Overview

Get ready to deep-dive into the key concepts of ecology and discover how organisms behave, evolve and interact with their physical and biological environments. This course is for you if you have a scientist’s mind combined with a love of the natural world, animals, plants and ecosystems. You will be fascinated by life science and how it underpins our understanding of the natural world and conservation. You might aspire to work in conservation, research, agriculture, or even conservation communication. Or you might not yet know which career path you want to take and be excited about exploring the wide range of careers open to ecologists and conservation biologists.

About This Course

You’ll explore topics ranging from the molecular genetics of populations, plant science and animal behaviour, to environmental management, biodiversity and conservation – and explore some of these within a socio-economic and political context. You could be discussing the theories behind evolution or behaviour in a seminar one day, and experiencing the subject first-hand in the laboratory the next. Here in the lab, you’ll develop techniques to explore ecology, from microbes and parasites to model organisms. You’ll get out into the natural environment too – gaining confidence in practical field skills, survey techniques and field projects. You can choose to join one of our residential field trips to Europe or go further afield in a sub-tropical climate (currently Kenya, eSwatini or Peru) to test your skills in a totally different environment. Developing your own unique, independent research takes your learning to the next level. You’ll work with a member of our world-leading team of researchers to understand a system using the latest scientific techniques.