Biodiversity and Conservation MSc

University of Sheffield

This 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 learning about conservation issues in major ecosystems, from tropical forests to cities, and coral reefs to the deep sea, and the constraints posed by budgets, policy and legislation.Fieldwork will form a large part of your learning. In our Field Biology module you'll gain hands-on experience of designing and conducting a project in the field, helping you to understand the challenges faced in real-world conservation projects. Our current MSc students will be completing their field course on the North Norfolk coast, one of Europe’s premier wildlife sites and a region with significant conservation challenges and varied management efforts.You'll receive training in the principles of experimental design and data collection in an area of outstanding conservation and biodiversity interest, equipping you with the key skills to plan, manage and generate data from your own research.Throughout your course, we’ll show you how environmental change can impact biodiversity and how the effective management of ecosystems can positively impact both biodiversity and the ecosystem itself.You’ll also conduct an independent research project, spending three months researching an area of biodiversity or conservation that matches your interests and equips you for your future career. 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.