UNIGIS Sub Saharan Africa October 2013 - new Intake

UNIGIS Sub Saharan Africa would like to welcome the new intake beginning in October 2013. 30 students are going to start with their UNIGIS Professional and MSc studies in Geographical Information Science and Systems.   

Byron Usswald, Innocentia Gumede and Odwa Mendile

Byron Usswald stated “I chose UNIGIS as it is the leader in GIS education as far as I'm concerned. I didn't want to merely become qualified, I wanted to distinguish myself from the pack.” Innocentia Gumede said she was very excited to get started. Odwa Mendile stated: "UNIGIS will transform me into a spatially skilled young professional. I shall do wonderfs for my local municipality where I work as a GIS Technician." 

We wish all these students all the best in their studies!

Your UNIGIS Sub Saharan Africa Team

 

 

UNIGIS: Geospatial Capacity Building at AGF'13 in Kuala Lumpur

UNIGIS was invited to contribute to the Asia Geospatial Forum 2013 held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 24th to 26th September, 2013 and conduct a 'Geospatial Capacity Building and Student Forum' for bringing together academia, industry, organisations and students at a common platform for face-to-face interaction. The AGF is one of the biggest regional GIS conferences in S/E Asia and has been organised in a different country every year since 2003. UNIGIS has been entrusted with a prominent role at the event since 2005.

Dr. Shahnawaz (Director, UNIGIS S/E Asia) represented UNIGIS and gave the lead presentation setting-up the overall framework as well as moderated the forum involving about 40 participants. The opening session was devoted to a panel discussion including distinguished experts from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. They exchanged their experiences and visionary ideas about Geospatial education in the ASEAN region. This was followed by a session dedicated to students  presenting their ongoing Master / Ph.D. level research.

The forum concluded with a vibrant open-floor discussion where a majority of students expressed that the courses related to Geospatial education offered by several educational institution in the region are not up to the mark. On the other side, teachers expressed their frustration about a lack of support for updating the standards of their GIS laboratories.

It was widely recognised that there is a need of forming a network for knowledge and resource sharing and, perhaps, UNIGIS is an appropriate leader in this direction!

2013 UNIGIS class starting at Madras, India

The 3rd intake of MSc and professional certificate students at UNIGIS@Madras University, India started its UNIGIS studies from 2nd September, 2013. Dr. Shahnawaz (Director UNIGIS S/E Asia) and Dr. R. Jaganathan (Coordinator UNIGIS@Madras) conducted a 2 days online orientation workshop with the 11 new students on 31st August and 1st September. These candidates were introduced to the UNIGIS mode of online distance education in Geographical Information Science and Systems as well as given a detailed orientation about learning management, assessment and available resources.

All these students are excited to embark upon a unique experience of achieving their international academic qualification by studying and completing an international online distance learning programme.

UNIGIS at HealthGIS 2013 in Bangkok!

UNIGIS was invited to contribute to a GIScience capacity building workshop at the 5th International  Conference on HealthGIS held in Bangkok, Thailand from 21st to 23rd August, 2013. Dr Shahnawaz (Director UNIGIS S/E Asia) conducted the workshop entitled 'GIScience Education and Training - the Need for Health Professionals' which was attended by more than 30 participants having their disciplinary background in a range of subjects, however a large majority came from various areas of health related fields either by education or by professional engagements.

An extended discussion focussed on the issue that conventionally health professionals are not taught / trained to use geospatial data, technologies and tools. These are becoming increasingly important for understanding the dynamics of several illnesses and diseases. They also expressed that they have rarely come across a GIScience education / training programme designed to fulfíll the needs of the health professionals.

The overall conclusion of the workshop was that there is a pressing need of developing and introducing short duration GIScience education / training programmes specifically designed for health professionals. A nearly unanimous proposal from the audience suggested that an international organisation like UNIGIS should take initiative in this direction, because it has well established experience of designing, developing and offering innovative online distance learning programmes in GIScience and -Systems.

UNIGIS Week in Kathmandu, Nepal!

UNIGIS@Kathmandu celebrated the 1^st year of its inception at Kathmandu Forestry College (KAFCOL) during the week of 12^th to 16^th August, 2013. The event was inaugurated with a meeting of the Board of Studies attended by Dr. Ramji P. Neupane (KAFCOL President), Dr. Bishnu H. Pandit (KAFCOL Principal), Dr. Krishna P. Poudel (UNIGIS Coordinator) and Dr. Shahnawaz (Director, UNIGIS S/E Asia). The board reviewed the progress of UNIGIS during the last year and appraised the overall strategy for further expansion during the next years.

 Dr. Shahnawaz and Dr. Krishna P. Poudel conducted 2 intensive workshops, including an orientation workshop for 12 new students of the 2^nd intake as well as a Project Management and Master Thesis workshop for 2^nd year students of the UNIGIS MSc programme.

The event concluded with a meeting of the Instructors of UNIGIS@Kathmandu leading to a vibrant discussion session with the current and incoming UNIGIS students.