The outcome of the ANCs long-awaited KwaZulu-Natal conference was a win for the Thuma Mina crowd. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
The world set itself an ambitious set of 17 global goals for development in 2015, including the eradication of extreme poverty and the containment of dangerous climate change. Negotiators at the Paris climate negotiations followed up on the latter with a far-reaching agreement. Much work still lies ahead, and it will require many highly knowledgeable yet sensitive individuals, capable of working in complex environments.
A master’s degree in an aspect of sustainable development, completed in an inter-disciplinary class, is fast becoming the standard entry point for employment in this dynamic and richly challenging field. The University of Cape Town (UCT) offers a range of such degree programmes, typically taken in cohorts of 10-20 students, and open both to recent graduates and mid-career professionals wishing to re-tool.
The flagship among these is the Master’s Programme in Climate Change and Sustainable Development, currently in its fifth cycle. Core courses in climate science, environmental economics, climate mitigation and adaptation are complemented by electives, and the dissertation can be done in any of UCT’s six faculties.
Infrastructure is both a key enabler of development and determinant of resource use and pollution. Master’s programmes catering to this need, with strong relevance to sustainable development and open to anyone with a four-year university degree, include those in sustainable energy engineering; energy and development studies; city and regional planning; design and management of urban infrastructure; and in public transport and land-use planning. Some of these programmes have been on offer for over a decade and jointly they have produced hundreds of graduates. As knowledge evolves, curricula are from time to time adapted and reformed.
As of 2017, the Faculty of Health Sciences will be offering a specialisation in environmental health within the Masters in Public Health Programme.
The difficult relationship between the mining industry and sustainable development is the subject of the Master’s Programme in Sustainable Mineral Resource Development, leading to a Master of Philosophy.
This programme, currently in its third cycle, was conceptualised as one of the offerings of the “Education for Sustainable Development in Africa” consortium of eight African universities and the UN University in Tokyo. At the second meeting of the consortium, recently held in Kumasi in Ghana, it became clear just how important and challenging it is that postgraduate education in this field be scaled up across the continent. UCT has been blazing the trail, and through its diverse Africa networks is ready to play a lead role in education that helps achieve the sustainable development goals.
Professor Harro von Blottnitz is a professor at the department of chemical engineering at the University of Cape Town