Applications Closed!

This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is for anyone who is interested in international development and environmental issues, or who is interested in volunteering or in a career in development. CSE is India’s leading environmental development organisation and the summer school will be taught by some of India’s – and the world’s – leading experts.

This course is an orientation programme on the politics, policies and practices of environmental management in India and will take place in New Delhi, from 12th July to 12th August 2010.

The Challenge of Balance

South Asia is facing the twin challenges of economic and ecological globalisation. In this context, it is indeed a challenge to manage the fallouts of rapid growth (the environmental challenge of development), while at the same time maintain the integrity of natural systems and protect the quality of life on the other (the development challenge of environment).

The Challenge of Balance allows international participants to experience first-hand the myriad challenges facing the developing world, enabling them to critically evaluate the environment-development interface: poverty, democracy, equity, justice and culture.

The course is being offered by Centre for Science and Environment (www.cseindia.org), a leading independent, public- interest organisation involved in environmental research, communications and advocacy.

Engineers Without Borders UK has partnered with CSE for six years.

Course design

The interdisciplinary course comprises lectures, readings-lead discussions and case study presentations. Participants will debate, attend seminars, watch and review documentary films, and speak with the eminent guest speakers, activists and policy makers.

The course covers the following:

●   State of India’s environment: An overview
●   The environmental movement in India
●   Poverty & the biomass economy
●   Ecological rights & natural resource management
●   Conservation & conflict: wildlife management debate in India
●   Urban growth challenges: Water & waste management, air pollution & mobility
●   Sustainable industrialisation & public health concerns
●   Climate change & global environmental governance
●   A week-long field trip to explore eco-restoration efforts in rural India

Core faculty will be drawn from CSE’s experienced research and programme staff. Visiting faculty and guest lecturers will include working development professionals, eminent environmentalists, noted academicians from leading universities, grassroots activists and prominent policy makers, among others.

Field trips and meetings with communities will serve to illustrate innovations and eco-restoration efforts that communities make to enable them to face the challenges of managing their natural resources base.

The programme includes innovative, challenging project individual and/or group work. Participants will report, edit and design a magazine as part of the course assignment.
 

Accommodation

CSE will arrange the accommodation and meals for all participants for the duration of the course. The fee covers accommodation, meals & refreshments, and the use of learning and research facilities at CSE and a common room with computers and internet.

The CSE campus itself is a marvel, with solar and wind power systems, rainwater harvesting and more on its site in the south of the city. The teaching centre is designed by a renowned architect and hosts one of India’s best libraries and information centres on international and environmental development.
 

Course fees

The newly reduced course fee of £850 per participant. The fee also includes all costs of the field trips, including the five-day visit to rural India. Course participants are to arrange and pay for their international airfare, and carry sufficient funds to cover their personal expenses while in India.
 

Travel opportunities

New Delhi is India’s capital city. Its monuments, history and culture are part of what makes this summer school so exciting.

In the city itself, you can visit Red Fort, India Gate and the Gandhi Museum, as well as the city’s shops, bars and clubs. Beyond the city, and around India’s Golden Triangle, you will have time to visit the Taj Mahal and the awe-inspiring palaces of Rajasthan.