Overview
Humanitarian response, disaster risk reduction, development, sustainability, and climate adaptation have traditionally been aligned but separate sectors. As practitioners, we need to understand the relationships between the policies, programmes and projects that seek to address risks, develop preparedness and resilience, facilitate recovery and avoid interventions that may be unsustainable or exacerbate vulnerability.
This course is designed to offer an integrated, comprehensive and holistic approach to disaster management and long-term resilience in a global context, and aims to help you develop a high-level understanding of disaster management and resilience policy and practice upon successful completion. During the course, we will illustrate challenges through case studies and the application of traditional and innovative frameworks for analysis. You will also have the opportunity to assess the importance of communication, coordination and collaboration aspects in line with stakeholder management.
Our Learning Platform
We have partnered with FutureLearn, a leading social learning platform, to deliver online degrees to learners across the globe.
From short taster courses to postgraduate diplomas and certificates, and fully online degrees, the platform provides you with a seamless high-quality learning experience, on mobile, desktop and tablet. You can pay for each program in the degree as you go, making it possible to gain a qualification in a flexible and affordable way, to fit in with your lifestyle.
Flexibility
Short 2-week learning blocks combined with a pay-as-you-go payment modelValue
Spread the cost with our flexible pay-as-you-go payment optionsEmployability
Earn a full Coventry University degree upon successful completionCommunity
Truly international in scale, learn with over 8 million other users across the worldPartners
Academia, private sector, NGO/INGOs, local and national governments, practitioners
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Course information
There has never been a greater need for professionals who can unravel the complexities of risk, unsustainable development and ultimately disaster to help transform the way we work from policy to practice.
The Postgraduate Certificate in Disaster, Risk and Resilience provides the opportunity for you to gain up-to-date knowledge on various topics in disaster management and resilience, as well as develop your analytical and evaluative skills upon successful completion. During your study, you’ll have the chance to explore topics including humanitarian principles, community preparedness and the principles and methods for accountability, and the monitoring and evaluation of disaster interventions.
Modules
In more detail...
The Sendai framework and sustainable develop goals indicate a move in the right direction to reduce vulnerability and increase the capacity of those at risk from hazards and threats. However, as the disaster risk management capacity of national governments increases and national agencies are more able to deal with disasters, professionals from external agencies often find themselves supporting or dealing directly with the most complex events in the most fragile countries. Where traditional solutions have been exhausted, innovative and system-changing approaches are needed. There has never been a greater need for professionals who are able to unravel the complexities of risk, unsustainable development and ultimately a disaster, and transform the way we work from policy to practice.
This course will provide an opportunity to gain insights from a range of sector perspectives, a chance to further develop analytical and evaluative skills, and unpick the dynamic array of factors that contribute to risk and capacity building for organisations and communities, upon successful completion of the course.
All material is applied to real-world examples and practice and all assessments can be tailored to your experience and current or future work demands and career aspirations.
During your study, you’ll have the chance to explore topics including disaster, risk, resilience, adaptation and sustainability, humanitarian principles, community preparedness and disaster intervention.
The course is primarily designed to be studied part-time by students currently in employment, but is open to all.
To be awarded a postgraduate certificate, you must successfully complete four mandatory modules worth a total of 60 credits.
For each module, we provide engaging video lectures and a variety of interactive content and activities. The online contact between lecturers and colleagues aims to help you stay motivated and committed to learning.
This online course allows busy professionals to fit their studies around other commitments and maximise work-study balance.
This course will be assessed using a variety of methods, which could vary depending upon the module. Assessment methods include coursework, presentation, poster, group work etc.
The Coventry University Group assessment strategy ensures that our courses are fairly assessed and allows us to monitor student progression towards achieving the intended learning outcomes.
On successful completion, you should have knowledge of:
- A comprehensive evaluation of risk, its components and influencing factors, approaches to assessment, and prioritisation and organisational role in planning, managing and recovering from humanitarian crises and disasters.
- A detailed knowledge of policy and approaches for mitigating, preparing for, managing and recovering from crises, conflict and disasters for responding agencies, organisations and affected communities.
- A thorough comprehension of approaches to assessing complexity and interaction and developing, monitoring and evaluating resilience in processes, systems, organisations and communities at risk from known and emergent threats in a sustainable way.
- A detailed analysis of multi-stakeholder engagement, communication, co-operation and governance in all aspects of policy and strategy development, implementation and management, at all scales in disaster contexts.
- An ability to manage information, evaluate uncertainty, ambiguity and complexity in knowledge, method and management and to make appropriate and defensible decisions for managing complex disaster situations.
This course focuses on disaster management within an international context, drawing on case studies and the experience of agencies working across the globe. You will have opportunities to collaborate with students from around the world via our online platform FutureLearn*. The international nature of our course design and delivery team is designed to provide you with a diverse range of experiences from a global perspective.
*Please note that the platform provider may be subject to change.
Entry Requirements
| Module Code | Module Name | Credits | Fee per module |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7017EXQ | Disaster Risk, Resilience, Adaptation & Sustainability | 15 | £1,225.00 |
| 7019EXQ | Disaster Interventions, Evaluation and Learning | 15 | £1,225.00 |
| 7016EXQ | Humanitarian Principles, Preparedness & Response | 15 | £1,225.00 |
| 7087EXQ | Community Preparedness, Recovery and Resilience | 15 | £1,225.00 |
Career prospects
The course aims to enable you, upon successful completion, to have developed your skills in problem-solving, teamwork and leadership, project management and communication, all of which are qualities employers demand. Our part-time students are often sponsored by their employers and our previous graduates have gone on to work for a range of organisations, including, governments, NGOs and private sector organisations.
We strive to produce graduates who can make difficult decisions whilst being culturally sensitive, ethical and compassionate, the capabilities required by international relief and development organisations, private sector consultancies, national government, local authorities and United Nations agencies operating around the world.
Where our graduates work
Graduates from the on-campus version of this course have gone to work in the UK and in countries all over the world, including Denmark, Finland, Germany, Bangladesh, China, Pakistan, the United States and Canada. Some have taken up roles as planning officers, emergency planners, international humanitarian coordinator, disaster risk reduction analysts and deployable emergency response managers, while others have joined emergency services, public administration or pursued research and lecturing within education.
Disclaimer
By accepting your offer of a place and enrolling with Coventry University, a Student Contract will be formed between you and Coventry University. A copy of the student contract will be made available to you via the dedicated Admissions Teams, during the enquiry/application stage. The Contract details your rights and the obligations you will be bound by during your time as a student and contains the obligations that the University will owe to you. You should read the Contract before you accept an offer of a place and before you enrol with the University.
Postgraduate UK/EU students
The tuition fee for the course that is stated on the course webpage and in the prospectus will apply. If the duration of the course is longer than one academic year, we may increase the fee for each subsequent year of study but any such increases will be no more than inflation. Following the UK’s exit from the European Union, EU students should be aware that there may be a change to UK laws following the UK’s exit, this may change their student status, their eligibility to study part time, and/or their eligibility for student finance. We will act in accordance with the UK’s laws in force in relation to student tuition fees and finance from time to time.
Postgraduate international students
The tuition fee that is stated on the course webpage and in the prospectus for the first year of study will apply. We will review our tuition fees each year. For international students, we may increase fees for each subsequent year of study but such increases will be no more than 5% above inflation.
