MSc Wildlife Management and Conservation projects

Project Work

The project is a particularly important component of the course, not only because the write-up constitutes a large proportion of the final mark, but also because it provides the student with a real opportunity to carry out some original applied research on some aspect of wildlife management. Project work is carried out from the middle of April culminating in the thesis which has to be submitted by the end of August. Students are encouraged to carry out work that is needed by the conservation community and that will make a real contribution to, for example, the management of a particular species, the rate of development of a habitat following management, or the effect of different management procedures on biodiversity. Projects are carried out on a wide range of types of organisms and there is plenty of scope to tailor projects around an individual's interests or requirements. Projects can be carried out partly or wholly outside the University and also overseas, although all arrangements are subject to approval by the Course Director (titles of past projects are provided in the Course Handbook). It is expected that students will present the results of their work at a student symposium at the beginning of October and to write a short communication summarizing their project for the CWAC (see below) e-journal for dissemination of results to practitioners for subsequent use. Many projects are ultimately submitted for publication in refereed international journals with students as authors.