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The University of Juba is ready to be boosted
The revision of BSc in Meteorology programme at the University of Juba is being undertaken to train Meteorologist to serve in the different sectors of economy.
Why meteorology, one may ask. In the Republic of South Sudan, and Africa in general, meteorologists and climate scientists are needed in vital areas of the economy such as agriculture, fisheries, the water sector, weather forecasting, aviation, and disaster mitigation.
Due to their impact on human livelihoods, these areas are crucial in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. South Sudan, the youngest country in Africa at the moment, desperately needs a degree programme in Meteorology and Climate Science for training the needed manpower to address the lack of trained specialists in the above mentioned areas.
Objectives of the course
The current BSc in Meteorology at the University of Juba is non-functional due to lack of qualified teaching staff following the separation of the Republic of South Sudan from Republic of Sudan.
As a result, few South Sudanese who wanted to pursue their undergraduate study in Meteorology had to travel to undertake the study abroad – a practice which was costly and failed to address capacity building in the local Higher Educational Institutions and industry.
Secondly, the current programme content is shallow, incoherent and lacks some basic courses for producing highly qualified meteorologist with high quality knowledge of fundamental physical science and up-to-date current meteorological knowledge and skills including forecasting, experimental, theoretical and research techniques.
Hence, activating this programme with an effective programme content and training methodology is necessary to train more South Sudanese Meteorologists to provide the critical Meteorological services and information to the end-user for socio-economic development of the country.
Therefore, the proposed reviewed BSc Meteorology programme in the University of Juba is to equip prospective students with high quality knowledge of fundamental physical science and up-todate current meteorological knowledge and skills, to ensure first and foremost the training of South Sudanese students locally in order to cut down on costs of training them elsewhere.
It is to develop and expand to provide a center of excellence in climate research at the University of Juba to benefit not only the nation, the sub-region of East Africa but Africa and the world at large.
We hope to build human capacity by training and producing South Sudanese graduates with high quality fundamental physical sciences, up to date current meteorological knowledge and skills that includes forecasting, experimental, theoretical and research techniques, expert knowledge in the physical climatic processes of tropical Africa, to have appropriate technical and managerial skills in Meteorology, to have appropriate knowledge and skills to undertake research in Meteorology and other related issues. It is to also have the social, economic and management qualities.
We are excited about this programme because the undergraduate programme in Meteorology at the University of Juba is a five-year programme leading to the award of BSc (Hon) in Meteorology.
This programme will provide students with opportunities to develop and demonstrate knowledge, skills and other attributes in the field of Meteorology and related areas necessary such as Physics, Mathematics, Electronic, Computing, areas of physical sciences.
Teaching/learning methods and strategies
By the end of the course, students will have gone through lectures, workshops, problem-based learning, electronic resources, small group’s tutorials, course work, directed study, feedback from assessment and practical work at each level, together with an investigation that will be undertaken in the final year.
Students will be assesed through examinations, practical examinations, in-course assessments in form of laboratory reports and logbooks, class tests, course work assignments, Oral and poster presentation. While undertaking this curriculum revision, The University of Juba is being supported by scientists from the University of Bergen and Makerere University.
It is planned that the first few years of implementing the curriculum, the support will continue.