Key facts

Overview

The admissions cycle for 2013 is now open. Click here for How to Apply.

The Postgraduate Certificate in Ecological Survey Techniques offers an effective blend of online, face-to-face and experiential learning to equip students with capacity, knowledge, understanding and confidence to conduct ecological field surveys, and then quantify and analyse data in order to effectively assess and monitor biodiversity and ecosystems. The approach is practical, and students are encouraged to question, and pool/exchange knowledge and experience with their peers and tutors.

The PGCert is usually followed over one year, however we welcome students wishing to undertake a variable intensity of study over two or three years to help them balance other commitments or seasonal variations in optimal surveying conditions. Please get in touch with the course team to discuss variable intensity futher on est@conted.ox.ac.uk

Want to find out more? Explore materials or revisit our online open event. Any questions for the team? - we're happy to talk to you at any time. Contact the Programme team with your questions (est@conted.ox.ac.uk).

Who is it for?

It is designed to appeal to:

• Those working in both developed and developing countries e.g. employees of NGOs and statutory nature conservation organizations, environmental consultants, wildlife conservation officers, environmental records office employees;
• Those who are working in environment-related professions or wider business/industry where knowledge of environmental conservation practice, and in particular ecological survey techniques, is important to their jobs, e.g. secondary school teachers, FE and HE institution teachers, corporate employees, local government workers such as biodiversity planners;
• Those who are volunteers or have local influence and have an active non-professional interest in environmental conservation or those who want to change career into the environment sector and need an environmental qualification, e.g. local environment group volunteers and leaders, expedition NGOs who rely on volunteers to conduct field research, volunteers with NGOs and Wildlife Trusts;
• Recent graduates with degrees in related fields (such as, but not limited to, environmental conservation, biology and ecology – if in doubt please contact the Programme Team); individuals with no formal higher education qualification but with excellent demonstrable practical experience are encouraged to apply, e.g. someone with extensive field survey expertise, trustee of an environmental NGO, research assistant on an environmental project, or an initiator of a local environmental group.

Fees and Funding

Fees as stated cover course tuition and assessment. Our students have been successful in obtaining funding help or packages. See Grants, bursaries, loans, and scholarships. Candidates for the PG Cert may be interested in the Louis Dreyfus-Weidenfeld Scholarship and Leadership Programme.

Description

Key Features

Structure

• The core week at the start of the course (commencing 19 September for 2013 entry) is taught face-to-face in Oxford. (cost of board/lodging not included). Made up of five days of general introduction to the later modules, work will build to a piece of formative (no credit) assessment. Students also have the opportunity to start discussing academic and logistical aspects of field project proposals;
• The four tutor-led online modules (2 core; 2 optional) each take no more than 100 hours to complete and each produce 10 credits of assessment. Each module will include revision activities, research and discussion activities, multimedia tasks, practical exercises and an assessment;
• The field survey project consists of 1 month preparation time, 1-2 weeks full-time or full-time equivalent field survey, 1 month project writing, producing 20 credits of assessment;
• The course Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is fully tutor-led and accessible to students for the duration of the course; students regularly make full use of online forums to keep in touch and exchange knowledge
• The equivalent of six one-hour tutorials will be delivered online.

Programme details

The Modules:

The one-year, part-time Postgraduate Certificate is made up of a number of modules, and teaching is delivered in a variety of ways.

FACE-TO-FACE: Introduction to EST

This 5 -day module provides an induction to the course (you will get to meet your Course Director and fellow PGCert students) and its components as well as offering an introduction to Geographical Information Systems, an overview of how to go about identifying plants and and animals and an introduction to selected techniques. It will offer a mix of classroom and field-based teaching, with two days spent in the field at Wytham Woods on activities including use of GPS, bird netting and ringing, surveying bats and trees.

During the week, students are also introduced to University facilities/resources, and encouraged to start thinking about a research topic for their project. Students also make optional module selections, and start planning the rest of their year. For an idea of timings and content, please see the teaching timetable for September 2012.

CORE MODULES (5 weeks each in duration)

• Field Techniques for Surveying Vegetation - commences 18 September 2013 for 2013-14, ONLINE, 10 CATS points (more details
• Data Analysis: Statistics for Ecologists and Field Biologists - commences 30 October 2013 for 2013 -14y, ONLINE, 10 CATS points (more details

OPTIONAL MODULES (Select TWO: 5 weeks each in duration)

• Field Techniques for Surveying Mammals & Reptiles - commences 6 January 2014 for 2013-14, ONLINE, 10 CATS points (more details)
• Field Techniques for Surveying Birds - commences 13 February 2014 for 2013-14, ONLINE, 10 CATS points (more details)
• Field Techniques for Surveying Fish and Amphibians - commences 24 March 2014 for 2013-14, ONLINE, 10 CATS points (more details)
• Field Techniques for Surveying Invertebrates - commences 1 May 2014 for 2013-14, ONLINE, 10 CATS points (more details)

Field Project (20 CATS points)

You will be introduced to the field project module during your week in Oxford. Whilst the bulk of your work on your project may commence later on in the year, you will start thinking about a topic early on, and will be given the equivalent of 6 hours' of online tutorials to help you to design, develop and implement your project. You will be assigned a supervisor with expertise in the field you wish to specialise in. The field project is worth around one third of your Certificate, and is a valuable piece of learning in its own right. Work here will consolidate and further develop skills you will have learnt in earlier modules. The course launched in September 2012, and we shall post details of project topics on this page later in Spring 2013.

Selection criteria

Staff

Dr Jocelyne Hughes

Role: Director & Tutor

Biography

I am Course Director in Ecological Survey Techniques. Since 1998, I have been a Departmental Lecturer in the Department for...more Continuing Education responsible for directing a portfolio of environmental courses. Previously I was a college lecturer at St. Catherine's College, University of Oxford, a research fellow at University College London, and I have held University Lectureships at the University of Reading (1990-98) and the University of Melbourne, Australia (1987-89).

I am a Trustee of the Oxfordshire Nature Conservation Forum; member of the Institute of British Geographers and the British Ecological Society; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society; member of the Commonwealth Scholars alumni network; organiser of my local Wildlife Conservation Group working with volunteers to carry out wildlife conservation projects.

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)1865 286948
Email: jocelyne.hughes@conted.ox.ac.uk

Teaching

I direct the Postgraduate Certificate in Ecological Survey Techniques; previously I directed the two OUDCE Undergraduate Diplomas in Environmental Conservation; and I have organised and developed a variety of short courses for professionals and the general public in the Environmental Sciences and Biology, including the annual Oxford Energy Futures conference.

I teach and supervise on a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the University of Oxford, including the MSc in Water Science, Policy & Management in the School of Geography & the Environment, and the Postgraduate Diploma in International Wildlife Conservation Practice in the Department of Zoology (WildCRU). I am an external examiner at the Open University.

Research interests

My research focuses on the ecology, hydrology and management of wetlands. I have a particular interest in the ecological importance of microflow environments provided by aquatic plants in rivers and wetlands; water and nutrient cycling in wetlands; wetland vegetation dynamics; constructed wetlands.

Currently I carry out field research and monitoring into plant-water relationships at Marley Fen in Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire. I have carried out field work in a diversity of wetland habitats in Tunisia, Australia, Antarctica, Guatemala and the UK. I am a research associate at the School of Geography & the Environment at Oxford.

Publications

Selected Publications: Zhong, S & Hughes, JMR 2002 Laboratory flume studies of microflow environments of aquatic plants Hydrological Processes 16, 3279-3289

Zhong, S & Hughes JMR 2001 Turbulent structure of open-channel flow over aquatic plants: a laboratory flume study. In (ed LI Guifen) Proceedings of the 29th International Association of Hydraulic Engineering & Research, Beijing

Hughes, JMR & Heathwaite, AL (eds) 1995 Hydrology & Hydrochemistry of British Wetlands , John Wiley & Sons, Chichester. 486pp

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Mr Damien Farine

Role: Tutor

My current research focuses on the social behaviour of birds, particularly interspecific interaction in mixed-species flocks. I am based at the...more Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, part of the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford, where I am studying towards a doctorate. Previously, I worked as an ecologist for CSIRO in Australia, where I investigated the potential for the production of sustainable biomass for bioenergy in Australia. This involved determining energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and soil carbon flows in agricultural and forestry systems, and I participated on several projects investigating options for climate change mitigation at regional to national scales.

During this time at CSIRO I also had opportunities to participate in many aspects of biodiversity research in remote parts of the continent, including Cape York and the Simpson Desert, where I conducted bird surveys by both land and air.

I still maintain a study site in Australia where I mist-net a diversity of birds including parrots, in order to explore ecological impacts of habitat change. However, my time is mostly spent in Wytham Woods near Oxford, where I am maintaining a PIT-tagged mixed-species population of tits and nuthatches on which I conduct behavioural experiments. I have also carried out field work on Albatross in the Southern Ocean and I am a life-long birdwatcher.

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Dr Thomas Hesselberg

Role: Tutor

I am a research associate at the Oxford Silk Group at the Department of Zoology at Oxford University where my current research focuses on...more analysing the geometry of the spider's orb web as well as the rules governing their behaviour. I have a PhD in biomimetics on functional morphology and locomotory behaviour of ragworms from the University of Bath and have previously worked on flight control in insects in Germany and tropical orb spiders in Panama.

Most of these diverse projects have resulted in large data-sets which I have analysed using a wide range of statistical tests.

In addition to my research I am Director of Studies for biological sciences in Public Programmes at the Department for Continuing Education for which I also teach weekly classes in animal behaviour. I give tutorials and supervise undergraduate projects at the Department of Zoology.

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Dr Roger Key

Role: Tutor

Consultant ecologist and former Senior Invertebrate Ecologist for English Nature and Natural England. Originally from Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire,...more most of my career has been in nature conservation, especially of invertebrates, first with the Radnorshire Wildlife Trust and then the Nature Conservancy Council/ English Nature & Natural England for over 25 years, before capitalizing on the educational work that I undertook (from tots’ minibeasts safaris to PhD studentships), to become Senior Education Specialist for Natural England. I’m now retired (early!) and an independent entomological/ environmental education consultant, where my work has included lecturing/advising course content for 11 universities, undertaking habitat evaluation, survey and management advice and continuing children’s invertebrate work. I’m probably best known for my invertebrate photographs (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/roger_key/), which have been published by over 300 organizations in 19 countries. In 2009 & 2011, I undertook 6 week research expeditions to South Georgia and St Helena, surveying for new alien invasive invertebrates, unfortunately being very successful at finding them on both islands. Other than that I’ve done much media natural history with the BBC, presenting on Countryfile, the Countryside Hour etc. and made the Christmas special ‘Auntie’s Bloomers’ with a spectacular trip over an old tree! I was awarded the Royal Entomological Society’s Marsh Award for a lifetime’s achievement in invertebrate conservation in 2010. close

Dr Chris Newman

Role: Tutor

Dr. Chris Newman, is a Senior Research Associate with the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford, who joined the group...more back in 1991. Chris is the co-ordinator for the WildCRU’s Badger Project, specialising in population dynamics and the effects of climate change and disease in population regulation. He collaborates extensively with other researchers internationally and is an author of over 50 peer reviewed papers and book chapters on many diverse aspects of mammal ecology, as well as work advocating public and corporate participation in conservation initiatives.

Chris undertook his D.Phil. on Population Ecology, Demography and Parasitology at Oxford University. He is an inter-disciplinary biologist, drawing together insights from demography, animal behaviour, physiology, evolution, genetics and parasitology, along with expertise in geology and forestry, to synthesise new ideas and comprehensive approaches to understand wildlife biology. Chris is the Mammals Officer for the Department of Zoology’s Ethical Review Committee and the WildCRU’s Animal Care and Welfare Officer.

Chris has run courses and tutored for Oxford University’s Department of Continuing Education for many years, and is also an experienced Principal Investigator with the Earthwatch Institute, currently running mammal monitoring expeditions in Nova Scotia, Canada.

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Dr Jon Shrives

Role: Tutor

Born and raised on the island of Jersey, Jon first became interested in marine ecology picking through the local rock pools with his grandfather...more at low tide. As a teenager, Jon learnt to SCUBA dive in the local bays and coves, and became fascinated with exploring the underwater world. Whilst studying for his undergraduate degree at the University of Southampton, he was bitten by the field work bug, studying fish on the idyllic coral reefs of Indonesia. After university, he then went on to work for several NGOs and ecotourism companies, first as a dive instructor and then later as a lecturer, senior scientist and ultimately an expedition leader in Indonesia, Honduras and Oman.

Jon returned to academia to study for his D.Phil at the University of Oxford, splitting his time between the UK and the coral reefs of Honduras. Whilst at Oxford, Jon supervised undergraduate field work and tutored in both tropical and UK marine ecology and conservation. After graduating, Jon then returned to Jersey to work for the States of Jersey Environment Department as a marine biologist and fisheries officer. Here his work varies from conducting stock assessments to enforcement patrols at sea, advising politicians on marine issues and working with both local and French fishermen and scientists to sustainably manage and protect the local marine environment.

With his love for rowing, sailing and diving, Jon can usually be found near some form of water, either in it or on it in various forms. He is a research associate of the Zoology Department at Oxford.

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Assessment methods

The course is assessed on a modular basis, with assessments reflecting the learning objectives of the course. Students are required to submit:

• One 2500 word formative (marked with feedback but no credit towards formal course results) assignment;
• Four 2000 word assignments, up to two of which may be submitted as poster or PowerPoint presentations depending on which optional modules are chosen (10 CATS points each);
• One 5000 word field project and 1000 word online journal (20 CATS points).

Teaching methods

The programme is mostly taught online; this is designed to help in terms of access to the course for those in full-time employment, and can also encourage participation from students and professionals globally. Students come from a diversity of backgrounds, and are able to form effective networks and share perspectives on a range of themes.

Minimum IT Requirements

Please note that this course is taken online; to participate in our online courses we recommended a minimum computer specification.

Accommodation

The Department offers a full residential and catering facillity, with a range of both 3 and 4-star campus accommodation. 'Number 12', our recently refurbished Victorian on Wellington Square, right next to Rewley House, offers 9 superior en-suite bedrooms.

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