Crisis and Disaster Management

This course offers an exciting opportunity to learn about environmental and manmade hazards, vulnerability and risk, planning and logistics, disaster response and crisis management. You’ll develop your skills as a confident, professional emergency planner and responder, able to manage people and situations in the field.

Earth systems and environmental sciences at the University of Portsmouth is ranked 4th of all post-1992 universities for research quality (Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021)

You'll graduate with the skills needed for a successful career in emergency planning and disaster management and response, either in the governmental or non-governmental sectors, anywhere in the world. You'll also get transferable skills in project planning, reporting, data analysis and communication, putting you in a strong position to pursue a career in other industries.

• Learn new skills including disaster management techniques, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing for mapping, social surveying methods, approaches to risk analysis, and the design of emergency management training exercises
• Be supported by expert staff and practitioners who are active in the field, with extensive industrial and consultancy experience working for government agencies, businesses and NGOs
• Have the opportunity to complete a work placement with an emergency planning, crisis management or disaster response organisation and complete a final project based on your experience
• Gain transferable skills such as project planning, data analysis, report writing, team work, presentation and communication
• Hear from experts with organisations such as the Red Cross, NHS, local authorities, the Environment Agency, the Met Office, the armed forces, Oil Spill Response, NGOs, humanitarian and United Nations agencies
• Careers our graduates have progressed into include emergency management and response for 'blue light' services (police, ambulance, coast guard, fire and rescue), city and county council contingency planning, the oil industry, and as risk management and continuity specialists in business

Career development

When you graduate, you'll have the knowledge and practical skills needed for a career in the emergency planning, crisis management or disaster response sectors anywhere in the world. The research and analytical components of the course, will support you in applying research positions, for example at PhD level.

Graduates of this course have gone into areas such as:

• Humanitarian agencies and NGOs
• Emergency management
• Emergency logistics and contingency planning
• Flood management
• Military-civilian emergency liaisons
• (Re)insurance and risk management
• Utility companies
• Civil defence
• Disaster relief
• Epidemiology

Graduates of this course have gone onto roles such as:

• Built environment lecturer
• Auditor
• Technical adviser
• Emergency planning and resilience officer
• Business resistance executive
• Catastrophe analyst
• Civil contingencies officer
• Emergency planning and resilience officer
• Policy and international engagement advisor
• Technical adviser

Career outcomes shown are sourced from the latest available graduate outcome surveys. The data shows career outcomes at 15 months after graduation.

Placements and industry connections

You'll get the opportunity to undertake voluntary work placements within emergency planning or disaster management organisations in the UK or overseas. Our Placement Officers can help you find a suitable placement. You can also get help with applying and interviewing for your placement from our Careers and Employability Service. Their resources help you locate potential placement providers, prepare applications and plan for placement interviews. In most cases these placements will form the basis of your research project. This will be beneficial to your studies, but it’s also a great way to gain valuable work experience.

Many students have undertaken their research project abroad, in destinations including the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Montserrat, Sierra Leone, Tenerife, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the USA – we can help you make these connections and plan your placements.

Throughout the course, you'll have opportunities to listen to guest speakers from organisations such as:

• the Police
• the Red Cross
• NHS
• local authorities and councils
• the Environment Agency
• Applied Resilience
• Oil Spill Response
• International Red Cross
• Save the Children
• the United Nations