Robert Fowler: Plumpton College then Bioscience MRes
I started my higher education with a Foundation Degree in Forestry and Woodland Management at Plumpton College, which is part of the University of Brighton. This vocational rewarding yet academically minded course instilled in me a desire to continue my studies onto a BSc in Ecology and Biogeography.
Here I was able to build upon my habitat management and practical ecology skills I had learnt in my foundation years with experience in statistical applications, experimental design, ecological theory and a research project.
Completing my BSc I felt more than prepared to enter a career in conservation or ecology where I had the ability to apply what I had learnt to a range of different fields and contexts. However, research and academia were at the forefront of my mind and I decided to complete a sustained research project through a Masters in Research in Bioscience. Here I investigated the relationship between pollinators and certain flowers of conservation schemes, testing the influence of pollen quality on foraging attraction.
Over the course of my Masters, I have been able to gain a ESRC funded PhD Studentship at the University of Birmingham which is to start in Oct 2010, looking at pollinators in the urban environmental and the anthropogenic influences upon the 250 species of bee present in the UK.
