The 2008 intake into the Masters Programme in Sustainable Development Planning and Management was the largest since the programme began in 2003. A total of 87 participants have registered and commenced with their academic work. This is broken down into 63 participants in the BPhil programme (the course work component of the Masters Programme) and 24 participants in the MPhil (the thesis component). Of the total of 87, 44 were women and 43 were men, while 43 were black and 44 were white. It is worth noting that not everyone who was accepted actually turned up for registration. In particular, the majority that were originally selected for admission into the programme during the admissions process in 2007 were from historically disadvantaged backgrounds, but due to various financial and work related reasons almost all those who did not take up their acceptance offers were from these backgrounds. The detailed breakdown is as follows:
BPhil
Total Number of Students: 63 (46 registered for the first time in 2008)
Male: 35
Female 28
Black 36 (Male 18 ; Female 18)
White 27 (Male 18 ; Female 9)
MPhil
Total Number of Students: 24 (15 registered for Mphil for the first time in 2008)
Male 8
Female 16
Black 7 (Male 1 ; Female 6)
White 17 (Male 7 ; Female 10)