Ecology and Conservation

Ecology and Conservation
Delivered by the internationally-renowned Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), our undergraduate course is the longest running conservation course in the UK.

Our programme integrates the natural and social sciences to give you a deep and interdisciplinary understanding of conservation. Explore the interaction between people and nature, in subject areas like climate change, environmental sustainability, and conservation policy, alongside natural science areas of focus, including rewilding, biogeography, conservation genetics and wildlife management. You’ll be taught by award-winning DIC staff, giving you the knowledge, skills and global networks to make a positive impact around the world.

Our course sees students study habitats local to us and around the world. This includes the bison rewilding project in Blean, Kent, and habitats on our own campus - from ancient woodlands to grasslands and a network of ponds, home to one of the longest amphibian monitoring projects in the world. It also includes a residential field trip to Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory, and the option to take part in additional trips to Durrell Zoo in Jersey, and Costa Rica.

Graduate with skills in wildlife and habitat surveying, data analysis, survey design, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and ecological project management - having planned your own dissertation research project in the final year. Our alumni work in a range of sectors, from leading international conservation initiatives in the field, to policy development for environmental agencies, the zoo conservation sector, research, and more.

Year in Industry

The year in professional practice gives you the opportunity to spend up to a year undertaking work placements with organisations relevant to your degree programme. Placements can be at home or abroad and give you the opportunity to apply your academic skills in a practical context, offering you rare and unique experiences which will set you apart.

Year Abroad

Our extensive range of UK and overseas field trips take advantage of the UK’s rich landscapes, our beautiful green campus, and you could even venture to the forests and beaches of Costa Rica on our tropical field course. Kent is now an epicentre of rewilding efforts in the UK, and we take advantage of our proximity to reintroduction projects including the Bison in Blean woods, just a stones throw from the University of Kent.

Experience a different culture, gain a new academic perspective, establish international contacts, and enhance your employability with a year studying abroad.

Year 2

The following modules are what students typically study, but this may change year to year in response to new developments and innovations.

Compulsory modules currently include the following:

• Applied Ecology and Conservation

  Discover the ways in which ecological science can be applied to solve some of the crucial conservation problems facing the world today. You'll consider key ecological principles at the population, community and ecosystem levels, investigating how these principles can help guide management and policy decision-making. A major theme is how natural resources can be managed and exploited sustainably, drawing on examples from agriculture, urbanisation and forestry in temperate and tropical regions.

• Key Issues in Conservation Science

  Some of the topics you’ll critically evaluate include how to detect new threats to biodiversity, developing sustainable use strategies for over-exploited species, the pollinator crisis, the wildlife trade, the roles of zoos in conservation, conservation in the UK, hunting and defaunation, the impact of emerging infectious diseases, and the impacts of food production on biodiversity.

• Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

  Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are increasingly being used in many disciplines, including geography, ecology and conservation, to help solve a wide range of real-world problems using spatial data. As these disciplines moves towards the analysis of large spatial datasets, employers often report shortages of relevant GIS skills among graduates.

  This module will introduce the use of GIS as a means of solving spatial problems providing you with marketable skills relevant to research and commercial needs. You'll cover a range of methods for the collection, presentation and analysis of spatial data and hands-on training in the most commonly used GIS software.

• Practical Data Analysis and Interpretation

  Through combined lecture/practicals using computer software, this module will provide you with a solid foundation in practical data analysis and interpretation. Introductory topics will include types of data, descriptive statistics such as measures of central tendency, frequency distributions, the normal distribution, variance (standard error, standard deviation), and how sample parameters and null hypotheses apply in real data. Inferential statistics include analysis of differences between two groups (e.g. t-tests and non-parametric equivalents), differences between multiple groups (ANOVA and non-parametric equivalents), variable relationships (correlation and regression), and variable associations (e.g. chi-squared test). The role of probability in data analysis will also be considered, as will its application to scientific questions.

Optional modules may include the following

• Animal Form and Function

• Environmental Policy and Practice

• Environment and Development

• Plant Biology

• Methods and Field Work in Social Science

Please see our website for module information.

Year 3

The following modules are what students typically study, but this may change year to year in response to new developments and innovations.

Compulsory modules currently include the following:

• Research Project

  This is your chance to conduct an independent and comprehensive research project under the guidance of a research supervisor, focusing on a topic within ecology, conservation, environmental science, or geography, aligned with your degree program and interests.

  The opportunity to engage in personal research is an essential element of academic training in all disciplines, whether this be through desk-based study, practical fieldwork or laboratory work. The primary aim of the research project is to cultivate your proficiency in the organisation, analysis, and presentation of research. The approved investigation may be novel, i.e. one that has not previously been carried out, or it may repeat previously executed work for comparative or control purposes. It will typically involve some bespoke, project-specific training in practical skills, and will require you to generate research questions, hypotheses and/or theoretical frameworks for their project.

  You could choose to involve the collection of new data or be based on existing information, and consider quantitative or qualitative analysis of results, depending on the discipline investigated. You will be expected to showcase your findings through a research seminar and a dissertation written in the form of a scientific paper.

• Contemporary Issues in Conservation and Geography

  We are entering a time of environmental upheaval. As such, conservationists and geographers must continually analyse relevant and topical issues in a broad, real-world context. This includes understanding contemporary research, critically evaluating its ecological, environmental and interdisciplinary basis, and using this information to inform effective solutions to key problems that are embedded in social, political and economic reality.

  You’ll use and apply knowledge and skills gained throughout your degree during in-depth discussions of how current research programmes, fit into the wider conservation, geographical and environmental context. In addition, you’ll write up these evaluations as a series of ‘News and Views’ style commentary articles, as published in the top international journals such as Nature.

Optional modules may include the following

• Tropical Conservation Science Field Course

• Climate Change and Conservation

• Saving Endangered Species

• Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genetics

• Human Wildlife Conflict

• Sustainable Agriculture

Please see our website for module information.

Year in Industry (Optional)

Year in Industry

Many of our students choose to spend a year in industry, working on active conservation projects around the world. This can be added during your studies.

• Where can I get help finding a placement?

  DICE staff will be happy to reach out to our networks and research projects around the world. Additionally, you can book an appointment with a placement adviser via the careers service.

• Does the University keep in touch?

  We'd love you to keep in touch with DICE staff to update us on how your placement is going. You'll also receive four-weekly check-in emails and you can reach out to us any time by email or phone.

• Do I work for a full year?

  The minimum requirement for an industrial placement is 1,000 hours.

• Where have students completed their placements?

  Our students have secured placements with organisations in the UK and overseas, including at Chester Zoo, L'Oréal, KWT, TRAFFIC (Cambridge), Rainforest Awareness Rescue Education Centre (Peru) and Danau Girang Field Centre (Malaysia).

Year Abroad (Optional)

Go Abroad

Taking a year abroad – whether you study at one of our prestigious partner universities or do an internship – is an amazing opportunity. This can be added during your studies.

Any Questions? We have the answers:

• Is there any additional funding for the year abroad?

  You may be able to apply for funding; check with our Go abroad team.

• Do I have to pay tuition fees for the year abroad?

  Yes, you’ll pay a substantially reduced fee. Fees for the current year (subject to changes) can be found on our tuition fees website. You don’t pay anything to the host uni.

• Will I still get my maintenance loan?

  Yes.

• When does the year abroad take place?

  Between your second and final year.

• Do I have to learn a foreign language?

  You’re taught in English in many destinations, but you’ll get more out of your year if you learn the local language.

• Does the University keep in touch?

  You have full access to all Kent’s support services as well as our dedicated Go abroad team.

Year 1

The following modules are what students typically study, but this may change year to year in response to new developments and innovations.

Compulsory modules currently include the following:

• Diversity of Life

  Our planet supports an incredible variety of life. In this module you will explore this life in its many forms, from unicellular microbes and fungi to multicellular plants and animals. You will learn how to use morphological and molecular traits to classify any species within the tree of life. Together we will explore some of the grand evolutionary history and processes that underlie this phylogeny.

• Biodiversity and Conservation

  You’ll consider the differences and similarities between the multiple definitions for the term ‘biodiversity’ and examine how scientists are trying to assess the magnitude of biodiversity on the planet. You’ll investigate spatial and temporal patterns of biodiversity, including how past geophysical processes have shaped biodiversity as we see it distributed across biomes today. You’ll discuss the importance of biodiversity (both use and non-values) such as the global carbon cycle, how it links to biodiversity and ecosystem service provision.

  You’ll then explore contemporary threats to biodiversity and the provision of associated ecosystem services, together with a broad overview of the methods conservationists use to protect and maintain biodiversity.

• The Anthropocene

  The environmental crisis we currently face - which results from human activities - is profoundly entangled with biological, ecological, geographical and geological processes. To make a difference, you need to engage with the issues and debates surrounding the Anthropocene such as the speed, scope and scale of human activities on the earth as a system. Further, you’ll look at the multi-dimensionality of the Anthropocene.

  A multidisciplinary approach is needed to understand and develop solutions for the current environmental crisis. We’ll therefore investigate fundamental skill sets that academics need to engage with other academics and society as a whole.

• Principles in Ecology and Biogeography

  This module explores this relationship by drawing on physical geography, evolutionary biology and reproductive biology to help understand how individuals, populations and communities are distributed, and how these organisms interact with their physical environment.

  You'll begin by examining how the physiology and reproductive biology of plants have shaped the variety of habitats, ecosystems and biomes we see in the natural world. You’ll explore how these geographical patterns have been affected by both historical and current factors.

• Environmental Sustainability

  We are living in the Anthropocene: an era where human activity has become the key driver of planetary changes. This module provides a comprehensive introduction to environmental sustainability, building on the planetary boundary concept to discuss the environmental limits that human beings can safely live within.

  Using a strongly interdisciplinary approach based on human and environmental geography, we’ll discuss key environmental challenges including climate change, food systems, biodiversity loss, and pollution, among others. We’ll explore contemporary debates around sustainable development and critically analyse these in the context of real-world issues and relevant policy and governance considerations.

• Ecological Survey Methods

  This module introduces you to a range of standard field techniques and help you develop skills in collecting, analysing and presenting field data. You’ll get experience in using ecological survey techniques including biodiversity monitoring and assessment methods.

  Each project will assess the biodiversity of an appropriate taxonomic group (such as birds, amphibians, mammals or plants). You’ll carry out a range of surveys, analyse the data and write up your results.