Education

Education and training are central to EPRU’s mandate. Research fellows involve themselves in teaching environmental and resource economics within UCT’s School of Economics, as well as in other departments at the university. They supervise Masters and PhD-level students, provide scholarships and funding, and offer students extensive infrastructural support.

Teaching at UCT

EPRU is strongly involved in the undergraduate and postgraduate teaching program, both within the School of Economics, and within UCT more widely. There are currently three key courses dedicated to the training and recruitment of students in the field of environmental economics:

• Third year undergraduate course in Natural Resource Economics
• Honours course in Environmental Economics
• Masters course in Natural Resource Economics

In addition, there are a number of environmental economics modules within other economics courses:

• Third year undergraduate course in Applied International Trade Bargaining
• Second year undergraduate course in Development Economics
• Third year undergraduate course in Public Sector Economics (environmental taxes)
• Honours course in Policy Analysis (economics of waste)
• Honours course in Development Economics
• Honours course in Economic Challenges in Africa

EPRU members also teach environmental issues to students from other departments within the university, including those in Conservation Biology, Marine Resources Fisheries Economics, and Applied Marine Science.

Graduate student supervision

EPRU provides graduate supervision to a large number of students across a broad range of research topics, including those with an interest in environmental economics, and those from other disciplines (e.g., engineering and zoology). This speaks to the interdisciplinary nature of the centre’s research, and the desire of students from many different backgrounds to incorporate environmental economics into their research.

EPRU postgraduates are encouraged to attend, and present their work at, the weekly seminars within the School of Economics to share their research and receive guidance from fellow researchers. EPRU students also benefit from exposure to the many important policy makers and researchers who collaborate with senior EPRU members.

Studying abroad

EPRU’s connection with the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economics, through the EfD network, allows younger researchers to access regular training courses and high-intensity academic courses organised by the University of Gothenburg and the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) in Venice. 

Scholarship programs

EPRU endeavours to offer financial support to students when needed. Individual fellows support their students on an ad hoc basis, and EPRU aims to have a range of funded research projects available in which students can locate their theses. Students are also able to apply for linked EfD-EPRU scholarships, funded by the EfD initiative.

Finally, EPRU strives to offer financial assistance beyond the PhD level. Project funding has enabled EPRU to host a number of post-doctoral fellows who have contributed significantly to the centre’s work, not only assisting on their funded projects, but also exploring new research ideas and initiating new projects.