This document provides course descriptions for the MSc in Safety and Risk Management program. It outlines several mandatory courses offered in semesters 1 and 2, including Risk Assessment and Safety Management, Human Factors Methods, Human Factors in the Design and Evaluation of Control Rooms, Fire Safety, Explosions and Process Safety, Environmental Impact Assessment, Learning from Disasters, Value & Risk Management, and Project Management: Theory and Practice. It also mentions that students will complete a dissertation project related to their country of residence with advice and supervision from faculty.

1. Course descriptions MSc Safety and Risk Management
Please find below the course descriptions.
Risk Assessment and Safety Management
Semester 1 (mandatory)
This courses aims to give students an appreciationof risk from individual and societal
perspectives as well as understanding the basic principles of risk assessment and modelling
and how safety management works inpractice. Subjects include:
The concept and perceptions of hazards and risk. Risk attitudes and impact on decision-
making; Interpretations of probability; Quantitative and qualitativeaspectsof risk; Modelling
of decision making under conditions of risk; Inherent Safety; HAZOP; Safety management
systems such as BS EN ISO 18000 seriesand other standards; Applicationof Safety
Management Systemsto failed systems and as a preventativetool.
Human Factors Methods
Semester 1 (mandatory)
This course will equip students from academic and/or industrial backgrounds with
knowledge on, and the means to deploy, a wide range of specialist humanfactors
techniques. The emphasis is onmethod selection, application, combinationand integration
within existing business practices. Students will develop a critical awareness of what
methods exist, how to apply them in practice and their principle benefits and limitations.
The syllabus includes: Introduction to humanfactors problemsand human factorsmethods;
Task analysis; Cognitive task analysis; Humanerror identification; Situationawareness
assessment; Mental workload assessment; Team assessment; Interface analysis; Design
methods; Performancetimeprediction; Methodintegration; Human factorsintegration.
Human Factors in the Design and Evaluation of Control Rooms
Semester 2 (mandatory)
The course will equip students from academic and/or industrial backgrounds within-depth
knowledge on, insights into, and the means to deploya wide range of specialist techniques
relevant to the ergonomic designand evaluationof control rooms. The emphasis is onkey
areas of control room operations and on actionable ways to deploytheory on human

2. capabilitiesand limitations inorder to improve performance, safety, efficiencyand overall
operator well being. The course covers the following key areas:
Introduction to humans andcontrol rooms; Competencies; Training; Procedures;
Communication processes; Manningand workload; Automation; Supervision; Shift patterns;
Control room layout; Supervisory control and data acquisition(SCADA); Alarms; The control
room environment.
Fire Safety, Explosions and Process Safety
Semester 2 (mandatory)
Introduces students to the basic principles of fire safetyscience and engineering, and
develops skills inassociated modelling leading to an understanding of principal
fire/explosionrelated issues inprocess safety. Subjects include:
Objectives of fire safety scienceand engineering; Fire chemistry: stoichiometric burning,
ignition, flammability limits; Mechanisms of heat transfer; The burning process; flashpoint,
firepoint, flame spread; Fires in enclosures; computer-basedmodels of fire development.
Flashover & backdraught; Life threat, human behaviour, evacuation; Fire severity& fire
resistance. Probabilistic modelling; Explosions: deflagrations, detonations, fire-balls; Fire
related aspects of processsafety. Piper Alphadisaster.
Environmental Impact Assessment
Semester 2 (mandatory)
Provides students with the knowledge and understanding of the principles and processesof
the Environmental Impact Assessment. Bythe end of the course, the student should be
familiar withthe European EIA legislationand its translationinto the Scottishplanning
system, and be able to demonstrate an understanding of the EIA process, the tools and the
agents involved in an EIA and the possible problems withusing EIA as a decisionmaking
tool. . It is also intended that the student will be able to appreciate the purpose of the EIA
process from a number of perspectives; that of a developer, anEIA practitioner and a policy
maker.
Topics include: Introduction to EIA; EuropeanEIA Legislation; Screening andScoping;
Baseline Studies, Analysis and Prediction of Impact; Consultation, Reviewand Monitoring;
Beyond EIA: Strategic and Social Impact Assessment

3. Learning from Disasters
Semester 2 (mandatory)
Gives students an indepth understanding of some of the classic disasters and their
consequences by using a range of practical accident investigationtechniques. Students will
learn to analyse complexhistories inorder to find the underlying root cause. Topics covered:
Accident models; Root causeand accident analysis techniques concentrating on events and
causal factors analysis, barrier analysis, change analysis and the management oversight
and risk tree; Reviewa number of famous disasters including Piper Alpha, Herald of Free
Enterprise, Bhopal, Clapham Junction etc.; Identify lessons learned from thesedisasters;
Reviewsome of the major safety lessons from historical disasters; Analyse a real disaster in
detail using a number of practical techniques
Value & Risk Management (M)
Semester 1 (mandatory)
The course aims to introduce the concepts of value & risk management, apply them to
strategic and tactical problems and illustrate their tools and techniques through case studies.
Subjects included in the course syllabus include:
VRM and the constructionprocurement process; introductionto value management; value
engineering (function analysis and other VEtools); risk & uncertainty in the construction
industry; Risk andprocurement of PPP projects; risk management framework; sources,
events and effects of project risk; tools and techniques of risk management; risk response
and mitigation; client briefing.
Project Management: Theory and Practice
Semester 1 (mandatory)
This course aims to provide the student with an understanding of the concepts and practices
of constructionproject management used to provide value added services to clients. The
course develops understanding of the issues related to the management of construction
clients and other project stakeholders and how their needs canbe co-ordinated, managed
and delivered from the project’s designstage through productionto occupationand
maintenance within the context of client satisfactionand the overarching constructionproject
constraints of time, cost, quality sustainability, health and safety management.

4. Subjects covered inthe course syllabus include: Construction project management
concepts; standards and services; organisational structuresfor delivery of project
management services; management strategies for clients and stakeholder briefing; issues
related to management of construction project design process, and budget setting;
tools/techniquesfor construction project planningand control of costs, time, risk andquality;
issues relatingto TQM and healthand safety; teamwork and leadership roles.
Dissertation
For the project component of the programme distance learners are likelyto develop
something based intheir country of residence withadvice and supervisionfrom staff in the
School. This may well include work with a local company or may involve independent study.
Individual arrangements will be set up with eachstudent.