From the start of the 2024-2025 academic year, the Master’s programme will structure its teaching and assessments around the validation of 6 major competences corresponding to the expectations of the professional world targeted by the course (consultancies, local authorities, the voluntary sector, government agencies, research, etc.):
- Designing, managing and leading a project in ecology and conservation
- Integrating the regulatory, institutional and societal framework
- Understanding and integrating fundamental knowledge of ecology and conservation
- Implement a data collection strategy in the field and in the laboratory
- Analyse and interpret data relating to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning
- Providing scientific or environmental outreach
Competences are understood as a complex knowledge-action that requires the combination of several resources (know-how, theoretical knowledge, databases, literature, technical tools, etc.) in different professional situations. These skills will be assessed gradually over the two years of the Master’s programme, through both specific assessments (knowledge tests, etc.) and Learning and Assessment Situations (LAS: internships at the end of the year – 2 to 3 months in M1 and 4 to 6 months in M2 – and group tutored projects) in which the student will have to produce a piece of work corresponding to a well-defined professional situation and requiring autonomy, reflection and the mobilisation of various skills.
The Master’s degree will be awarded once all the skills have been validated.
The courses relating to these competences are distributed throughout the Master’s programme according to the table below.
| ECTS | ||||||
| Competences | Teaching contents | S1 | S2 | S3 | S4 | Total |
| Designing, managing and leading a project in ecology and conservation | Project management tools Job prospect techniques Responding to calls for proposals |
3 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 8 |
| Integrating the regulatory, institutional and societal framework | Environmental law Introduction to non-academic players Ethics and deontology Socio-anthropological approach |
4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 8 |
| Understanding and integrating fundamental knowledge of ecology and conservation | Population and community ecology Conservation biology Two options among: wildlife and health, ecotoxicology, palaeoecology, conservation biology |
5 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 14 |
| Implement a data collection strategy in the field and in the laboratory | GIS and cartography Concepts and tools for monitoring biodiversity Several options in each specialisation: Taxonomic specialisation (choice of several taxa) Methodological specialisation (food webs, ecotoxicology, palaeoecology, etc.) |
5 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 15 |
| Analyse and interpret data relating to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning | Data management Biodiversity analysis tools Multivariate statistics Spatial statistics and remote sensing Dynamic modelling Several advanced modelling options among: time series analysis, non-linear modelling, spatial statistics, etc. |
4 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 13 |
| Providing scientific or environmental outreach | Scientific discussion Communication techniques (podcasts, etc.) Writing and critical analysis of scientific documents |
3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Learning and assessment situations | Internships Tutored projects |
6 | 13 | 6 | 30 | 55 |
| Total | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 120 | |