Postgraduate Diploma in Environmental Management

The qualification provides opportunities for you to develop and demonstrate knowledge and understanding, qualities, skills and other attributes in the following areas:

Knowledge and understanding

When you have completed this qualification, you will have knowledge and understanding of:

• The concepts of sustainable development and safety health and environmental (SHE) management principles and how they integrate
• How perspectives, motivations and traditions affect environmental decision-making and environmental responsibility
• A wide range of environmental management tools and their use in improving the environmental performance of organisations.

Cognitive skills

When you have completed this qualification, you will be able to :

• Explore environmental issues systematically and systemically
• Critically evaluate the environmental impacts of organisations, processes and activities
• Distinguish between and critically examine factors influencing the environmental attitudes and behaviour of individuals and organisations
• Identify appropriate stakeholders in an environmental situation, assess their relative influences and examine the factors influencing their environmental attitudes and behaviour.

Practical and/or professional skills

When you have completed this qualification, you will be able to:

• Apply environmental management methods to improve the environmental performance of an organisation
• Develop guidelines for corporate social responsibility and corporate disclosure in an organisation
• Provide expertise in decision-making across an organisation
• Differentiate between and make appropriate use of evaluation and monitoring processes.

Key skills

When you have completed this qualification, you will be able to:

• Effectively communicate in written form ideas and arguments on the environment to lay and expert audiences
• Use numerical data to make and present quantitative assessments of environmental situations
• Advance your knowledge and understanding through independent learning and experience.

To gain this qualification, you need 120 credits as follows:

60 credits from:

• Making environmental decisions (T891)
• Sustainable organisations: theory and practice (T892)

Or subject to the rules about excluded combinations, the discontinued modules T863 and T867.

30 credits from:

• Environmental monitoring and protection (T868)

Or, subject to the rules about excluded combinations, the discontinued modules T878 and TD866

30 credits from:

• Advance your independent learning (YXM830)
• Environmental science challenges (S831)
• Making strategy with systems thinking in practice (TB871)
• Managing change with systems thinking in practice (TB872)
• Project management (M815)
• Technology innovation management (TB801)

Or, subject to the rules about excluded combinations, the discontinued modules D837, S825, T848, T869, T878, T889, TD866, TU811, TU870 and TUXX870

You should note that the University’s unique study rule applies to this qualification. This means that you must include at least 40 credits from OU modules that have not been counted in any other OU qualification that has previously been awarded to you.

Our environmental management programme is for people who are interested in designing, managing and participating in more effective environmental management processes. For example, if you are involved in setting up or responding to environmental or integrated management systems, planning new development projects or are trying to understand or manage sustainability.

Students in our environmental management programme are drawn from industry, commerce, local government, consultancies, non-governmental organisations and communities. They include people already involved in environmental management and those who wish to be - both personally and professionally.

You can select modules that are most relevant to your interests and career aspirations as your study builds from postgraduate certificate through diploma to our MSc.

This qualification will equip you with the skills and knowledge necessary to work in this expanding sector.