| Abstract |
After a hiatus from 2003 to 2006 the University of Auckland, New Zealand, resumed teaching postgraduate geothermal courses in 2007 with the introduction of a five month Postgraduate Certificate in Geothermal Energy Technology (PGCertGeothermTech). It is designed for students who wish to obtain a University qualification in geothermal geoscience or geothermal engineering. The course consists of three postgraduate level lecture courses and a short (5 week) research project. Students who wish to combine geothermal subjects within another course of study, can credit the geothermal lecture courses to other engineering degrees. Those who wish to take shorter professional development courses are able to attend modules of the course that are considered to be suitable as stand-alone modules. The current PGCertGeotherm (refereed to below as the “PGCert”) has now been taught for two years, in 2007 and 2008, with eight students in each year. Three students in each year were sponsored by the New Zealand company Contact Energy Ltd., and one was sponsored by MB Century Ltd. The others had their own funding arrangements with their employers or their own companies. In 2007 there was one student who attended a part of the course, but in 2008 there were 13 students, sponsored by their companies, who attended various modules of the PGCert as professional short courses, and five who enrolled in one or more PGCert papers that were credited to another course. Thus in the first two years of the PGCert course 16 students attended the full course, from Indonesia, Iran, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Slovenia, and the USA. Students from France, Germany, Iceland, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, and New Zealand either credited one or more of the Geothermal lecture courses to another qualification, or attended the short courses. At the time of writing, student numbers in 2009 are not finalized, but it appears that PGCert enrolments will at least double. |