Geoscience Diploma
The imperative of climate change has made geoscience study more relevant than ever before.
Geoscience, or Earth Science, is the scientific study of our planet, including its formation, its structure and its evolution. It includes aspects of Biology, Geography, Environmental Science, Physics, Chemistry, Engineering, Resource Management and Government Policy to name but a few.
Available in both Oxford and Estoril, The Geoscience Diploma is unique to Greene’s. It can be an alternative to A level study and allows admission to a number of undergraduate level degree programmes at the University of Birmingham and University of Portsmouth in the UK.
On the Greene’s Geoscience Diploma course you will:
- work with outstanding tutors and world-class lecturers;
- develop your interest in and enthusiasm for understanding the earth;
- learn from the geological past to understand how to better consider future resource use;
- appreciate the finite nature of the earth’s resources and the need for geoconservation;
- benefit from exceptional fieldwork experience in the UK, Portugal (the Azores) and the Ophiolite sequence in Oman;
- appreciate how Geoscience can inform governments to structure policies and make decisions regarding the use of the earth’s resources; and
- develop the critical skills needed to succeed at university and in your career.
The Greene’s Geoscience Diploma programme is a one-year or two-year course that starts at the beginning of September each academic year. It is modular, with a programme of ongoing assessment.
Greene's Geoscience Diploma: two-year course
| Year 1 (3 compulsory modules and 1 independent video documentary research project) | Organisms in context Earth processes, rocks and mineral formation Science and the environment |
| Year 2 (2 compulsory modules, 1 written independent research project & 2 optional modules) | Fossils and environments Practical techniques & data analysis Independent research project Geopolitics of energy & governance Mineral structure and chemistry |
| Fieldwork | Fieldwork in the U.K., Azores (Portugal) and Oman is organised through Greene’s Tutorial Colleges in Oxford (U.K.), Lisbon (Portugal) and Muscat (Oman). |
Greene's Geoscience Diploma: one-year course
This course is more intensive as it takes place over one calendar year, and there are two entry streams:
- A pre-Diploma foundation for those students whose level of English is not sufficient to begin the diploma proper.
- A one-calendar-year intensive diploma course for students whose level of English Language and Mathematics is good enough to cope with the demands of the one-year diploma course.
Initial English Language and Mathematics testing determines which stream a student will take.
Further details of the Geoscience courses can be found here.
Teaching method
Teaching takes the form of a combination of online and face-to-face individual and small group tutorials, seminars and workshops. In addition, to enable you to observe geological phenomena at first hand and to collect data for analysis and interpretation, the course includes both practical sessions and field trips.
Assessment objectives, learning outcomes and classification
There are 10 assessment criteria which form the basis of student assessment, both formal and informal, during the course. Each criterion is subdivided into five different learning outcomes or levels of competency on which each student is assessed and from which the final classification of the Diploma is calculated.
| Geoscience Diploma - Assessment Criteria | |
|---|---|
| C1: Understanding Processes | C6: Practical skills |
| C2: Application of Knowledge | C7: Data analysis |
| C3: Scientific writing | C8: Critical scientific reading |
| C4: Presentation skills | C9: Independent learning |
| C5: Fieldwork Skills | C10: Passion and flair |
| Geoscience Diploma - Final Classification | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Distinction: above 80% | Merit: 70%-79% | Credit: 60%- 69% | Pass: 50%-59% | Fail: below 50% |
| Approaching undergraduate level | A* or high A grade (A level equivalent) | Low A or high B grade (A level equivalent) | Low B or C grade (A level equivalent) | Below C grade (A level equivalent) |
