Biodiversity and Conservation MSc

Develop fundamental knowledge about major conservation issues and their human and environmental drivers, including marine plastics, urbanisation, tropical logging and the balance between sustainable food production and biodiversity.

Course description

This 12-month MSc course prepares you for a career protecting biodiversity in a range of natural, agricultural and urban ecosystems around the world. Throughout your course, you'll be in the field learning about conservation issues and the constraints posed by budgets, policy and legislation. Through fieldwork in the Peak District, you'll receive training in the principles of experimental design and data collection, equipping you with the key skills to plan and manage your own scientific projects.

You'll develop an understanding of how environmental change can impact biodiversity and how the effective management of ecosystems can positively impact both biodiversity and the ecosystem itself.

You’ll conduct an Independent Research Project, spending three months researching an area of biodiversity or conservation that matches your future career aspirations. You could be field-based, lab-based or complete a computational data-driven project, tackling topics such as urbanisation, ecosystem services, tropical deforestation, and marine conservation.