Rural Land Management with Foundation Year

This course offers proven routes to rewarding careers within rural business, estate management consultancy and property in the countryside. Bidwells, Strutt and Parker, Carter Jonas, Savills, Fisher German and Brown & Co are some of the nationally-recognised businesses our graduates have gone on to work for - and so could you.

Accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), you will learn the fundamentals of rural professional practice as well as law, valuation, building constructions and management, and planning and development. You will develop an essential understanding of wider business management to enable you to provide effective advice about farm estate and other rural businesses while gaining an overall understanding of the multi-functionality of rural practice.

Course Structure We are now offering this degree course with a foundation year that will give you the opportunity to gain the experience and skills you will need before progressing on to the traditional parts of the programme.

In the first year of your four year programme you will be developing your academic and team-working skills and gaining confidence in written work; handling numerical and statistical data, and ICT. You will be introduced to a range of rural land use topics including, learning about the agricultural year; mapping; laboratory skills, and you will have the opportunity to gain competence in a range of practical skills. The year will help you to make the transition to being an independent learner, and perhaps an entrepreneur. Successful completion of the foundation year will allow you to proceed onto Year 1 of the course.

You will learn through a series of lectures, seminars, group tutorials, practical sessions and visits to local farms, commercial properties and rural estates.

Modules are assessed through a range of coursework, often based on real-life case studies and sponsored by land management firms, which help you to see the practical application of the subjects you are studying. In your third year, case studies are supplied by practicing surveyors from their own portfolios of work.

You will complete a Research Project in a subject area of specific interest. The course is also flexible and it is possible to transfer on to the Real Estate degree if certain conditions are met.

Work Placement In the first and second year of the main course, you are encouraged to organise your own work experience and internships during the holidays with assistance from our Careers Team. Many national and local firms offer paid summer internships.