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| Enhancing Disciplinary Education Academic disciplines and many professions are currently undergoing dramatic changes in the ways in which they create and use geographic information. The Graduate Certificate Program In recognition of these needs and the demand it generates for scientists, managers, and engineers that possess spatial analysis skills, the University of Michigan offers the Rackham Certificate of Graduate Studies in Spatial Analysis. This interdisciplinary program prepares students for careers that make intelligent use of geographic information in their chosen field of endeavor, whether in the capacity of developer, user, or manager of geographic information. Students must complete a total of 15 credit hours within the program to receive the Certificate. Students enrolled in another graduate program within the University of Michigan may count up to one sixth of the credits of their graduate program towards the certificate. Students may select a primary focus from among three areas: Applied Remote Sensing, GIS, and Spatial Statistics. Students are required to take three courses (normally 9 credits) within their focus area, at least one of which is from a list of "core courses" in that area. The remaining courses should be selected in consultation with the student’s advisor and may aim to achieve one of three objectives: A) adding a secondary focus by taking two courses within a second focus area; B) increasing breadth by selecting courses from two of the other focus areas, one of which may be the related information sciences; or C) increasing depth by taking an additional course in the primary focus area; one of the remaining courses should be in another area. No more than one course may be taken from among the related information science courses. For all students, at least one course must be taken from a unit other than the student's home unit. | ||
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A perspective that values the spatial context of events and phenomena has gained favor in social, biological, earth, environmental and health sciences. Urban, regional, social, landscape, and natural resource planning have adopted computational tools for handling the digital geographic information on which their professions depend. Businesses value information on spatial context to minimize environmental impact and maximize market potential. The burgeoning field of geographic information science offers new perspectives, poses new questions, and provides new tools to a broad range of application areas. These dramatic changes have generated a demand for scientists, scholars, and professionals who have access to the theories, methodologies, and technologies of spatial analysis and can apply them in the chosen field of study. 
