UTECH Launches Built Environment Graduate Programmes

The University Of Technology (UTech), on Thursday (November 7), launched its Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programmes across five disciplines in its Built Environment Faculty.

Both graduate programmes will be available in the specialised areas of architecture, environmental sustainability and climate change, construction technology and management, geomatics and geoinformatics, and urban and rural land management.

The university’s latest offering, which currently has its first cohort of 11 students, was unveiled during UTech’s second International Built Environment Conference at the institution’s Papine campus in St. Andrew.

Faculty Dean, Dr. Garfield Young, told JIS News the members are “extremely excited” about the launch.

“The primary goal of the programme is to provide world-class researchers and instructors to deliver solutions and applications for the benefit of communities, governments, international partners and industry with built environment sustainability and resilience to alleviate poverty and to help save lives,” he explained.

Dr. Young said identifying solutions for local, regional and global issues in this vein “can only come if we are informed about what is happening”.

“So we need people who are very serious about dedicating four years to researching very specific issues relating to the built environment… and that is what this programme offers,” he further said.

According to Dr. Young, UTech has primarily been focused on preparing industry-ready graduates, rather than research.

He contended, however, that ever-changing global developments necessitated changes to the scenario.

“We need to be way more innovative and to come up with solutions to real problems, like climate change, which is very unpredictable. We are in an age where things are happening… and we just have to research to understand it,” Dr. Young further said.