Wildlife and Conservation BSc student (level 5) Cameron talks about rock flipping, becoming instant friends with other conservation enthusiasts, and getting the experience he needs for a future in the industry.
Why did you decide to embark on this degree?
I was never going to go to university or get a degree. But I tried to get a trainee job in the animal industry, and I was told it was good to have experience or a degree – or preferably both. I started off at Merrist Wood at level 3 in animal management. I decided to stay on to try to get the degree while I also get some work experience on the side.
What have been some of the best bits of the course so far?
The best bits have really been the closeness between lecturers and students. Some of my old school and college friends have gone off to other universities, and they feel like there’s always a disassociation when you have massive class sizes. They don’t really get the focused time with tutors. It feels like we can get a lot more in-depth and have great conversations about the topics we’re studying with smaller class sizes, which is very good. It’s great socially as well. We’re surrounded by likeminded people, which means we became friends and got along from the get-go.
Is the course helping shape your future career path?
Yes. I think beforehand I thought I’d want to focus on the practical side of the industry. I think a lot of people think they just want to shut themselves away and work on their own thing. But over time, I’ve definitely realised there might be a place for me in the education sector, or working with wider groups. I think the variety of different assignments and learning styles help us see our strengths and preferences. We do written work, presentations, group reports…I think seeing how well you do in each type of work helps guide what jobs you might want to do too.
What resources do you enjoy using at Merrist Wood?
As I started off at level 3, I’ve seen the whole variety of resources students can access. In what is essentially a smaller university environment, there’s a whole lot of really good equipment we use. For example, we’re studying earthworms at the moment, so we’ve been looking at them under microscopes. We’ve got the Merrist Wood site itself, so there’s definitely scope for a lot on the practical side. What’s great is that students can develop management plans, and it might actually be something that is used and put into practice. I feel like it’s all well and good to say ‘here’s a management plan’ but in the big universities, that’s never going to go anywhere. Here, there’s that opportunity that – if it’s a good enough standard – you might actually be able to see it get used.
Have you got any work experience while you’ve been studying?
There’s a lot of us at Merrist Wood who live quite far away. The condensed timetable makes the course accessible to us as we only have to come in a couple of days a week, and it means we can pursue other opportunities too. I started volunteering at Lampton 360 for Hounslow Council for my Duke of Edinburgh placement six years ago, and never left! I’ve gradually worked my way up, and there’s a lot of scope for me there.
You went on the field trip to South Africa. Tell us about it!
From a wildlife and conservation perspective, we had such a wide variety of experiences in just two weeks. We did a lot of different types of surveys, like river surveys and amphibian surveys. We used telemetry equipment, using big radios to listen for microchips in some of the wildlife. There were a lot of game drives, where we identified the different species we saw, and we had a day specifically for bird surveying too. I like bugs, so one of the best parts for me was rock flipping and looking for invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians. Everything we did we looked at from multiple perspectives – we did community work too – and it made me realise there are so many different opportunities in wildlife and conservation.
What are the next steps for you in your wildlife and conservation journey?
South Africa was great, but it made me realise I’m more of a local lad. It was amazing to see another aspect of the things we’re studying, but I think it also cemented that there is a big wide world out there, and I think it’s a bit bigger than me. I’m looking towards my dissertation next, and I’ll be sticking to local ideas. Through my job, I have access to 22 sites across one of London’s boroughs, which is the kind of site access that other people might not generally have. So I’d like to try to utilise that and bring together my studies and my work a bit more.
Course information
BSc (Hons) Wildlife and Conservation (Top-Up)
Wildlife and Conservation
Full-Time
Merrist Wood College
