Postgraduate

The taught M.Sc. degree in Environmental Sciences, as the first of its kind in Ireland, has an established pedigree, attracting students with diverse academic backgrounds from Ireland and abroad. This full-time, intensive course is intended for administrative and scientific workers and new graduates with an appropriate environmental science related background, although applications from graduates with different backgrounds are also welcomed. It comprises a series of taught modules encompassing a variety of current environmental themes, followed by a five-month, research project. There is also the possibility to opt for a diploma course in Environmental Sciences, consisting of the taught modules only.

This programme has been designed to provide students with a sound theoretical and practical grounding in the science of biological diversity and its conservation. The programme is taught in modules, and these are grouped into theoretical components, practical research skills, and modules dealing with individual desk-based and experimental research projects. The course is taught through a variety of methods - lectures, practical classes, field-based learning, guided reading and discussion groups and web-based methods. A variety of assessment procedures are used - essay writing, oral presentations, web-based tests, examinations and dissertations. The approach is to develop, progressively, a high degree of independent thinking and academic excellence in students completing the course.