The University of South Florida (USF) has become the first of its kind to establish a School of Global Sustainability. Course concentrations are expected to address issues such as water, food security and health, climate change, wetlands, marine life, megacities and urban life, transportation, cultural diversity and history, environmental health, civic responsibility and global citizenry.

The world’s first graduate degree in global sustainability is a master’s of arts program now accepting students for fall 2010. Courses will be delivered primarily online, with two residence periods, one at USF and the second at one of its global partner universities. The degree will prepare students to address complex regional, national and global challenges, with the ability to innovate in diverse cultural, geographic and demographic contexts. Integration of disciplines is key, ranging from basic, natural and social sciences, engineering and health to economics, governance policy and diversity

The school, which will use existing classrooms on campus, targets working professionals in positions that already focus on sustainability. The intention is to “harness the intellectual powers of students and faculty and… create a new generation of green economy thinkers and doers,” says USF Provost Ralph Wilcox.

Employment data projects ever-increasing job opportunities for those with advanced degrees in sustainability. “Most of the interesting work today is done at the interstices of disciplines,” remarks Robert Reich, a former U.S. labor secretary and a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley.

Learn more at www.Grad.USF.edu/global.asp or call Malcolm Randolph at 813-974-7207.