The Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) in Sustainable Development is an honours-level qualification and comprises of eight taught modules that can be completed over one or two years. The programme is presented at venues on Stellenbosch University main campus and external venues in and around Stellenbosch and Cape Town.
The programme is aimed at working professionals, activists and practitioners, and recent graduates who want to strengthen their engagement with current sustainability thinking, research and practice.
The PGDip provides the entry point into the CST’s wider research and postgraduate training environment. Students who graduate from the PGDip and are eager to continue their academic research training can apply for the MPhil in Sustainable Development, and thereafter the PhD in Sustainable Development.
Programme overview and audience
The PGDip will deepen your understanding and knowledge of sustainable development ambitions and challenges during this time of global transition. The programme offers collaborative learning and advanced reflection, and both personal and professional development opportunities in the emerging fields of sustainability transitions and transformations.
Sustainability transitions and transformations is an evolving field of scholarly inquiry and practice. It is directly applicable to students who are working professionals, practitioners and activists across diverse sectors of society. The content and approach to teaching, learning and assessment in this programme is tailored to making sustainability studies relevant to a global audience while being rooted in an African context, enriching and applicable to a diverse student cohort who are interested in understanding and making change where they are.
Many students encounter sustainability concerns in their communities or at their places of work which prompt them to apply to our programme in the hope of making a greater impact and advancing professionally. Our teaching, learning and assessment approach nurtures students’ resourcefulness, self-awareness and creativity, and cultivates an enlivened sense of how positionality, power, justice and equity inform how, where and with whom they act. Our curriculum promotes inner growth and transformation in addition to delving deeply and broadly into social-ecological change.
Curriculum
The programme consists of eight modules reflecting the core research areas of the CST, which speak to the heart of our global polycrisis in the ways that students approach challenges and solutions. Modules provide a global perspective on sustainability transitions and transformations while delving into the dynamics and trends across biodiversity and climate change, just energy transitions, water and food nexus, and sustainable urbanisms. The programme also emphasises complexity literacy, governance and institutional change, and leadership and ethics to support just and sustainable futures.
Case studies, field trips and immersive experiences allow students an opportunity to connect with local initiatives experimenting with sustainability challenges. The teaching, learning and assessment approach facilitates rigorous theoretical engagement to internationally relevant bodies of knowledge alongside considered application of knowledge to a diverse range of contexts.
Modules:
- Sustainable development: exploring global perspectives on sustainability transitions and transformations
- Complexity theory and systems thinking: cultivating complexity literacies
- Biodiversity and ecosystem services: unpacking biodiversity and climate change
- Renewable energy finance: financing just energy transitions
- Food system transitions: exploring the water and food nexus
- Sustainable cities: towards just and sustainable urbanisms
- Globalisation, governance and development: facilitating governance and institutional change
- Leading transitions and socio-ecological ethics: leadership for sustainability transitions and transformations
Admission requirements and selection process
Admission into the PGDip is possible via two routes:
Option 1: Any bachelor’s or BTech degree or a relevant four-year diploma with a 65% pass mark in one of the following major subjects. Relevant work experience will also be considered for admission.
Option 2: If you wish to apply to the programme on the merit of recognition of prior learning (RPL) for access are required to have any tertiary three-year programme of formal studies (NQF level 6) and five years’ working experience. Your qualifications and experience must comply with the recognition of prior learning (RPL) regulations of the University, the Faculty, and the Centre for Sustainability Transitions, respectively.
The number of students selected will be influenced by, among other things, staff capacity and the availability of resources within the Centre, as well as academic merit and University transformation objectives. As staff capacity and resources may fluctuate from year to year, the number of students selected can also differ from year to year. Further detail about the selection process can be found in the Yearbook.
Contact information
Dr Megan Davies, PGDip programme leader, megandavies@sun.ac.za
Ntobsie Ngcwenga, PGDip programme administrative officer, ngcwenga@sun.ac.za