Further education and Universities for Botany and Plant related courses.

[Botannyy]

We are meant to be looking for options for my ds who is going into year 13.
He's had a strong interest in plants since an early age and is thinking about a career. He's not interested in landscape gardening but in plant science/taxonomy, identifying and preserving rare plants, maybe conservation.

We've been looking at University Courses and they are often lab courses only and he doesn't want to be in a lab all the time.
We've seen that The Eden Project does a Plant Science Degree which will look at and he loves the idea of working for Kew Gardens one day.

Does anyone have any ideas? Or experience of any courses in that area.

Thanks so much 🙏

Hi,
All the courses will have a range of modules with theoretical and practical components well-balanced. The degrees offered at The Eden Project are largely centred around the BSc (Hons) in Horticulture (Garden & Landscape Design).

I would suggest looking at Botany, and Plant Biology courses, going to open days and taking taster courses. He has until January to submit applications so now would be a good time to start contacting the unis.

There are a few unis which offer a BSc in Plant Sciences. Bristol is one: BSc Plant Sciences | Study at Bristol | University of Bristol But he might be best advised to do a general bio or botany first degree then there are various masters in taxonomy and related subjects.

Thanks we've looked at this one and going to go to the open day!

The Eden project course looks amazing

It does. There's no student accommodation even for the first year you have to look privately for a room share on St Austell. I feel like he may miss out on getting to know people his age and being part of the student life? He's not into partying or anything so that wouldn't be a problem. Just want him to have a bit of support.

The days of heading off to exotic places to collect plants and find new species are long gone. Plant taxonomy is more about genetic sequencing than comparing dried samples from herbariums.

I’m not sure the degree course your DS is looking for exists. There may be a few jobs out in the field but not a specific vocational undergraduate degree that leads to them. A plant sciences degree will be largely lab based. It might also be worth looking at biology degrees at universities with strong plant sciences departments with a herbarium and botanic garden. Sometimes it is possible to choose only options that specialise in plant sciences or core subjects that would also be studied on a plant sciences degree.

There is a plant taxonomist who occasionally pops up on the gardening board, and prolific poster who is married to a plant taxonomist at a university - MereDintofPandiculation or something. Maybe try asking about plant science degrees there 😂

Thanks so much!
My sons dream is to be a field botanist but like you say that may not be something you can do as a career these days. His other interest is perfumary and he's read you don't necessarily need to have a chemistry degree for it they would consider another science related degree.

Good idea to put on the gardening board!

My dc graduated in plant science from Edinburgh uni not long ago.

All biologists followed a general first couple of years then once specialising, practicals were a mixture of lab and outdoor work depending on course options. They had to wait till final year to be let loose in the greenhouses but had had visits and practicals to the botanical garden in the earlier years.
There is a plant society and other conservation societies at Edinburgh uni to get an outdoor fix of flora. My dc loved it.

Dundee uni is big on plant science too with the James Hutton institute on the outskirts of the city.
some botanical gardens take on interns during the summer.

There is a MSc in taxonomy at the botanics in Edinburgh and Kew Gardens I believe which I think a few of my dc fellow graduates pursued, costly but are very much in demand I’ve heard.
Most of my dc contemporaries have gone on to MSc or PhD.

I was about to suggest the MSc at Kew too:

https://www.kew.org/science/training-and-education/msc-courses/msc-plant-and-fungal-taxonomy-diversity-conservation

Whitelily’s example explains better what I was trying to say about considering biology courses too. Often there will be core courses that all biology/zoology/botany students follow before specialising when it comes to choosing options at universities that have separate biology/zoology/botany degrees. If you look at the syllabus for biology courses at universities that only offer biology, you can sometimes effectively do the same thing - create a botany degree by choosing the plant science options.

Aberystwyth is worth a look, and Myerscough do applied plant science which might be a shout?