this program equips and develops environmental management and sustainability professionals or who have the skills and knowledge that the industry require so you can come into this program within with the confidence that what you will be studying is what employers out there need environmental management and sustainability professionals to know and be able to do but also because the program is accredited by IEMA. By studying on the program you have access to events webinars free of charge to you, you have resources and publications which are free to you from IEMA, you are able to network with other IEMA members, some at your level but also some at different levels of professional practice. You do get free student membership as a student on an IEMA accredited degree.

So upon completion of your program you have an an easy way to move on to the next level of IEMA membership which is the graduate membership because you've studied an IEMA accredited program. It's an automatic graduation for you on to the IEMA graduate membership and also if you have the relevant experience you can easily move on to IEMA practitioner level.

The program is also accredited by the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management. So what this means is that you also get free membership depending on where you think your profession is going or your interests. This could also be of interest to you and it it also equips you with, provides you with a lot of resources. You've got the free student membership which gives you access to resources, helps you build your professional network and also gives you that professional recognition and when you put that professional body membership on your on your CV. Similarly to IEMA you also get graduate membership of CIWEM upon completion of the program.

Now in addition to the lectures which we provide as part of the program, we make it a point of duty to provide guest lectures, we like to call them voices of industry, from current practitioners. Some of us work within industry as consultants but we also go that extra mile to bring in practising professionals to come in and talk to you on the program and these are examples of some talks or some guests which we've had in the past. We've had Harry Sealy. Harry is currently the environment and sustainable manager at Jacobs, Qatar and he's a fellow of the Institute for Environmental Management and Assessment and also the lead for IEMA in that part of the world and we've also got a few other guest speakers which we've had in the last couple of years. We also host a Sustainability in Practice conference for students, which gives you an opportunity. Now this is a conference which is open to to all students at the university and as a sustainability and environmental management student, it gives you an opportunity to interact with students from other programs and test your knowledge by presenting at the conference because you're a sustainability professional or an aspiring sustainability professional. Now these are some examples of the contents which you will find on on our module pages which you would study.

Most of these, most of the content is interactive. That's the point. I like to make here so we don't just provide you text for you to read, we'll provide you content that you can interact with and the first box there, there's a question there which you would answer and you check your answer to see if it's correct so it's that interaction which you would, an ongoing interaction and second one there is a video we've also got things like this which you would interact with images which you can click on and reveal content behind them like case studies and which you can interact with as you study. Well this is quite an interesting one, an interesting interactive course content. We use this as as an auditing activity it gives you an opportunity to go through a 360 video as if you were in the room and spot issues, environmental management issues as if you were auditing that room in person so we use quite a range of interactive tools across across the program in different modules both for teaching and for assessment and this is what these are. Some data on what some of our students think about the program so 100% of our students agree that the course is intellectually stimulating, 91% agree that the timetable fits well with other commitments and this is quite important when you consider that a lot of students on the program are in full-time work and have to fit studying around their other commitments. 100% agree there is appropriate access to online library resources and this is data from a PTES survey, a postgraduate taught experience survey in 2021.

It's interesting to know that we have students from all over the world. We have students from every continent literally and this is good because it exposes you first of all it lets you know that the content you would be studying is relevant to wherever you're practising and but also it exposes you to, gives you the opportunity to interact with sustainability and environmental management professionals from different parts of the world and in case you're asking what opportunities are there for you upon completing the program. That the range of job opportunities which our past students have walked into, in fact some students while still studying on the program are able to change jobs. We have people who come on the program because they're not yet in the sustainability field but by studying on the program they're able to get into a sustainability role and some of these roles that the people have gotten are sustainability consultant, you have people who have become environmental managers and so on and we have people who have gained employment with the united nations for example. Someone got an employment with the united nations environment program while still studying with us because of the experience they have gotten from studying on the program. You can also progress onto a PhD if you wanted to research a particular issue. You can do that. There is opportunity to to complete a PhD online and if that was something you wanted to do but perhaps most significantly is that you are in a position to drive sustainability change wherever you find yourself because of the skills and the knowledge that you would have developed by studying on the program. Now because this is an online program we're quite proud of our cloud campus which is where everything is located. This is literally where you would be studying. It's all housed in one place and you're able to access all the resources you need. Just a few tips if you're thinking about coming to study with us, some tips that would help you succeed if you come on the program. It's important that you create the space you need to study, we advise that you protect around 20 hours per week to study. That's what you need to complete one unit of the module materials. We encourage you to bear in mind that you will need to regularly engage and interact with your peers on the discussion forums and also with your academics, with your tutors. There will be email messages, there'll be announcements from the module and program pages which you will need to keep up to date. Some of them will be for information purposes some of them you will need to respond to and engage with. It's very important that you access your university email because that's where all the communication will be centred and you've also got to keep in touch with your learning portal and that's where you receive all the relevant information from the university and also some from the modules specifically that you are studying. Very very importantly that you don't leave your assessment submission of your assignment to the very last minute because summative assessments have hard deadlines which you must submit by and missing a deadline has penalties. So you've got to work towards submitting your assessments by the deadline and considering that this is all online and to save you the trouble of equipment malfunction or internet issues or IT challenges it's always best to complete your work on time and upload them in good time so that if there are any issues or any challenges you're able to resolve them before the deadline. Now you would have an online community while studying with us and this would include the discussion forum which I've mentioned a few times and some of the things that would happen on that discussion forum include your learning activities on each module. Your learning activities will direct you to a discussion forum where you might go to answer a question, where you might go to post an experience or share an experience, share your thoughts or research findings or respond to what your colleagues have said. We've also got a cafe forum where you can just chat away with colleagues and then frequently ask questions for where you can ask questions or go to view questions which others have asked and which may well be questions that you are asking as well. Email of course is a way that you can communicate both with fellow students and also with tutors and all the support services that are available at the university. Now with the system on which we teach, the VLE, the virtual learning environment which we teach on is called blackboard and as part of blackboard there's blackboard collaborate where we hold live sessions, where the teacher would be there and there would be fellow students as well but you can have interaction sometimes it's content led, sometimes it's a drop-in session where you just come in with your questions and chat now depending on the module, the frequency of this would vary but you can be sure of one live session per week for most modules and you also have live sessions around introduction to the module, welcoming you into the module, but also welcoming you onto the program and also for each assessment you will have a dedicated live session where assessment is discussed in significant detail and the brief is explained and any questions you have is answered. Now bearing in mind that we have students from all over the world it's almost impossible to have a time which is suitable for everybody and that's why these live sessions are always recorded okay so we record these live sessions and if you're unable to attend live you can watch them and come back with any questions you may have and for telephones, so you can ring tutors as well during their office hours and if they're able to take the call they can take the call but you can leave a message and they'll get back to you and we've also got for most of our teachers will give you access to our calendar so you can book in a meeting and meet with with us to discuss any issues around your studies. But beyond the academic support which you get from the program lead like myself and module leaders and the personal tutor you would have a professional academic tutor you've also got fellow students on the course who you can talk to. You've got a dedicated team of pastoral support staff who we call online learning advisors so these will be there to provide you with pastoral support and in fact they would be the ones who would help you with your enrolment even before you get onto the module and if you have issues around finance or sorting out your finance issues or well-being they will be the ones who signpost you to the right places to get the support that you need and other student services include student well-being and we've got the library but a robust library which I'll talk a bit more about. There is a careers department, career as an employability department and also the Union of Students who you can talk to for additional support. As a student on the program you have free access to Microsoft Office 365 which gives you up to one terabyte of cloud storage to store your resources and your materials while you're studying with us so that's quite a good resource to help you with that. You've got 24/7 access to your student portal and the virtual learning environment as long as you're enrolled on a module. Now the library. You've got an online library of course there is a physical library so if you're close to Derby you can access the physical library but as an online student and most of our online students use the e-library resources more often and for each module you would have online reading lists and links to online books and journals so you can access those directly from within the modules. There is a library service and a dedicated subject librarian who has expertise in the subject area and who can help you with finding resources you need to help you with the library and research skills you need and other things like referencing and avoiding plagiarism and so on and so forth. The subject librarians also organize live sessions which you can attend and ask any questions you have and we make it a point of duty as well to invite the subject librarian onto the program to talk to you about how to maximize your access to the library so this is just an example of what the library looks like and so you have a catalogue there that you can look at. There are journals, we've got databases which you have access to, you can find your reading lists for the specific modules you are studying and then you can if you wanted to come onto campus. You'll be able to book a space to study, attend workshops and so on. And these are just some examples of some e-resources which we have available as part of the resources which you have access to for free as a student on the program and this is always a happy moment, that even if you've studied online from all over the world when you come to the end of your studies you can travel down to Derby and graduate on campus. So this is always a great time and for for some of us as lecturers the first time we get to meet some students who have been interacting with online for the first time so it's always a great time and something that you can look forward to but at the end of every year there is an interesting graduation service which you can attend. So you've listened to me for for the past few minutes and and hopefully you've gained some more information about the program. What are the next steps for you? If this program is something that you would like to come on, if the aims of the program appeal to you and you think that the skills and the expertise and competencies which we aim to develop in you align with your professional goals then you might want to look at the entry criteria for the programs. So what do we need you to have and what do we need you to know? I didn't mention but if you are a practitioner IEMA member already you get to skip the postgraduate certificate level and if you've also got experience if you've got experience of working in the sustainability environmental management sector we'll be happy to look at your experience and see if your experience meets the learning outcome of some of the modules which we teach and if you already know some of the things which we teach we are happy to exempt you from studying some of those modules. So that's about the entry criteria and also you want to look at the cost, fees what would it cost you to study with us. It's interesting to know we've got payment plans so you don't have to pay everything up front. The online advisors will be happy to advise you or the admissions team will advise you on available payment plans and then you take it from there see if it's something that appeals to you. The website details on the website will include when the next intake is happening so go to derby.ac.uk/online and get those details and then get on applying if all of these appeals to you. So I'd like to thank you for watching this recording and I hope you found it useful. We look forward to hearing from you if you've got any questions about admissions please feel free to and email udolenquiries@derby.ac.uk and you can also visit the website and then we look forward to seeing you soon. Thank you

Dr Uche Oke introduces the MSc Sustainability and Environmental Management video

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