Friday, May 22, 2020

Introduction Of The History Of Bank Of International Settlement And Basel Financial Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 11 Words: 3279 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Argumentative essay Did you like this example? The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is the institutional home of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, the organizations mandates are to promote international monetary and financial cooperation and serve as a bank for central banks. The BIS also houses the secretariats of several committees and organizations focusing on the international financial system, including the Basel Committee, although these entities are not formally a part of the BIS. BIS membership currently totals 55 central banks. The BIS was created in 1930 within the framework of the Young Plan to address the issue of German reparations. Its focus soon shifted to the promotion of international financial cooperation and monetary stability. These goals were initially pursued through regular meetings of central bank officials and economic experts directed toward promoting discussion and facilitating decision-making processes, as well as through the development of a research staff to compile and distribute financial statistics. The BIS also played a role in implementing and sustaining the Bretton Woods system. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Introduction Of The History Of Bank Of International Settlement And Basel Financial Essay" essay for you Create order Besides, Basel is third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany. With 830,000 inhabitants in the tri-national urban agglomeration as of 2004, Basel is Switzerlands second largest urban area. Basel functions as a major industrial centre for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. The Basel region, culturally extending into German Baden-Wuttemberg and French Alsace, reflects the heritage of its three states in the modern latin name Regio TriRhena. It has the oldest university of the Swiss Confederation (1460). Basel is German-speaking; the local variant of the Swiss German dialect is called Basel German. The detail indicator in Basel I, II, III. Basel I, which is the first credit risk analysis instrument start used in 1998 and also called as Basel Accord. They are classified into different categories of the banks assets according to different credit risk, carrying risk weights of zero, ten, twenty, fifty, and up to one hundred percent. The basic risk weighted assets are required to for banks capital is equal to 8%. However, there is argument from JP Morgan Chase, he mentioned that 8%of minimum requirement is unreasonable, and implement credit default swaps so that in reality they would have to hold capital equivalent to only 1.6% of assets. According to Ahmed Khalidi (2007), they mentioned that Basel I was designed to establish minimum levels of capital for internationally active banks. The main setting of the standards is based on rules of the thumb, that is relatively crude method of assigning risk weights on balance sheet and off balance sheet asset categories. Besides, this also focussed on credit risks but ignoring the bulk of the multiple risks may face in banking industry today. For Basel II, there is the second of the Basel Accords, which are recommendations on banking laws and regulations issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Basel II uses three pillars concepts, which are minimum capital requirements, supervisory review and market discipline. From previous researchers Wignall Atkinson (2010) found that, the simplified Basel II approach is more granular than Basel I, but retains its basic features. When facing the financial crisis, the Basel Committee cutting the risk weight to mortgages by some 30% and much more in the complicated version. In additional, for the weight for lending between banks was in lower percentage which 20% under Basel I, and it still maintained the same portion in Basel II, but it likely to cut 20 30 % under the sophisticated approach. Based on the research done by Ahmed Khalidi (2007), they have examined the process of development of the Basel Accord from a simple and crude credit risk measurement based capital adequacy accord into a comprehensive risk control framework grounded on three different pillars as below. The first pillar, which is aims to improve the link between bank capital and the risks that could lead to Bank insolvency. There are three major component of risks are can be calculated, which are credit risk, operational risk, and market risk. The calculation of credit risk may separate to three different degree namely standardized approach, which Foundation IRB and Advance IRB. IRB stands for Internal Rating-Based Approach. Besides, also have three different approaches to mention, which is BIA, standardized approach, and the internal measurement approach. The method to measure the market risk is VaR (value at risk). The second pillar is supervisory pillar which aims to improve the supervision capacity of regulators to control the risk of bank failure. The deals of the first pillar, which giving regulators much improved tools over those available under Basel I, it also provides the framework to dealing with other risks may face by all banks. This will improve the risk management system of banking industry. The third pillar is aims to promote greater stability in the financial system. This pillar is allowed the market discipline to operate by requiring lenders to publicly provide banks risk management methods, risk rating measurement and risk distributions. In order to strengthen the banks competitive; they must make that lend greater insight into the adequacy of their capitalisation. Basel III is a new global regulatory standard on bank capital adequacy and liquidity agreed by the members of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. This third version of the Basel is found during the global Financial Crisis. Basel III is more focussed on the banks capital requirements and introduces the new rules of bank liquidity or bank leverage. Based on the OECD estimation, the implementation of this Basel III may improve the annual GDP growth by 0.005 0.15 % point. The development of Basel I, II, III and beyond From Basel I to Basel II The initial Basel I Accord was based on a simple model to measure capital. The starting objective for Basel I was to ensure banks to maintain enough capital to absorb losses without causing systemic problems. Besides it also play an important role in the soundness of banks by avoiding competitiveness conflicts between each others (Wignall Atkinson, 2010). Although it was very simple to be used but this approach had became less effective for the bank to measure its capital over these years. There are problems appeared in Basel I such as it measure the risk based across exposure groups and not the individual elements of credit worthiness within these groups. Besides, this approach also lack of sufficient risk differentiation for individual loans and no recognition of diversification benefits. In conclusion, Basel I is lack of soundness in risk management. After many issues appearing during the time of implementation of Basel I, Basel II was created as the improvement of Basel I to overcome its limitations. The main difference between Basel 1 accord and Basel II accord is Basel II accord was not confined with the rating factor and was based on the fact one size fits all. However, Basel II accord mainly focuses on the rating factors of the borrowers. In Basel II, there are changes in internal processes and have developed a better risk management practices such as securitization monitoring and management of exposures and activities. Basel II has included three compliance frameworks based on the business model of the bank. The Standardized Approach which is almost similar to the Basel I rules was created and smaller, less-complex banks is required to follow it. However, for larger and more complex banks will be encouraged to adopt an Internal Ratings Based (IRB) Approach that directly links a banks risk ratings with its regulatory capital requirements. IRB approach seeks to differentiate risk on an asset-by-asset level for better decision making (Powell). Comparing to Standardized approach, IRB required more highly-complex modeling and expertise. Under the requirement in Basel I the weight for lending between banks was only 20% and the percentage still maintain at the same level under the simplified Basel II. However it has increased by 10% under the sophisticated approach. Lastly, Basel 3 pillar was applied in the Basel II. Pillar 1 provides guidelines for minimum capital requirements more accurate to each banks actual risk of economic loss. Next, pillar 2 evaluates the activities and risk profiles of individual banks. However, pillar 3 leverages the ability of market discipline to motivate prudent management by enhancing the degree of transparency in banks public reporting to shareholders and customers. From Basel II to Basel III However, there was also imperfection for Basel II in practicing the approach. In Basel II pillar 2 which is supervisory review process, is difficult to keep up with changes in market structure, practices and complexity. If there was a mistake in the supervisory in the review process, it will cause the policy makers will be ineffective in countering defects in Pillar 1 and therefore the Pillar 2 will be affected as well (Wignall Atkinson, 2010). Basel III have listed down the new capital and liquidity requirement to replace the Basel II for a better performance of job. There are few changes of development in Basel III compare to Basel II. First, there was an increased of quality of capital which there should be more than 50% of common equities and retained earnings as predominant component in tier 1instead of debt-like instruments. Besides, Basel III also increased the quantity of capital as well. The minimum common equity of tier 1 has increased from 2.0% to 4.5%. However, the total capital increased from 8.0% to 10.5%. Basel III now requires the banks to determine their capital requirement for counterparty credit risk using of stressed inputs. It can help to remove pro-cyclicality which will appear with using current volatility-based risk inputs. Moreover, leverage ratio was introduced for the intention of helping to avoid the build-up in excess leverage that can lead to a deleveraging credit crunch in a crisis situation. Leverage has been reduced through introduction of backstop leverage ratio. The leverage limit is set as 3%, i.e. a banks total assets should not be more than 33 time bank capital. Next, it also increase short term liquidity coverage by introducing the 30-day Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) which helps ensure that global banks have sufficient high-quality liquid assets to withstand a stressed funding scenario specified by supervisors. The following table represents the summary of Basel I, II, and III. Basel I Basel II Basel III Main Functions -also called Basel Accord classified the different categories of the banks assets according to different credit risk uses three pillars concepts minimum capital requirements, supervisory review and market discipline Pillar 1 Minimum Capital Requirements Pillar 2 Supervisory Review Pillar 3 Market Discipline strengthens bank capital requirements and introduces new regulatory requirements on bank liquidity and bank leverage Capital for Systemically Important Banks only -No capital for Systemically Important Banks only -Systemically important banks should have loss absorbing capacity beyond the standards announced today 2 New Liquidity Ratio -Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) -Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) No -LCR focuses on the shorter end of the time horizon. -NSFR looks at a medium term horizon. Common Equity Tier 1 capital Total Capital Common Equity Tier 1 capital Total Capital Minimum Requirements 2.0% 4.0% 8.0% 4.5% 6.0% 8.0% Additional Capital Conservation Buffer Not applicable 2.5% Additional Countercyclical Buffer Range Not applicable 0% 2.5% Additional Requirements For Systemically Important Financial Institutions Not applicable May be added to the other risk-weighted requirements Leverage ratio Not applicable May in effect add to the risk-weight requirements The related paper discussion on the changes in the indicator, along the development of Basel I to II to III. Basel I is the framework of minimum capital standards introduced in 1988 by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and it was designed to enhance the safety and soundness of the international banking system thus to increase the competitive pressure for creating a more level playing field among internationally competitive banks where small difference on pricing could have competitive impact (Ahmed Khalidi (2007). Basel I was emphasized on the credit risk, all of the banks assets were categorized on five classification based on credit risk, such as holding risk weights of 0%, 20%, 50%, and 100%. A new 150% rating comes in Basel II for borrowers with poor credit ratings (Wikipedia, 2011). According to Basel I, those international banks are required to maintain their capital equivalent to 8% of risk weighted assets. However, it has been criticized because the low risk sensitiveness of its capital requirements may lead to greater risk raking and regulatory capital arbitrage practices by banks, furthermore it focused only on the credit risk while ignoring the bulk of multiple risks facing by banks today. Therefore, Basel II has been developed which relies on the three pillars as such capital requirement, supervisory review and market discipline to achieve the safety and soundness of the financial system. The new framework addresses the perceived shortcomings and structural weakness of Basel I and it is fairly complex compare to the crude risk weight of the Basel I in order to make its understanding implementation a challenge to both regulatory and the regulated community. In Basel II, it was focused on financial and operational risk that faced by bank. It created an international standard for banking regulators to exercise when decided the amount of capital that banks need to maintain and guard against the financial and operational risk. Basically, regulatory capital requirements for credit risk in Basel II are calculated according to two alternative approaches which are the Standardized and the Internal Ratings-Based (IRB). Standardized approach of the Basel II framework assembles the simplest options with the objective by simplifying choices for certain banks and supervisors for measuring the other determinants. For operational risk, there are 3 different approaches which are basic indicator approach, standardized approach, and the internal measurement approach whereas for the market risk, the preferred approach is VaR (value at risk). Besides that, Basel II was highlight on the three main fundamentals which are capital allocation to be more risk se nsitive, divided operational risk from credit risk and reduce the scope for regulatory arbitrage. Moreover, it has provided clearer picture on the definition of bank capital by using three pillars concept. In addition, Basel II put more attention on Pillar 1 by describing the different approaches to compute the minimum requirement. It seems that the principles and objectives of Pillar 2 and Pillar 3 is not very precise which left to national supervisors discretion. For Pillar 2, the supervisory review, supervisor tend to determine the banks rating based on its capital and risk levels. Low rated banks will be comparing to high rated banks to tighter the dividend restrictions in order to build capital. For Pillar 3, market discipline, public statement about the banks rating has been made by supervisor through showing the informational role played by rating agencies. It also shown the discipline enforced by uninsured depositors in order to allow the supervisor to reduce banks risk taki ng incentives by reducing the fraction of insured deposits. Overall, Basel II represents a rise in the risk sensitivity of banking regulation and supervision hence it reduces banks risk taking incentives and supervision cost (Elizalde, 2007). Basel III is a comprehensive set of measures to strengthen the regulation, supervision and risk management of the banking sector. It helps to improve the banking sectors ability to absorb shocks arising from economic and financial stress. The minimum regulatory standard for Tier 1 capital ratio has been increased from 4% in Basel II to 6% in Basel III. Basel III continues to be viable capital standard and it does not replace Basel I or Basel II in which Basel III is about more than just capital ratios. It proposed stronger capital framework by increasing the significantly the quality, the coverage, and the required level of bank capital. The components which include credit risk, market risk and operational risk have been adjusted in Basel III. Besides, the new definition of capital also has been adjusted where there are no sub-categories of Tier 2, elimination of Tier 3 category due to no real impact, and minimum requirements established for common equity Tier 1, Tier 2 and total cap ital has been set. Furthermore, there are new rules for counterparty credit risk to be finalized, for instance, the capital adequacy ratio is being raised where the minimum common equity requirement will be 4.5% as compare to the current 2%. A capital conservation buffer of 2.5% is to make sure that banks maintain the level of buffer of capital that can be used to absorb losses during periods of financial and economic stress, thus it will be added to the 4.5% to make a total requirement of 7% common equity to total risk-weighted assets. In Basel III, a countercyclical buffer within a range of 0% 2.5% of common equity or other fully loss absorbing capital will be implemented according to national circumstances. There are also two new liquidity ratios which consist of liquidity coverage ratio and net stable funding ratio are introduced in Basel III. Liquidity coverage ratio is focused on the shorter end of the time horizon and is aimed at ensuring that each bank owns liquid resources to such an amount that short term cash obligations are fulfilled even under a severe stress. In addition, Basel III is introducing a global minimum liquidity standard for internationally active banks that includes a 30-day liquidity coverage ratio requirement underpinned by a longer-term structural liquidity ratio. While, net stable funding ratio looks at a medium term horizon and focused on the structural balance between maturities of a banks assets and liabilities. It is aimed at preventing banks from exposing themselves to extreme maturity transformation risks by funding medium and long term assets with very short term liabilities. Besides that, based on Wikipedia (2011), the introduction of leverage ratio is an additional measurement of Basel II risk-based framework. The purposes of the introduction of leverage ratio are put a floor under the buildup of leverage in banking sector and to introduce additional safeguards against model risk and measurement error by increasing the r isk based with the measurement based on gross exposures. Moreover, in Basel III, it will help to strengthen the risk coverage of the capital frameworks especially for counterparty credit exposures arising from banks derivatives, repo and securities financing transactions. Hence, it also emphasize on raising the capital buffers backing these exposures while reduce procyclicality (Wikipedia, 2011). It would help to provide additional incentives to move OTC derivative contracts to central counterparties and most probably will be clearing houses. Student should gather own conclusion that Include: Agree, Disagree or Unable to make conclusion due to scarcity of data or information. In a nutshell, we can see that there is improvement through the development of Basel which is useful to adapt in fast changing economic and financial environment. Moreover, it is acts as a comprehensive guideline in helping the financial institutions to reshape their capital structure in order to improve their performance in gaining confidence from the public. Since the happening of global financial crisis, Basel has become one of the most important elements to ensure the banks always maintain its capital requirement for its soundness. In addition, the Basel developments show that the country issue is being focused thus it can enhance the ownership of the standard developed. There are few advantages of using the Basel to operate the banks performance level, which is it can raise the quality, consistency and transparency of capital base Tier 1 capital. Next, it helps to enhance risk coverage, from Basel II to Basel III there is apply a multiple of 1.25 to the asset value correlation of exposures to regulate financial firms with assets of at least $ 25 billion. This would have the effect of raising risk weights for such exposures. It may reduce the exposure risk of the assets of financial institutions and minimize the mistake when calculated the intrinsic value of the assets through the Basel. Last but not least, it may improve the leverage ratio of financial institution through Basel III.

Saturday, May 9, 2020

Vital Pieces of Plant Essay Topics

Vital Pieces of Plant Essay Topics Plant Essay Topics - Overview Biology is an area of study that's very critical in the academic curriculum. Essays are sometimes a difficult assignment for many students. Expressive essays don't have some particular structure, yet it's advised to stick to the five paragraph structure. When the essay on biology was written, a revision is crucial to guarantee the content is in order. Plant Essay Topics and Plant Essay Topics - The Perfect Combination The description of the event might include the feeling of attending a particular birthday party. First off, select a topic that's interesting for you before you think how others are going to react to it. Just like any paper, the subject of your choice is a remarkably important thing. In an issue of speaking, picking out persuasive essay topics is similar to telling yourself what you wish to convey to the rest of earth. Plants are also a rather important supply of food. They need water so the y can grow. Plants must be watered with water that doesn't have any chemicals. They also provide the food that is necessary for humans to survive, as well as providing the basis for the survival of other species that are also essential to human survival. The Pain of Plant Essay Topics Gardening can provide you many pleasures should you just take some time to stop and enjoy them. Gardening is also a rather practical activity. Gardening is a rather physical activity. Gardening also permits you to be in the existence of nature even if this presence is a little potted plant. Although the writer is simply describing the subject, there ought to still be logic to follow. In the majority of instances, you want to develop a topic that will make it possible for other people to realize your viewpoint, and telling them to think that what you write is true. The close of the article ought to be firm and sum up the entire article. Thus, overall, individuals are getting to be aware of the very important need to have a nice and clean atmosphere. Moreover, watching something come alive, grow and thrive due to your efforts can be quite a satisfying experience. You have to make sure you're very interested in the topic before you're able to persuade others about it. Consider an instance of how you can better your speaking via an illustration of a single change in the manner in which you believe. Plant Essay Topics - What Is It? Essay writing is definitely thought to be part of academic life and essay writing demands certain abilities or the region of the writer. The outline for a biology essay offers you clear guidelines about how to go about with writing the write-up. Biology essay topics must be detailed so they can be differentiated from other sorts of papers. Persuasive essay topics don't always must be of a critical nature, you can write about things that are linked in your life. The more information you'll be able to gather about the subject, the better prepared you'll be for writing your essay. It is not very easy to compose a how-to essay. Such essays shall have a good deal of quotations, based just on facts and laws, and show no more than the actual picture of the situation. The biology essay introduction is the the most critical portion of the post, since it will determine whether the readers may wish to read more of the piece or not. Thoroughly research on the subject, and be certain that there are sources from which you may retrieve information. If you're confused with a selection of interesting topics to research online, it's far better to choose what interests you the most. With research, general topics want to get avoided. Last, be certain that the topic you decide on can be supported by some factual evidence. Plant Essay Topics Secrets That No One Else Knows About High Capital Intensive Nuclear Plants need a high degree of technology and an important preliminary capital investment. A way to solve the waste management problem has to be explored and developed.

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Understanding Weather Free Essays

What you will study Entry Regulations If you have a disability Study materials Teaching and assessment Future availability Students also studied How to register Student reviews Distance learning This course provides an introduction to weather patterns and events around the world, explaining the main drivers that determine the weather on a seasonal and daily basis. You’ll explore how the professional weather forecasts for your area have been made and how reliable they are likely to be. Understanding the weather is one of a series of short, five month 10-credit courses introducing fascinating topics in science. We will write a custom essay sample on Understanding Weather or any similar topic only for you Order Now You can try out an area of study before you commit yourself to a longer course, or top up your knowledge and skills between longer courses. Register for the course Choose country to update fee: StartEndFeeRegister 06 Apr 2013 See description Choose country above April 2013 is the final start date for this course. For more information, see Future availability. What you will study The weather arises from physical processes within the atmosphere as it responds to the rotation of the Earth and the heating effect of the Sun. In this course you will discover how these processes determine the weather, how they vary depending on location and time of the year and the extent to which they can be forecast. You will also consider some of the ways in which typical variations in the weather and extreme weather events affect a wide range of human activities. Scientific concepts relating to temperature, humidity, air pressure, air density, clouds, precipitation and wind will be explained and you will see how many factors operate together in the atmosphere to produce various types of weather system. This in turn will give you a better understanding of the information conveyed by weather maps. You will also learn about the ways in which meteorological data, including surface and upper-air measurements as well as satellite information, are collected and fed into the computer models that underlie weather forecasting. This will enable you to understand how the professional weather forecasts for your area have been made and how reliable they are likely to be. You will be able to apply this knowledge in making your own short-term predictions of your local weather. There will be plenty of opportunity to consolidate your understanding of the scientific concepts by investigating different weather systems in a variety of climatic zones across the world. By the end of the course you will have developed a range of study skills associated with retrieving and interpreting information in the form of tables, charts, maps and graphs. You will be required to undertake some small projects in which you will develop your ability to observe your local weather in a systematic way and to interpret forecasts. The course is based on a specially written Open University (OU) study book, together with a website with online activities using images, videos and other material and links to particular weather stations. The study book will provide questions and activities to help you to test your understanding, and that you can use for self-assessment as you progress through the course. The course is produced in partnership with the Royal Meteorological Society. Entry The course is designed for people who are coming new to science and to meteorology, and all you really need is an interest in how the weather works and the motivation to find out more about the science underlying meteorological phenomena and forecasting. You must be prepared to study some physical science and to learn how to interpret satellite images, maps, weather charts and graphs. You will need to access various types of forecast through the internet. You must also be willing to make some observations of the weather in your own locality and to keep a record of what you see. Mathematically, you need to be able to add, subtract, multiply and divide, and although it would be useful to have a little basic knowledge of general science this is not essential. The structured teaching will take you to a level at which you will be able to understand important aspects of the science of the atmosphere which give rise to our weather. You should be able to read and understand written English of a style and complexity characteristic of a professional magazine or quality newspaper, and you should be able to communicate your thoughts clearly and comprehensibly in a written format. If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact our Student Registration Enquiry Service. Regulations As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the Module Regulations and the Student Regulations which are available on our Essential documents website. If you have a disability A proportion of the course is delivered online via the website, so you will have to spend a considerable amount of time using a personal computer and the internet. You must be able to download material from a website and download information from local weather stations via the internet. Written transcripts of the audio-visual material are available. You must also be able to undertake simple observations of the weather in your locality of a period of several consecutive days. The course relies heavily on coloured images, complicated maps and charts, and direct observations of the sky. One of the aims of the course is that students should develop an ability to interpret cloudscapes, weather maps, satellite images and their own observations. No textual descriptions of diagrams will be available and the use of a sighted assistant to interpret the images or describe the sky would conflict with the course learning outcomes. The assessment will only require students to demonstrate that the majority of course learning outcomes have been achieved. You should consider if you will find achieving these learning outcomes challenging and contact the Student Registration Enquiry Service for advice before registering for this course. You will be required to draw diagrams or to annotate diagrams that you download, and then to use either a scanner or a digital camera to produce electronic versions of these diagrams for inclusion in your assessment. Alternatively, creating diagrams electronically will be acceptable. Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) versions of printed material are available. Some Adobe PDF components may not be available or fully accessible using a screen reader and scientific or diagrammatic materials may be particularly difficult to read in this way. Other alternative formats of the study materials may be available in the future. Our Services for disabled students website has the latest information about availability. If you have particular study requirements please tell us as soon as possible, as some of our support services may take several weeks to arrange. Visit our Services for disabled students website for more information, including: help to determine your study requirements and how to request the support that you need Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSAs) using a computer for OU study equipment and other support services that we offer examination arrangements how to contact us for advice and support both before you register and while you are studying. Study materials What’s included OU study book, online activities using images, videos and other material, study guide, maths skills ebook. You will need Basic scientific calculator. You will be required to draw diagrams or to annotate by hand diagrams that you download, and then to use either a scanner or a digital camera to produce files of these diagrams for inclusion in your assessment. Computing requirements You will need a computer with internet access to study this course which includes online activities. You can only access these using a web browser with Flash and Java. If you have purchased a new desktop or laptop computer since 2006 you should have no problems completing the online activities. If you’ve got a netbook, tablet or other mobile computing device check our Technical requirements section. If you use an Apple Mac you will need OS X 10. 5 or later. You can also visit the Technical requirements section for further computing information including the details of the support we provide. Teaching and assessment Study support You can contact a team of expert study advisers through an online discussion forum, and they will be able to help you with academic questions to do with the course and the assessment. There will also be an online discussion forum that you can use to get in touch with other students. Contact our Student Registration Enquiry Service if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register. Assessment The assessment details for this course can be found in the facts box above. You must use the online system to submit your end-of-module assessment (EMA). You will have to submit the single piece of written work for assessment after 21 weeks. There will be no other opportunity to complete the course. Future availability The details given here are for the final course start in April 2013 when it will be available for the last time. Students also studied Students who studied this course also studied at some time: Volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis (S186) Exploring science (S104) Maths for science (S151) The frozen planet (S175) Elements of forensic science (S187) How to register To register a place on this course return to the top of the page and use the Click to register button. Student Reviews â€Å"Firstly I took this course to gain an extra qualification and credits for University, but also because of my keen †¦ † Read more â€Å"This was an excellent course which included a good mix of theory and practical activities. It was really enjoyable and †¦ † Read more How to cite Understanding Weather, Papers