South Africa

General Information:

There are three campuses under the University of Natal. These are Pietermaritzburg Campus, Durban Campus and Medical School Campus. It has 8 faculties, and there are 21 departments in the faculties.

Department in Focus:

A) Department of Geographical and Environmental Sciences

As part of the recent restructuring undertaken by the university the department of Geographical and Environmental Sciences has joined forces with the Biology department to form the school of life and Environmental Sciences. A consequence of this is that the department is now part of the science faculty.

The department offers both undergraduate and postgraduate degree. Postgraduate degrees by coursework are offered at the level of Honours and Masters. The hounors degree is awarded following the successful completion of course at the end of the fourth year study, the Masters degree following the successful completion of courses and a thesis at the end of the fifth year study.

The department has a fully functional GIS Laboratory, which has been designed to cater for the GIS needs of staff members and students.

B) Department of Surveying and Mapping

The Department of Surveying and Mapping was established by the late Professor Harry Biesheuvel in 1948. At present, there are only two universities in the country that has a department for the BSc Surveying degree. Apart from the University of Natal there is the University of Cape Town. The department offers degree of BSc Sur and MSc in Land management.

The degree of BSc Sur is a four-year degree and covers a wide field of subjects. For this degree, a certain number of courses are offered by this Department while other subjects are offered as services by other departments. The Department of Surveying and Mapping also offers service courses to other departments such as Civil Engineering and Architecture. At the end of each academic year, for the first three years of study, the students attend a compulsory two-week survey camp in which they apply practically some of the skills they were taught during the year.

Postgraduate courses are available to those students who wish to study further for an MSc in Land Management or a MSc or PhD by research.