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New trends in Geographic Information Technology Education

3. Other aspects associated with the New Degree
The new BGeoIT degree is expected to be of considerable interest to both local and overseas prospective students. Accordingly, provision has been made to accommodate a wide variety of entry qualifications such as the Australian ENTER, the International Baccalaureate, GCE-A levels and STPM (Malaysia), Sri Lankan A levels, CBSE, Ontario Grade 13, Higher School Graduation Diploma and SAT 1 tests (USA) amongst others.

A spin-off from the development of the new degree has been the realisation that many prospective graduate students would also be drawn to its course content, including those students who already had formal education in geographic information science and technology but who now wished to update their knowledge in web-mapping and e-commerce, and location-based services. Accordingly, a 2-semester (9 month) Master of Geographic Information Technology course (the MGeoIT degree) has recently been designed and drafted, and is currently with the University of Melbourne for approval.

4. Conclusion
In conclusion, the Bachelor of Geographic Information Technology is a new 3-year degree being offered by the Department of Geomatics at the University of Melbourne, in response to a growing market need. The focus of the degree is the science and technology of geographic information systems, spatial information and information technology. The course is structured to provide professional education in the areas of information technology, geographic information systems, location-based services, database systems, electronic commerce, web-mapping, mathematics and statistics, mapping science, remote sensing, visualisation, spatial analysis, computer science, management and professional development. Graduates will receive a broad knowledge of geographic information technology, enabling them to enter the geographic information industry and allied sectors of the broader information technology communities.

References
  • Bervoets, S.G., Ogleby, C.L. and Smith, J.C., 1999, It Figures: The First 50 Years of the Department of Geomatics at the University of Melbourne. The University of Melbourne: Melbourne, Australia. (Note: this publication is available free of charge upon request to the Department of Geomatics)
  • Bishop, I.D., Escobar, F.J., Karuppannan, S., Williamson, I.P., Yates, P.M., Yaqub, H.W. and Suwarnarat, K, 2000, “Spatial data infrastructures for cities in developing countries: lessons learned from the Bangkok experience”. Cities, 17(2), pp. 85-96.
  • Burrough, P.A., 1986, Principles of Geographical Information Systems for Land resources Assessment, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  • Department of Geomatics website: http://www.geom.unimelb.edu.au
  • Goodchild, M.F. and Kemp, K.K., 1990, NCGIA Core Curriculum in GIS. National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, University of California, Santa Barbara.
  • Hunter, G.J., 2001, “Ensuring the Survival of Geomatic Engineering at the University of Melbourne, Australia”. Surveying and Land Information Systems, 61, 4, December, pp. 255-262.
  • Raper, J. and Green, N, 1992, “Teaching the principles of GIS: lessons from the GISTutor project”. International Journal of Geographical Information Systems, 6, pp. 279-290.
  • Tomlinson, R, 1993, State Government of Victoria Strategic Framework for GIS Development. Prepared for the Office of Geographic Data Co-ordination, Victoria, Australia.
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