International Resources Technical Option
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The International Technical Option is designed to enhance students' understanding of international forestry and natural resource management and to prepare them for careers abroad or with internationally oriented institutions and companies in the US. Courses in this option are taught in several different departments and provide a broad background with rigorous technical emphases.
Many graduate students enrolled in this program have a natural resource-related undergraduate degree and/or previous experience abroad. Students without this background may need to take additional preparatory courses, but are welcome in the program as it is wide-ranging to suit the needs of students at many levels. The diversity of backgrounds and experiences of students in the international option enriches the program through classroom interaction and extracurricular activities.
Required Courses for the International Resources Option (14 hours)
Students choose between two tracks in the international option: (a) science and technology or (b) policy and economics. Students take at least nine credit hours (normally three courses) in their chosen track. In the other track, students take four credit hours in the other track, normally consisting of one full course and one mini-course in a related skill area. Approved courses in the two tracks are listed below; other courses may be approved by the student's committee. In addition, students who choose the policy and economics track should take at least one methodology course (qualitative or quantitative, e.g., survey methods or statistics). Students may take courses at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Duke University at the NC State tuition rate. All students are expected to take the Research Seminar in Forestry (FOR803, 1 credit).
Approved courses in science and technology:
SSC 472 Forest Soils
SSC 701 Tropical Soils
FOR 581 Agroforestry
FOR 750 Restoration Ecology
FOR 680 Field Practicum in Tropical Forestry
FOR 610D Silviculture for Intensively Managed Plantations
FOR 782 Silviculture of Forest Plantations in the Tropics
FOR 583 Tropical Forestry
ENV 217 Tropical Ecology (Duke)
BIO 526 Conservation Biology (UNC-G)
BIO 565 Conservation Biology (UNC)
OTS courses in Tropical Biology
Mini-courses in silviculture, physiology, GPS, and forest hydrology
Approved courses in policy and economics:
AEE 740 Extension in Developing Countries
FOR 519 Forest Economics
FOR 595I Forest Economics I
ECG 540 Economic Development
ECG 533 Economics of World Food and Agricultural Policy
ECG 590G Global Economics
PS 536 Global Environmental Law and Policy
PS 533 Global Problems and Policy
PS 539 International Political Economy
ENV275S Protected Areas, Tourism, and Local Development (Duke)
ENV272 Evaluation of Public Expenditures (Duke)
ENV280 Social Science Surveys for Environmental Management (Duke)
SOC 223 Global Deviance (UNC-G)
Mini-courses in policy, economics, and grant-writing
Project and Thesis Hours
Students may take up to three credit hours of Supervised Research (NR693) for MNR or Master's Thesis Research (NR695) for MS. In addition, MS students may substitute up to three hours of FOR695 for a course(s) in their chosen track.
Master's International (MI) Program Courses
Students in the MI Program may take up to six credit hours of independent study to prepare for and analyze their Peace Corps experience, substituting for up to three credit hours in their chosen track. The other three credit hours serve as electives.
Electives
To complete the required 36 hours, students should select elective courses with the guidance of their committees. These may include graduate courses at Duke and UNC, and a limited number of 400 level courses from departments other than Forestry. Students may also include an independent study based on a summer internship or field course abroad. For further course suggestions, see the Committee on International Programs Web site.
Project or Thesis
The student's research should focus on an international topic. With approval of the committee, the student may instead develop comparisons, relevance, or lessons of the topic to the international context. MNR students should provide one bound copy of their project report for the international forestry programs files.
For more information, please see The International Section
