Masters Degrees (Rural Estate Management)

This is a highly-regarded course which equips graduates for a rewarding and challenging career in the management of land, property, and business in the countryside. It is a fast-track route to qualification as a Chartered Surveyor. The course is accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

The Royal Agricultural University is in partnership with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), which fully accredits this one-year Masters degree.

This course is a highly-regarded course which equips graduates for a rewarding and challenging career in the management of land, property, and business in the countryside. It is a fast-track route to qualification as a Chartered Surveyor.

This course is for graduates looking to acquire the specialist knowledge and skills necessary to work as a rural property manager. It also prepares graduates for qualification as a Chartered Surveyor and Fellow of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers.

Structure

The course will be studied full-time over 12 months.

You will study eight modules in the autumn and spring terms, with final examinations taking place in May. The dissertation is typically undertaken between May and September.

You will attend lectures and group tutorials.There is also a range of practical sessions, and visits to local farms, commercial properties, and rural estates where owners, occupiers and their professional advisors provide additional insights into the management of rural property. Assessed coursework features strongly throughout the course.

Before starting the MSc, students receive reading lists and study material so that they can develop a basic grounding in study areas with which they are not familiar.

Modules

• 4002 Agriculture
• 4007 Dissertation
• 4015 Farm Business and Enterprise Management
• 4016 Rural Planning and Buildings
• 4019 Rural Property Law
• 4029 Environmental and Woodland Management
• 4031 Rural Policy and Implementation
• 4033 Rural Valuation
• 4043 Rural Asset Management

Career prospects

Our Rural Estate Management graduates are directly involved with managing all types of property. The professional work of the Rural Property Manager may include:

• Valuation, and the sale and purchase of land and rural property
• Management and letting of land and property
• Farm business planning and diversification
• Development of land and buildings and rural planning
• Management of woodlands and the environment
• Compulsory purchase (roads, pipelines cables etc) and compensation claims
• Tax and financial strategy

Types of employer include:

• National, international, regional, and small firms of chartered surveyors
• Private estates
• Large landowners such as the National Trust, county councils and utility companies
• Planning and environmental consultancy
• Research and education
• Leisure management
• Rrural conservation
• Investment management.

How to apply

For information on how to apply, please follow this link: https://www.rau.ac.uk/STUDY/POSTGRADUATE/HOW-APPLY

Funding

For information on funding, please view the following page: https://www.rau.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/fees-and-funding/funding

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Our highly regarded postgraduate course provides students with a fast track to a fascinating, challenging career in rural land management, an area where employers acknowledge an enduring demand for qualified graduate trainees.

COURSE OVERVIEW

We aim to equip you with a detailed knowledge of business management, law, finance, tax and valuation, as well as the strategic decision-making ability you will need to build a successful career as a rural land or estate manager. Our course is fully accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

We will help you to develop an analytical, strategic approach to managing and advising on rural land and estates. We underpin this by developing your understanding of the legal, social, ecological and economic aspects that affect and govern the rural environment and also offer a selection of optional modules to enable you to personalise your degree.

Management case studies on local farms and rural estates allow you to apply knowledge and skills to real life problems. The programme culminates with either a project or dissertation, which is designed to consolidate your learning.

HOW WE TEACH YOU

Our programmes are designed and delivered by internationally-renowned experts, with a wealth of academic and professional experience. All of our programmes are regularly updated to maintain their relevance in a rapidly changing industry.

Our teaching received an excellent score in the most recent independent Teaching Quality Assessment (TQA), highlighting our commitment to maintaining a world-class learning environment. You will enjoy access to our cutting-edge research, ensuring that you remain at the forefront of the field.

We believe that our students should have access to good quality resources and, in addition to the facilities offered by the University, we fund a professionally staffed Resource Centre.

We aim to create a stimulating academic environment; you will be encouraged to develop individual interests and general skills as a basis for a career in the property industry, a related field or for further study.

EMPLOYABILITY

Students taking this degree programme usually find employment as trainee chartered surveyors with firms having a rural specialism or undertaking substantive rural work. Real Estate and Planning has long-standing links with a number of larger firms that regularly recruit from the University.

Our graduates tell us the content of the course is highly relevant to the profession, training them to be analytical thinkers and leaders. They have frequently progressed to become directors of landed estates or surveying firms. Some have secured posts in environmental organisations, government agencies, planning consultancies, or in academia. Some find this higher degree pathway an ideal entry qualification into wider management careers.

Most graduates complete the two years’ professional training required to become members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and many also become members of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers.

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The REALM (Rural Environment and Land Management) courses provide a first step on the route to qualification as a chartered surveyor. All prospective chartered surveyors must complete the Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) offered by RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors), and the programmes provide the academic foundation for candidates wishing to pursue the rural APC.

The postgraduate diploma (PgD) and MSc programmes are both validated by RICS under the RICS-Harper Adams University Partnership agreement, recognising the high regard in which the courses are held.

The course

The REALM (Rural Estate and Land Management) courses provide a first step on the route to qualification as a chartered surveyor. All prospective chartered surveyors must complete the Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) offered by RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors), and the programmes provide the academic foundation for candidates wishing to pursue the rural APC.

The postgraduate diploma (PgD) and MSc programmes are both validated by RICS under the RICS-Harper Adams University Partnership agreement, recognising the high regard in which the courses are held. The PgD in particular, is one of a very small number of courses in the country to have this distinction with regard to the rural APC, which is why you are required to study 12 modules (180 credits) rather than eight (120 credits). The postgraduate certificate provides a route for students who may fall short of our exacting entry requirements to get up to speed before transferring to either the PgD or MSc programmes.

Modules cover the main areas required for professional practice, in particular providing the necessary legal foundations for practice, and covering the all-important areas of the UK planning system, land tenure, rural valuation, primary production in agriculture and forestry, countryside and environmental management. A wide choice of modules means that you can tailor the programme to your own requirements.

The PgD programme is particularly popular with part-time students, often graduates who are able to combine suitable employment with study and progression through the APC.

Employment prospects in rural practice are good, and successful graduates have gone on to a wide range of jobs in recent years on rural estates and with local and national firms of rural surveyors and agricultural valuers. Feedback from students shows that the intensive modular structure is well-received, along with the practical slant of many of the assignments. This is underpinned by the professional standing of many of the tutors, who are active with the profession at the highest levels nationally and act as Assessors for the APC.

How will it benefit me?

The MSc/PgD will enable you to analyse a range of stakeholder interests and their influence, generally and site specifically, in rural land management. You will become competent in a range of techniques for rural land management and appraisal, be able to appraise the value and worth of rural land, and review the role of property in organisations.

Students also become skilled at evaluating and exploiting the latest developments in technology, and developing performance indicators in rural estate management and strategy. You will learn to formulate land management strategies which meet objectives for sustainable management while taking into account legislature, regulations, ethics and morals, the environment, amenities and commercial needs.

You will also learn to evaluate how previously implemented land management strategies have achieved their objectives, and adapt them to new requirements within an evolving economic, social, legal and political framework, with due regard to developments in sustainable development and biodiversity. You will become competent in professional methodologies used by chartered surveyors to manage and appraise rural land and property.

MSc students carry out an independent research or development project to advance their understanding of a particular issue in rural land management, or to resolve a specific and novel technical problem facing rural land managers in practice.

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Specifically the course will:
■ Provide knowledge in a wide range of applied ecological areas.
■ Underpin this with a sound understanding of the quantitative aspects of this field including statistical analysis, expert system design and population modelling.
■ Provide taught elements linked to academic applied research groups.
■ Offer a rich research training through access to project supervisors with different expertise and disciplines.
■ Provide training in crucial transferable skills in writing, presenting, discussing scientific material.

The course

This MSc serves to reinforce the relevance of ecology to a broad range of applications and trains students to apply ecological tools and understanding in a wide variety of contexts. The course draws on and complements the established and highly regarded MSc programmes taught at Harper Adams. Along with core ecological training, students will be allowed to select modules from a number of the MSc courses running at Harper Adams, including Conservation and Forest Protection, Entomology, Integrated Pest Management, Rural Estate and Land Management and Sustainable Agriculture.

Specifically the course will:
■ Provide knowledge in a wide range of applied ecological areas.
■ Underpin this with a sound understanding of the quantitative aspects of this field including statistical analysis, expert system design and population modelling.
■ Provide taught elements linked to academic applied research groups.
■ Offer a rich research training through access to project supervisors with different expertise and disciplines.
■ Provide training in crucial transferable skills in writing, presenting, discussing scientific material.

How will it benefit me?

Having completed the course you will be able to recognize the major entomological groups worldwide, understand how to apply a logical framework to demonstrate management priorities in different environments and have an understanding of individual, population and community ecology. You will be able to assess the economic and environmental costs of ecological applications and evaluate their effectiveness.

You will also have a clear understanding of the remit and function of ecosystems and a detailed knowledge and understanding of the essential facts, concepts, principles and theories relevant to your chosen area of specialization. You will receive training in how to communicate your ideas and findings related to applied ecology to a range of audiences. Although there are some compulsory modules there is considerable flexibility enabling each student to focus on specialist subjects consistent with their interests and future career intentions

For the MSc, you will also be able to test hypotheses relevant to applied ecological research by designing, carrying out, analysing and interpreting experiments or surveys. Finally, you will learn to evaluate and interpret data and draw relevant conclusions from existing case studies.

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£1,000 postgraduate bursary available. Application deadline 1 July 2015.

Delivered in conjunction with the internationally-renowned Durrell Conservation Academy, this postgraduate degree will provide you with an international outlook on species recovery. You will help meet the global need for academically proficient and technically expert individuals who can bridge the gap between in-situ and ex-situ approaches to conservation.

Why study Endangered Species Recovery and Conservation at NTU?

• Received the Highly Commended Award from the Prospects Postgraduate Awards in 2014
• Undertake an international research project using NTU's links with conservation projects in North America and South Africa.
• Students can undertake a supplementary field course at the Durrell Conservation Academy to support the taught modules.
• The School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences has invested heavily in facilities and research programmes that support wildlife conservation sciences.
• Brackenhurst campus offers 200 hectares of rural estate and modern laboratories for the development of scientific skills and experience.
• Members of the programme team have research links with international organisations and conservation programmes.

MRes projects

Students applying for this MRes course can either choose to study a relevant project of their choice, or apply to undertake one of the specific research projects listed below:

• The effect of personality on species translocation success. Dr Sam Bremner-Harrison.
• Conservation genetics of wild canids. Stephen Harrison.
• Daily behaviour and enrichment of red Squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) captive-bred for reintroduction. Dr Sam Ward & Dr Sam Bremner-Harrison.

MRes applicants also have the opportunity to apply for a competitive £1000 bursary towards course tuition fees. In addition, all MRes students can apply for up to a maximum of £1000 to cover consumables costs, which will need to be discussed and agreed with the supervisor, and approved by School Management.

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£1,000 postgraduate bursary available. Application deadline 1 July 2015.

This MRes in Applied Anthrozoology aims to develop an appreciation of the practical application of anthrozoological knowledge in a wide range of contexts. These include the therapeutic use of animals, humane education and the more generic roles and uses of animals in society. The course will cover the diversity of human-animal interactions and will critically evaluate and assess the biological and social basis of these interactions, with the aim of improving our understanding and enhancing the overall quality of specific human-animal interactions.

Why study Applied Anthrozoology at NTU?

• Staff expertise and experience in the field of animal science across a range of species;
• Further develop your skills by undertaking a collaborative research project in the field of applied anthrozoology;
• Benefit from tuition in a unique postgraduate qualification in applied anthrozoology;
• Your studies will be based at the Brackenhurst campus which offers 200 hectares of rural estate and modern laboratories for the development of scientific skills and experience;
• You will have access to our modern animal unit on campus which houses over 200 animals;
• Benefit from excellent links to partner organisations, conservation projects and academic institutions across the world; and
• You will benefit from both academic rigour and comprehensive student support within a friendly ‘family’ atmosphere.

MRes projects

Students applying for this MRes course can either choose to study a relevant project of their choice, or apply to undertake one of the specific research projects listed below:

• Quantitative and qualitative welfare assessment of zoo housed giraffe involved in visitor feed experiences. Dr Sam Ward.
• The dog-handler dyad; what factors affect canine performance output? Dr Jacqueline Boyd.

MRes applicants also have the opportunity to apply for a competitive £1000 bursary towards course tuition fees. In addition, all MRes students can apply for up to a maximum of £1000 to cover consumables costs, which will need to be discussed and agreed with the supervisor, and approved by School Management.

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£1,000 postgraduate bursary available. Application deadline 1 July 2015.

Animal Health and Welfare relates the study of animal health to improving and enhancing welfare. There is an increased global awareness of the link between animal and human health and this suggests that graduates with skills in this area are well placed for a range of career destinations within the animal sector. The course aims to develop an appreciation of the theoretical and practical application of health and welfare knowledge in a wide range of contexts. These include the use of animals in a global society, agricultural production and welfare implications, companion animal biology and the more generic roles and uses of animals in society.

Why study Animal Health and Welfare at NTU?

• Staff expertise and experience in the field of animal health and welfare science across a range of species.
• Your studies will be based at the Brackenhurst campus which offers 200-hectares of rural estate and modern laboratories for the development of scientific skills and experience.
• You will have access to our modern Animal Unit on campus which houses over 200 animals.
• Benefit from a new £2.5 million campus eco-library offering IT resources 24-7.
• Benefit from excellent links to partner organisations, conservation projects and academic institutions across the world.
• You will benefit from both academic rigour and comprehensive student support within a friendly family atmosphere.

MRes projects

Students applying for this MRes course can either choose to study a relevant project of their choice, or apply to undertake one of the specific research projects listed below:

• Quantitative and qualitative welfare assessment of zoo housed giraffe involved in visitor feed experiences. Dr Sam Ward.
• An analysis of the health and welfare implications of canine sporting disciplines. Dr Jacqueline Boyd.

MRes applicants also have the opportunity to apply for a competitive £1000 bursary towards course tuition fees. In addition, all MRes students can apply for up to a maximum of £1000 to cover consumables costs, which will need to be discussed and agreed with the supervisor, and approved by School Management.

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