The compulsory courses (3 credits) include the department seminars, meant to expose the students to the current cutting-edge research in diverse fields of interest to the YDSEEP researchers. The core courses (choice of 9 credits) are aimed at setting common grounds in the physical sciences to students with diverse background in the different disciplines of natural sciences and engineering, making their first steps in basic environmental research. These courses provide the various tools for studying the physical aspects of environmental research, and are offered to all program students in order to broaden their fields of interest beyond their personal MSc thesis. Some flexibility is offered in the choice of core courses to accommodate the various backgrounds of the program trainees. Elective courses (choice of 18 credits), with more specific foci on contemporary research directions, can then complement specializations as desired. The course list includes courses from all relevant disciplines of the physical sciences, including physics, chemistry, applied mathematics, and materials science and engineering,
Students will be eligible to choose elective graduate-level courses outside the list of courses offered here, from other departments in BGU (in any campus), provided they are approved by the supervisor and the teaching committee, for up to 10 of the 18 credits intended for elective courses. The list of courses offered, with the names of the lecturers, is provided below. The course abstracts' can be found in appendix B. The lecturers' curriculum vitae are attached in a separate file. It is noted that YDSEEP is currently in the process of recruiting several new faculty, who are expected to widen the list of elective courses. However, since specific lecturer names are not known yet, these courses are not detailed in the provided list.
The thesis project will be conducted under the supervision of (at least) one of the YDSEEP faculty members, however co-advising with researchers from other BGU departments is encouraged to foster inter-disciplinary collaborative research, as described above.
It is possible to extend the M.Sc. research toward a Ph.D. within a combined track, in accordance with the regulations of BGU's Kreitman Graduate School. The request for transition to the combined track should be made during the first four semesters of the M.Sc. program and should be submitted to the program's teaching committee. A candidate for the combined-track program must satisfy the following conditions: (1) The candidate has completed all compulsory courses, and at least 20 course credits, at a minimal average grade of 85; (2) The candidate's M.Sc. research proposal was submitted and approved; (3) The candidate's request is supported by his/her MSc adviser(s). Upon application approval, the candidate should submit a Ph.D. research proposal before the end of the forth semester of the M.Sc. program. The research proposal for the combined track should include a summary of the M.Sc. research performed by the candidate, which will be considered as an M.Sc. thesis. The PhD proposal committee will examine this document and make the judgement on granting the candidate the M.Sc. degree, and approving the pursue of the proposed research towards a Ph.D. degree.
