Conservation Biology Certificate – CTCBIG

College of Arts and Sciences
Wilson Hall Administrative 204
Athens, Ohio 45701
740.597.1833

Delivery Mode: Athens Campus

Terms of Entry: Fall, Spring, Summer

Enrollment Eligibility: Degree-seeking students

Certificate Overview

Conservation Biology is a discipline concerned with the preservation, management, and restoration of biodiversity. The field is inherently interdisciplinary and merges natural and social sciences to focus on understanding of the factors responsible for promoting and maintaining biodiversity on the one hand and the challenges of mitigating the extinction of species, preserving sensitive habitats and managing landscapes that support biodiversity on the other hand. The Program in Conservation Biology offers an interdisciplinary graduate certificate in conservation biology that involves contributions from anthropology and sociology, biological sciences, economics, geography, geology, history, and political science. The program applies a multifaceted understanding of the factors affecting the preservation of biological diversity. It is centered in the Department of Biological Sciences but includes faculty members from the Departments of Environmental and Plant Biology, Economics, Geography, and Political Science.

The certificate program is designed to provide graduate students in the natural sciences exposure to the social, economic, and political approaches for conserving biological diversity. Conversely, graduate students in the social sciences are given the opportunity to obtain expertise in biological principles that can be used to understand how human altered habitats may lead to a loss of biological diversity.

Certificate Learning Outcomes

1. Students will demonstrate the ability to enumerate the major threats to the preservation of biological diversity.
2. Demonstrate the proficiency in core principles in Conservation Science and use these to identify anthropogenic threats to biological diversity
3. Demonstrate the ability to synthesize public policy and biological data to develop mitigation strategies for current threats to species persistence.

Opportunities upon Completion

Students with this certificate can pursue careers where additional training in conservation policy and biological diversity will make them more competitive.

Admission Requirements

No additional requirements beyond university graduate admission requirements. Students currently enrolled in a graduate degree program can add the conservation biology certificate to their program of study by completing an Application for Update of Graduate Academic Programs (found on the Graduate College Forms webpage) and submitting it to the Graduate College.

International Students

This certificate program alone does not permit full-time enrollment in residence at Ohio University, and an I-20 cannot be issued based on admission to this certificate. However, this certificate can be completed along with an Athens campus degree program, and an I-20 may be issued based on admission to that degree program.

Completion Requirements

The requirements for the certificate are the completion of the classes listed below under “Required Courses” and three courses from the following list for a total of 14­ to 17 credit hours. Two of the three courses must be outside your major field of study. The certificate is awarded upon fulfillment of these requirements and completion of the graduate degree.

Nine departments within the College of Arts and Sciences offer the courses listed below. In addition, up to five hours of courses offered under titles such as Special Topics or Colloquium that focus on aspects of conservation biology may be applied toward the certificate with the approval of your certificate advisor.