An innovative new postgraduate diploma programme, validated by Kent, but based on Mauritius, will run for the first time in 2015.
The new programme will capitalise on the global conservation expertise of DICE, a research centre within the School of Anthropology and Conservation, and its long-standing partnership with the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in Jersey and the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF).
PGDip students will be based entirely on Mauritius where they will be immersed in one of the world’s most successful species and habitat restoration programmes, spearheaded by MWF in collaboration with Durrell.
Students will learn first-hand field skills such as design of transects for surveying endangered populations of geckos and taking measurements from endangered Mauritius parakeet fledglings. In addition they will gain the leadership, management and facilitation skills needed to run conservation projects on-the-ground.
The new Diploma will be administered by Durrell as a Kent-validated programme. Both DICE and Durrell have a long-term partnership in conservation research and training with MWF, the organisation which has successfully led the recovery efforts for a large number of threatened endemic species. MWF’s work has already saved a minimum of five endemic species from extinction, as well as pioneering ecosystem recovery techniques for restoring whole-island ecosystems.
It is described by Professor Richard Griffiths, Director of DICE as ‘a unique and innovative programme that could act as a model for other partnership training initiatives around the world.’