curriculum
A one year Mini-Master, Certificate #1 is the normal endeavor and accomplishment. Twenty four credit hours are required; twelve hours per semester is a normal student load. A UTEP course is required on Entrepreneurial Geosciences each semester, and a short, detailed, research product of relevant interest caps the second semester. Thus it is known as the Mini-Master’s Certificate. A second required course is your participation in the Edumine or AAPG professional development web courses, for UTEP credit. Elective credit hours comprise one half of the Program. These courses will be directed towards enhancing the breadth and depth of the entrepreneurial aspects of your professional activities, with the help of your Advisor.
Attached is a possible outline of a two semester activity for a student.
It is acknowledged and encouraged that the student body of the CEGS Program be made up of individuals of diverse professional backgrounds. Decision making as to what electives to take is very important. One option is to build where you are less knowledgeable or weakest, and the other option is to build out and enhance your recognized strengths. Our opinion would be to do some of both options, depending on how opportunities present themselves, but we are most interested in expanding your breadth.
Fall Semester, potential courses
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Credit hours
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Spring Semester, potential courses
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Credit hours
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Comments
- Entrepreneurial Geoscience courses provide broad knowledge and constant challenges.
Students will solve problems in financial, technical, and social confrontations. Oral and written accounts are required.
A limited number of outside speakers will participate. - Edumine and AAPG type web courses.
150 different professional development courses are available at this educational website, and CEGS-UTEP has a license. These are excellent courses, and you will undoubtedly find numerous topics of which you want to learn more. This UTEP course provides you this opportunity, and your Advisor will help you with your decisions on Edumine courses. AAPG type courses are encouraged.
3 & 4. Decision making on elective course selections is important, as stated above, and your Advisor will help.
These UTEP courses may be from the Colleges of Science, Engineering, and Liberal Arts, and must be relevant to the objectives agreed by you and your Advisor. Electives may be Business Risk Analysis, Contempory Cultures (Anthro), Environmental Regulation, Social Behavior, Structural Geology, Communications, Extractive Metallurgy, Water Quality, and many others.
Level 2 Certificate
Certain certificates require a lesser amount effort, and may be held at locations of choice. Examples follow.
Certificate for Anthropologists and Social Scientists and others
Social License is the permission given by a society to a company to proceed with industrial development. Whereas an Environmental Permit or license has regulatory specifics, the Social License may not be fully specified, but it should be thoroughly understood. Because numerous multibillion dollar mining development projects have been cancelled or postponed, this social license has become very important. Social license covers a broad range of issues, most of which are not easily quantifiable for engineers. Corporate efforts towards a positive social license should begin the day the first exploration geologist sets foot on the land. Trust among the corporation’s representatives, the host-country government, and the local population is essential for the smooth evolution of any mining project, and it has to be developed. In the industry, decision makers commonly have thought that their environmental requirements were their social requirements. This is not the case. This Certificate will document the opportunity to learn and develop ideas about Social License, and demonstrate expertise on the issue.
Certificate for Leaders, Policy Makers, and NGOs in Developing Countries
Natural resource nationalism is the expropriation of natural resources, minerals and oil. This happens in a variety of ways, often breaking legal contracts. A country may have acquired modernized resource exploration laws, encouraged investment, and later changed the law. Countries with current problems include Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Mongolia.
On the other hand, there are developing countries that may have yet to establish modern resource exploration laws, and question how the global exploration industry operates. They will benefit from knowledge of the risks and activities of global resource exploration. Certification activities may take place in various relevant countries.
This Certificate will document the opportunity to learn and develop ideas about Natural Resource Nationalism, and demonstrate expertise on the issue.
Level. 3 Certificate
(on line, no residency, only for future consideration)