School of Geography and the Environment

The MSc/MPhil in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management accepts candidates from a range of backgrounds: these include natural / environmental, science, physical science, economics, politics, law, humanities. The cross-disciplinary nature of the programme means that some aspects of the course will be more challenging than others. For example, someone with a law background will find the modules on 'Conservation Biogeography' quite challenging, but the 'International Environmental Frameworks and Policy' course will be fairly familiar, with perhaps some new perspectives on the role of conservation conventions in directing conservation practice.

The three key criteria for admission to the course are:

1. academic excellence in your first or second degree;
2. demonstrable motivation to work in the field of conservation; and
3. proven ability to write and speak English to an acceptable standard (see below).

To register for a course at Oxford University, you will be required to prove your written and spoken English language abilities. If you do not already have these qualifications, please see the University of Oxford Graduate Studies Prospectus for information on the minimum English scores accepted by the University.

There are a number of scholarships available at Oxford University, especially for overseas students. Details of these scholarships and how to apply can be found on the University of Oxford Graduate Studies Prospectus, under the section 'Finance'.

Further, please see our Fees and Funding information which provides details of many available schemes.

In addition, many Colleges offer full or partial scholarships for graduate study. College scholarships are quite difficult to find out about, but if you use the following search link, you should get a list of links to the relevant information for each College.

The School is able to offer two awards to partially offset the cost of fees. One to the value of £8,500 for EU students and a second to the value of £11,500 for overseas students. If you would like to be considered for either of these awards please send an email to the MSc Co-ordinator at the time of your application. This should include a brief statement (max 200 words) of why you merit the award.

If you have only seen the information on the main Oxford University website, then there is plenty of additional information on our website.

For information on studying at the School of Geography and the Environment's International Graduate School, including our admission criteria, please see the International Graduate School webpages.

For more information on the MSc/MPhil in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management, please look through these course webpages.

For detailed information on the MSc course, the current course handbook is available online.

The aim of the course is to train future leaders, managers and policy makers in biodiversity, conservation and natural resource management. Thus the course teaches conservation as a dynamic discipline integral to all the major areas of human concern - judicial reform, political economy, religion, spatial planning, poverty alleviation, human and institutional capacity, agriculture, and population growth, in addition to the hard science of biodiversity. Past graduates have gone on to obtain positions in a range of leading conservation and academic organisations. Examples include policy positions in government departments (e.g. UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), management positions in global conservation NGOs such as Conservation International and WWF, environmental and conservation consultancies, and international bodies such as IUCN. A significant number of students use the course as a gateway to start D.Phil./PhD research and several past students are doing doctorates within the department.