The one-year course is intended for students with a strong interest in land use who want to increase their knowledge of conservation issues.

The course aims to provide students with a broad and balanced understanding of the fundamental science underpinning Conservation and Land Use. The course addresses issues concerned with sustainable use of the countryside. It examines habitats, wildlife, landscapes, and the natural and human factors influencing them. The course also examines how economic activities such as farming and forestry can be managed in an environmentally acceptable way, and how human enjoyment of the countryside can be incorporated within an integrated land use approach.

Students with degrees in agriculture, forestry, geography, biology, environmental studies, economics, law, social sciences and psychology have graduated from this course and gained employment with conservation agencies, NGOs and government organisations and with academic institutions both in the EU and overseas. The course focuses on sustainable use of the countryside including habitats, wildlife, landscapes and the natural and human factors influencing them.

Graduates from this course gained employment with conservation agencies, NGOs and government organisations and with academic institutions both in the EU and overseas.  This MSc course has also produced high calibre scientists in the fields of climate change, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy and animal diseases and human health.