1. Discussion Session Geospatial Education at USP What should USP teach students to prepare them for the GIS/RS Workforce? John Lowry & Conway Pene School of Geography, Earth Science & Environment University of the South Pacific Pacific Island Countries GIS/RS User Conference 2011

2. Geospatial Courses at USP GS 100 – Overview of GIS GS 201 – Fundamentals of GIS GS 211 – Fundamentals of remote sensing GS 301Advanced GIS GS 350 – Project in Geospatial Science LP 300Land Planning Project LP 303Land Economics IS 121Fundamentals of Information Systems

3. Geospatial Programmes USP Certificate in Geospatial Science – 6 courses, including GS100, GS201, GS211, GS301 and IS121 Diploma in Geospatial Science – 10 courses, including GS100, GS201, GS211, GS301, GS350 and IS121 Nothing at the Bachelors or Postgraduate level

12. Most Pressing Problems Data & software availability (cost) Data sharing/quality Retaining expertise/Compete w/ outsourcing Lack of opportunity for GIS/RS practitioners Keeping up with changing technology Lack of common software Mainstreaming GIS/RS for decision making

13. What USP can/should do Practical experience/internships/field projects Involve corporations/NGOs Upgrade GS Diploma to degree level Enrol more students from all PI countries Offer short-term training Teach programming/web mapping/DBMS Promote Free Open Source Software Teach about data integrity