Postgraduate Environmental Sciences 2026-2027

Core environmental management course providing integrated understanding of environmental change and sustainability.

The quantitative appraisal of environmental issues, their interactions and effects of interventions highlight the need for systematic change and evidence-based decision making.

Through a combination of lectures, hands-on sessions, tutorials and independent study, the students gain knowledge and skills to communicate environmental issues and appraise management strategies.

This course is a residential field course that takes place in the Cairngorm National Park. During this course you will gain experience relating to the broad theme of environmental science.

You will develop a greater understanding of the dynamics of the landscape and the interactions and conflicts between stakeholders. You will be focusing on issues associated with different land uses within the Cairngorms National Park and associated decisions which directly impact the environment. This will be done by a number of site visits to sporting estates, forests, farms, and national nature reserves.

You will also have the chance to collect and make use of empirical data within the national park.

This course carries a cost of £95 for MSci Biological Sciences students

Dates for this field course are 23^rd March – 27^th March 2026

The three-month individual Research Project can cover any area of environmental or conservation science and is undertaken under the supervision of a member of staff who is an expert in your chosen field. The project provides opportunities for you to develop your abilities and skills, generate hypotheses and design ways of testing them and to analyse, report and discuss your findings. You will learn to take responsibility for implementing your own plans and modifying them as necessary. The project is written up in the style of a scientific paper manuscript or a consultancy report.

A three-month placement with an external organisation, working on the front line of environmental and conservation science. Primarily placements will be sourced by university staff to ensure quality and reliability, however, students may identify potential placements for consideration and approval by the Course and Programme Coordinator.

This course offers hands-on experience working with an industrial partner, allowing you to devise a personal skills development plan, learn about inclusion and professionalism in the workplace, collaboratively identify achievable milestones and report against those milestones.

The activity undertaken within the placement will be jointly developed between the university and the external partner to ensure the work is relevant to both and feasible within the timeframe of the placement. The body of work is likely to take the form of a work-related research project and the written output will typically take the form of a consultancy report.