Unit Synopsis
Climate change is now widely recognised as one of the biggest challenges facing the world. Its effects are already severe in Australia as well as in many other parts of the world. This unit will present you with in-depth knowledge of the issues related to climate change, with a focus on assessing risks of climate change and approaches to deal with the impacts. You will be introduced to the nature of climate change as well as to interdisciplinary approaches and integrative perspectives to problems of anthropogenic climate change. These include response strategies and programs to avert, mitigate, and adapt to climate change.
Details
| Level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 8 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Completion of 18 credit points
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 2 - 2026 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Report | 50% |
| 2. Written Assessment | 50% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 2 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 66.67% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 28.57% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: Teaching staff self assessment
Update the learning materials while retaining the current unit design.
It is recommended to retain the current unit design while continuously updating the learning materials. As an AQF8 unit, it is crucial that both the learning materials and assessment items closely align with industry standards and the latest advancements in the field to maintain relevance and quality.
The unit design was retained and the learning materials were updated. As an AQF8 unit, the learning resources and assessment tasks were continuously aligned with industry standards and emerging developments in the field to maintain the unit’s quality and academic rigour.
Source: Teaching staff self assessment
Monitor students' engagement and progress.
It is recommended to regularly check in with students about their progress and concerns, and to report their 'Activity Completion' for weekly topics and learning activities in class each week.
The teaching team implemented a set of student support measures, including regular tutorial check-ins and ongoing monitoring of weekly activity completion.
Source: Student feedback and Unit coordinator self-assessment.
Assessments could be redesigned to better support learning across the diverse cohort.
The Unit Coordinator will update the assessment design to ensure stronger alignment with the Unit Learning Outcomes and to broaden its applicability across the varied courses and professional contexts represented within the student cohort.
In Progress
Source: Unit coordinator self-assessment.
Current expectations for generative AI use were unclear to students.
The Unit Coordinator will incorporate explicit guidance on the acceptable use of generative AI tools in the unit’s assessment into tutorial sessions, so clarifying expectations and reducing the risk of inappropriate use.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Interpret the scientific concepts underpinning climate change and identify anthropogenic climate change
- Critically analyse the short-term and long-term effects of climate change on societies and ecosystems
- Apply interdisciplinary approaches to assess climate change risk and formulate strategies for climate change mitigation and adaption.
N/A
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Report | • | • | • |
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | • |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | • | • | • |
| 2 - Communication | • | • | • |
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | • | • | |
| 4 - Research | • | • | |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | |