Qualified environmental decision making

The founding Dean of The Open University's Faculty of Technology, on the launch of its postgraduate programme in Environmental Decision Making late in 1996, said this: "I felt that a concern for and systematic study of the social and environmental aspects of technology was essential. Certainly environmental problems were approachable only by means of systemic and interdisciplinary methods and I felt convinced that any faculty of technology that did not concern itself with such problems could not claim to be modern or responsible, whether socially or academically."


The programme has been established to meet the challenges of decision making in environmental contexts. The programme aims to meet the needs of specialists, managers and the public for postgraduate-level environmental education which can address the complexities of environmental issues. Everyday concerns of environmental protection, natural resource management and waste disposal, and rapidly changing environmental legislation and policy, are considered in global and local contexts.

Planning and development

The programme is for people who are concerned with designing and managing more effective decision-making processes which affect the environment, including those involved in EMS, planning new development projects – including technologies, programmes and policies – or working to improve existing development.

Students can choose their own time and place to study, and to some extent the pace at which they work. The programme offers three levels of qualification:

  • the Advanced Diploma in Environmental Decision Making;
  • the Postgraduate Diploma in Environmental Decision Making;
  • the MSc in Environmental Decision Making.
  • The programme has been designed so that applicants can enter through a range of routes depending on their previous educational background, and as such is open to both graduates and non-graduates.


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