Ecology and Wildlife Conservation with Foundation BSc (Hons)

University of Reading

With BSc Ecology and Wildlife Conservation with Foundation you will learn about the ways in which living things interact with their environment and apply this knowledge to tackling the biggest challenges facing the world today.Are you keen to take our BSc Ecology and Wildlife Conservation course but haven’t taken the necessary A level subjects? BSc Ecology and Wildlife Conservation with Foundation is a four-year programme that includes a year of foundational study and leads directly into the three-year course.This course will equip you with the skills you need for a career in ecology or wildlife conservation through a combination of classroom learning and hands-on experience in the field. You will learn to apply knowledge of ecosystems to environmental issues such as habitat conservation, the biological control of diseases, and the protection of the world's rarest plants and creatures. Most of our staff are actively engaged in research, and our work on wildlife ecology and conservation feeds into undergraduate teaching. You will also have the opportunity to take part in original research with a potentially global impact.The University of Reading’s award-winning campus is home to more than a thousand different animal species and is extremely useful for learning fieldwork skills. It offers multiple habitats for study, including lakes, hay meadows and woodlands, and allows you to step straight from the laboratory to the field. Additionally, the University owns a number of large farms, which can be used as sites for final-year projects.Our new £60m Health and Life Sciences building will open in 2020. As the new home of the School of Biological Sciences, it will offer state-of-the-art research and teaching laboratories, seminar rooms, and plenty of study and social space, including a café. The building will also house the Cole Museum of Zoology. The collection, featuring over 3,500 natural history specimens, provides a fantastic teaching resource for biological scientists and the wider community. We achieved an overall student satisfaction score of 94% in the National Student Survey, 2019, in BSc Ecology and Wildlife Conservation.You will also be able to practise species identification and ecology skills through field trips to Spain and the tropics. These will also enable you to study biodiversity in other habitats such as arid landscapes, forests and oceans.Furthermore, you can carry out a year-long industrial placement between the third and final years, in order to gain valuable industrial experience. You can also choose to do a short summer placement module. **Placement**Students in previous years have worked at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, RSPB and Environment Agency. You can also choose to spend a year abroad, typically carrying out research for an academic institute.**Careers**Your practical and scientific knowledge, combined with teamwork, communication skills, numeracy, problem-solving ability, and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances, will make you highly desirable to a wide range of employers. Career options related to your degree include environmental protection, renewable energy, sustainable transport, water, environmental consultancy, conservation biology, geological consultancy, or even applying your specialist expertise within the media. Our graduates have gone on to work for a range of major organisations including the Environment Agency, Sustrans, Thames Water and the Atomic Weapons Establishment.You will also have opportunities to take part in original research with a potentially global impact. There are also plenty of opportunities to get involved with local wildlife and conservation groups including Conserve Reading on Wednesdays (CROW) and the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT). You can beco