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Postgraduate Certificate in Environmental Management

Environmental management is becoming increasingly important to everyone, whether at work, in the community or at home – from complying with environmental legislation to addressing the global challenges of climate change and energy conservation. This course addresses the everyday concerns of environmental protection, natural resource management and rapidly changing environmental legislation and policy. You will explore biophysical, social, political and economic factors from local to global level, and develop the skills you need to participate creatively in the process of improving environmental performance in your own context.

Key features of the course

  • Widens your knowledge of the environment and develops your skills in making informed decisions about environmental issues.
  • Approaches environmental decision making from a systems viewpoint.
  • Considers how to assess and manage sustainability in an organisation and work towards a more sustainable future.

This certificate is the first stage of a study programme that progresses to a postgraduate diploma and finally a masters degree. You can step off at any point, or study the whole programme.

Certificate

Course code
K19
Credits

Credits

  • Credits measure the student workload required for the successful completion of a module or qualification.
  • One credit represents about 10 hours of study over the duration of the course.
  • You are awarded credits after you have successfully completed a module.
  • For example, if you study a 60-credit module and successfully pass it, you will be awarded 60 credits.
60
How long it takes
Minimum – 1 year
Read more about how long it takes
Study method
Distance learning
Course cost
See Fees and funding
Entry requirements

Find out more about entry requirements.

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Course details

Modules

To gain this qualification, you need 60 credits as follows:

60 credits from:

Module Credits Next start
Making environmental decisions (T891)

This module teaches you to use a systems framework to integrate environment with other considerations when making decisions in complex environmental management situations.

See full description

Register
 30 01 Nov 2023
Sustainable organisations: theory and practice (T892)

This module provides the background knowledge and a practical skill-set to lead the way in transforming or creating sustainable organisations of the future.

See full description

Register
 30 01 May 2023
Or, subject to the rules about excluded combinations, the discontinued modules T863 and T867.

You should note that the University’s unique study rule applies to this qualification. This means that you must include at least 20 credits from OU modules that have not been counted in any other OU qualification that has previously been awarded to you.

Learning outcomes, teaching and assessment

The learning outcomes of this qualification are described in four areas:

  • Knowledge and understanding
  • Cognitive skills
  • Practical and professional skills
  • Key skills
Read more detailed information about the learning outcomes.

Credit transfer

For this qualification, we do not allow you to count credit for study you have already done elsewhere. If you intend to study for a postgraduate diploma and also apply for credit transfer towards the diploma you are advised not to claim the postgraduate certificate as you will then not fulfil unique study requirements for the diploma.

On completion

On successfully completing this course, we’ll award you our Postgraduate Certificate in Environmental Management. You’ll be entitled to use the letters PG Cert Env Mgmt (Open) after your name.

You can progress from this Postgraduate Certificate in Environmental Management to our Postgraduate Diploma in Environmental Management (E79) or our MSc in Environmental Management (F65).

Regulations

As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the qualification-specific regulations below and the academic regulations that are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website. 

We regularly review our curriculum; therefore, the qualification described on this page – including its availability, its structure, and available modules – may change over time. If we make changes to this qualification, we’ll update this page as soon as possible. Once you’ve registered or are studying this qualification, where practicable, we’ll inform you in good time of any upcoming changes. If you’d like to know more about the circumstances in which the University might make changes to the curriculum, see our Academic Regulations or contact us. This description was last updated on 15 March 2022.

Entry requirements

You should normally hold a bachelors degree in a science or engineering discipline from a UK university, or the equivalent.

If you do not have a technical degree you will need to be adequately prepared for postgraduate study in this area. You will be required to write technical essays and reports at a high level, carry out calculations using logarithms and the exponential function, analyse numerical data, and understand and apply scientific principles in relation to chemical reactions, biological processes and energy conversion.

If you are unsure whether your previous study or experience will sufficiently prepare you for this qualification, please contact us for further advice.

Your spoken and written English must be of an adequate standard for postgraduate study. If English is not your first language, we recommend that you will need a minimum overall score of 6 and minimum score of 5.5 in each of the four components: reading, writing, speaking and listening under the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Please see the IELTS website for details.

Our badged open course, Succeeding in postgraduate study, will introduce you to the nature of masters-level study. It offers essential preparation for pursuing your learning at this level – and is free.

How long it takes

The minimum time to complete is 1 year. The maximum time to complete is 8 years.

Career relevance

Our environmental management programme is for people who are interested in designing, managing and participating in more effective environmental decision-making 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 on 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.

Careers and Employability Services have more information on how OU study can improve your employability.