Bangor University helps develop conservation science teaching in Bangladesh and Ghana

Dr Julia Jones and the visitors from Ghana and Bangladesh outside the School of Environment, Natural Resources and GeographyAcademics at Bangor University are working with colleagues from Bangladesh and Ghana to increase and improve the teaching of conservation science in these two biodiversity rich countries. The British Council has funded a capacity building project which allows exchanges between students, researchers and staff from Universities in Bangladesh, Ghana and Bangor. Three staff from Khulna University and Rajshahi University in Bangladesh, and Accra University in Ghana, are currently in Bangor taking an MSC module in conservation biology and working with staff in the School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography to develop conservation biology curricula for their own universities.

Dr Julia Jones, senior lecturer in conservation at Bangor said:

‘I very much value having the visitors in my MSc class and we are learning as much from them as they are learning from us’.

Jesse Ayivor from Accra University, Ghana said:

‘Attending this course in Bangor has been immense benefit to me. It will help me develop conservation biology course for my institute in Ghana’.

Nuzhat Ara from Rajshahi University Bangladesh said:

‘Interactive classes helped me viewing problems from a broader and more critical perspective.’

Sophie Williams with Bangladeshi MSc students in BangladeshSophie Williams, a PhD student in the school has just returned from Bangladesh where she spent two weeks teaching ecological research methods to Bangladeshi MSc students. The training primarily took place on a field trip to the Sundarbans Mangrove Forest, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and an ecosystem increasingly under pressure from extraction of natural resources and climate change. Professor Bidhan Chandra Das from the Department of Zoology, Rajshahi University explains the value of this exchange:

‘The impact of Sophie’s visit was very positive in our department as well as in our Life and Earth Science Faculty. Sophie was extremely helpful in the development of our plans to improve conservation biology teaching. I personally learnt a lot from her especially the techniques she used to teach the students’.

Publication date: 2 December 2010