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You will need a first or second class honours degree in anthropology, biology, zoology, psychology or an appropriate related discipline, or an academic equivalent to an honours degree such as a conversion course. In extraordinary cases, your admission will be considered if occupational or life experiences have provided you with demonstrable graduate-level knowledge, abilities and skills (e.g. a strong publication record in a related field or extensive primate experience).
If your first or main language is not English, an IELTS minimum score of 6.5 (overall with 6.0 in reading and writing and 5.5 in speaking and listening) or TOEFL minimum score of 85-90 overall (with a minimum of
21 in listening, 22 reading, 23 speaking, 21 writing is required). For students who do not meet these language requirements, Oxford Brookes University offers a number of preparation courses for study at master’s level. These include a one-year Pre-Master’s diploma, which is taught jointly by the International Centre and staff from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and is designed to improve students’ language and academic skills to a level required for master’s study, or a two year option, with your
Master’s course as the second year. Shorter intensive
University English courses are available for students who
only need to improve their English.
Because of the urgent need for the study of conservation some private agencies offer scholarships with very particular eligibility criteria relating to gender, age, nationality and domicile. Ask your local librarian for a guide to funding within your country. Most years the course itself provides a scholarship to an outstanding applicant from a habitat country, and in some years these scholarships are supplemented with additional ones from private donors. In addition scholarships are often available for excellent home students and non-habitat country overseas scholars.
For more information on funding options, please check out the Brookes website on funding: www.brookes.ac.uk/ studying/finance
Application is made online by clicking on the link to our UKPASS application form, which can be found on our website or by going directly to www.ukpass.ac.uk.
Supporting documentation should be emailed to hss1@ brookes.ac.uk and include:
ƒ A copy of your university transcript (to date if you are still undertaking your degree)
ƒ A copy of your university certificate
ƒ Two references (at least one of which should be an academic reference)
ƒ A copy of your English Language Certificate (such as
IELTS or TOEFL)
ƒ A copy of your CV (if you feel this is relevant to your application).

I have always loved nature and wanted to understand it. After I took my bachelor degree in Animal Biology in the University of Panama, I became interested in two
Critically Endangered primates native to
Panama. Urgent work is needed to save these two subspecies: the Azeuro howler monkey and the Azuero spider monkey.
The MSc in Primate Conservation at
Oxford Brookes University is one of the only postgraduate courses that teaches the conservation of non-human primates in the world. I was impressed how the course prepared me to do a real and professional job in the field.
Even though I had been doing my own primate research, the course gave me the methodology to improve my research and taught me how to introduce a strong conservation and environmental education programme to my country as the first primatologist specialist in Panama. The scholarship I received as a habitat student has made my dreams come true and helped not only me but also the Panamanian monkeys.
Visit our website to see BBC video footage of Pedro’s work in Panama.
PEDRO MENDEZ-CARVAJAL, STUDENT
The course aims to provide a high-quality postgraduate qualification, relevant to the careers of anthropologists, conservation biologists, captive care givers and managers, and educators who have a particular interest in primates and their habitats, and who seek practical solutions to their continuing survival. It is also geared towards those wishing to gain more knowledge of primate conservation before pursuing higher level study.
You will develop a broad overview and understanding of the main areas of research on the conservation of primates and their habitats. You are encouraged to build on your own strengths and interests through the choice of a practical assignment and co-authorship of a relevant chapter of the in-house newsletter, Canopy. In addition, you will have opportunities to specialise in appropriate research methods by selection from a range of options, backed by training
(fieldwork, zoo-based and museum studies).
The course can be taken full-time or part-time starting mid-September. Students take any three taught modules for a postgraduate certificate, all six taught modules for a postgraduate diploma, and complete six modules and a final project for the award of MSc. Module options include:
Primate Diversity and Conservation: threats to primates, taxonomy, systematics, speciation, ecology, behaviour, biodiversity, habitat protection.
People-Primate Interactions: hunting, pest control, eco-tourism, economic pressures on forests, design and management of reserves and parks.
Conservation Education: philosophy, the relationship of awareness to action, generating funding, planning and practice.
Primate Conservation Genetics: DNA sequencing,
GenBank analysis, population genetics, minimum viable populations.
Research Methods in Primate Conservation: behavioural sampling, surveys, statistics and museum studies.
Captive Management: enclosure design, breeding, display, rehabilitation.
Final Project: in the form of a traditional dissertation, or innovative end-product relevant to primate conservation
(e.g. video, website)
Assessment varies for each module, but includes written essays, practical lab exercises, and student presentations.
Students completing the MSc in Primate Conservation have gone on to work for a variety of institutions including: the British Sound Archives, the BBC Natural History Unit,
International conservation NGOs, and zoos in the UK and
North America as keepers or education officers. Others are now working as paid researchers in Peru, Indonesia,
Vietnam, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the
Congo. Others have undertaken research degrees, or are working as research assistants at institutes of higher education. Finally, a number of our students have gone on to run their own conservation-related NGOs.

A UNIQUE PROGRAMME
Oxford Brookes University offers the only postgraduate programme in the UK directly linking the study of primates with conservation in all aspects of the course, from the modules and seminar series, to the final project. Although traditional studies of primate behaviour and ecology are possible, students are also encouraged to undertake less traditional approaches to the realisation of in situ and ex situ primate conservation.
EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING AND
INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNISED RESEARCH
The MSc in Primate Conservation was awarded the
Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2008 as recognition of the outstanding work of both staff and students on the course and of their enormous contribution to international research and development. Anthropology at Oxford Brookes
University has a long-established reputation for high quality and innovative teaching and learning; you will be taught by research-active staff who are experts in their field.
STUDENT-CENTRED APPROACH
You will be offered guidance and support from a number of people including your course leader, your academic advisor and the postgraduate administrator. We also offer the additional services of a student support co-ordinator who can give advice on your course, finance, accommodation or personal issues which may be affecting your study.
We will regularly update you with information on visiting speakers, careers advice and course announcements.
Leaders for each of the modules and other support staff within the faculty will also provide guidance and assistance.
We invite regular student evaluation of teaching, which helps to shape the future direction of the programme.
FIRST-RATE FACILITIES
Oxford is a city with a global reputation for education, innovation and research and attracts high-calibre researchers from all over the world. You will have access to a range of academic opportunities, including the Bodleian
Library and the Oxford University Museum of Natural
History. In addition to the excellent IT facilities available to all students at the university, you will be able to take advantage of our specialist facilities including the Tess
Lemmon Memorial Library of the Primate Society of Great
Britain, the research-active Nocturnal Primate Research
Group, Oxford Wildlife Trade Research Group and Human
Wildife Interactions Research Cluster, an equipment lending service for fieldwork, laboratory facilities to analyse biological samples, a collection of primate skeletal material, and a developing sound laboratory.
CAREER DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES
We run a seminar series in Primate Conservation each semester, featuring internationally-renowned speakers.
There are also several field trips per semester (including attendance at the Primate Society of Great Britain meetings), and we produce the in-house newsletter
Canopy with contributions from staff, students and speakers about their research.
After I finished my PhD here at Oxford
Brookes University I established a field station in Laos, and set up a charity to study little-known and threatened species.
My research focusses on primate species, particularly the red-shanked douc
Pygathrix nemaeus and the white-cheeked gibbons Nomascus siki, which are globally threatened species whose ecology we know little about.
I’ve been at Oxford Brookes Univeristy since 2008 when I first came to the UK to study for the MSc Primate Conservation.
I grew up in the French Caribbean and studied Biology at the University of
Montreal but it was after this, whilst travelling and volunteering in animal rescue centers in South America that I decided to apply for the MSc Primate Conservation.
I chose the course as it combines my two main interests: wildlife conservation and primates. The modules are varied and provide a strong knowledge base for students and the final project enables students to apply their theoretical knowledge and gain hands-on experience.
The lecturers are truly inspiring; sharing their own experience in various worldwide wildlife conservation projects. My supervisors have been extremely supportive and encouraging of my work which always pushed me to do better. I hope we will collaborate on research projects in the future!
CAMILLE N.Z. COUDRAT, STUDENT

Staff expertise is matched to each aspect of the course, with regular input from visiting speakers with first-hand experience in primate conservation. There are ten Oxford
Brookes University based members of staff: Professor K
A I Nekaris (Course Leader), Professor Vincent Nijman,
Professor CM Hill, Dr Giuseppe Donati, Dr Susan Cheyne
(Module Leaders), Dr Matt McClennan, Dr Kimberly
Hocking, Professor SK Bearder (Professor Emiritus in
Primate Conservation), Dr A Lack, Professor S Thompson
(Tutors) and Miss Magdalena Svensson (lab-tech). The course is supported by a course co-ordinator and an admissions administrator, together with experienced postgraduate researchers who help with part-time teaching.
The MSc in Primate Conservation won the Queen’s
Anniversary Prize in recognition of our training programme for the conservationists of the future – but we need your help. Our fundraising provides scholarships for students from primate ‘habitat countries’ to gain the qualifications and breadth of understanding needed to promote effective action. At the same time their experience and local knowledge are invaluable to our international group of students embarking on careers in conservation.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Gifts can be made by credit card or standing order by calling the Development Office on +44 (0) 1865 484863. Or you can send a cheque made payable to Oxford Brookes University to:
Development and Alumni Relations Office (DARO)
Oxford Brookes University
Headington Campus
Oxford
We all know lions, elephants and gorillas, but few people may be familiar with cacomistles, civets and lorises. Even our knowledge of how many of these elusive nocturnal mammals remain in the wild or even how many species exist within each group remains meagre. I thus decided to dedicate my career to this menagerie of little-known beasts.
Upon joining the staff of the MSc in Primate
Conservation course in 2001, it also became apparent that little is known about most species of day-living primates, despite their close relatedness to humans. With media attention focused on the plight of a few charismatic species, far fewer researchers cast their net over the hundreds of the world’s primate species, more than half of which are in desperate need of conservation measures. That is why I am so proud to be the course leader of a course whose students have studied some of the rarest and most threatened species on the planet, including silky sifakas, Sahamalaza sportive lemurs, yellow-tailed woolly monkeys, kipunji mangabeys and Kloss’ gibbons.
Our goal at Oxford Brookes University is to provide our students with an arsenal of information that they can use to change the future of primates for the better, be it through field studies, conservation education, or work in the museum. With more than 350 graduates now under our belt, many of whom have gone on to successful careers in conservation, the future of the world’s primates is beginning to brighten.
PROFESSOR ANNA NEKARIS