New Ecology Masters Courses at University of Zurich

With the start of the semester in September new Ecology Masters courses will be offered at University of Zurich. Owen Petchey, Associate Professor of Integrative Ecology and principal coordinator: “We are pleased to announce a new and exciting set of courses called Ecology in Action that provide a broad base of knowledge about ecological concepts, methods, and challenges. Our focus will be to train students to solve real and pressing ecological problems. Three months of instructor lead teaching in the field, classroom, and laboratory research precede a 12-month research project, working in an active research group, gives first hand experience of solving ecological problems.”

Learning and research in the new Ecology Masters benefits from contributions by many research groups at the University of Zurich, as well as several external organisations, such as the Swiss Ornithological Institute: Schweizerische Vogelwarte Sempach, the Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research: WSL, the Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology: eawag, the Swiss amphibian and reptile conservation programme: karch, the Research Station into Agriculture, Nutrition and the Environment: Agroscope Reckenholz-Ta¨nikon, and Bat Conservation Switzerland.

The new courses are of particular interest to Bachelor students outside the University of Zurich with an appropriate degree in Biology. Prof. Dr. Owen Petchey explains: “We want to make the new courses as accessible as possible for all eligible students, including those from all Swiss Universities and those with an international background. Both the taught courses and the research project will have English as the primary language.” Students completing the course will be awarded a Master of Science UZH in Biology, Ecology. Outstanding students will have the possibility to convert their Masters into PhD studies, via the “Fast Track Programme”.

For further information please visit: www.ecology-uzh.org
Application Deadline for the upcoming fall term is July 31st 2012