ECTS
60 credits
Duration
1 year
Training structure
Faculty of Science
Presentation
The Biodiv’In master's program, "Dual expertise in ecology and biodiversity management," is presented on the website for the GEB master's degree in "Environmental and Biodiversity Management": www.ingénieurs-ecologues.fr
This is a general scientific and technical training program in ecology at the master's level in the following areas of expertise:
Environmental and ecological engineering.
Biodiversity management and conservation.
It is based on a single year of M2-level training; the program does not include an M1.
This program prepares graduates with a five-year degree in engineering technology and does not prepare them for careers as senior technicians (e.g., naturalist technicians, because these require specific and lengthy training that is not provided in this program) or for careers as researchers or teacher-researchers. Despite these two restrictions, this program opens up a very wide range of careers for graduates with five years of higher education that are more or less related to scientific ecology and contribute directly and/or indirectly to the conservation of biodiversity.
The program is open to initial and continuing education, whether through work-study programs or not, and whether through apprenticeship or professional training contracts or not.
In general, 100% success rate.
Success rate
Objectives
The Biodiv'In program is primarily open to graduates with a five-year degree in a field other than general and applied ecology. Students who already hold a Master's degree or an engineering degree (possibly as part of their fifth year, if the school allows for equivalency), or any other equivalent foreign degree, students on this program will be able to ACQUIRE A SECOND SKILL IN SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL ECOLOGY to complement their FIRST professional skill, specific to their initial five-year degree program. After one year of training, graduates of this program will have TWO PROFESSIONAL SKILLS, their second common skill being scientific and technical ecology applied to biodiversity management and conservation, the first being specific to each individual. The program thus allows students to add a second skill, "Biodiv'," to their initial training curriculum, thereby "putting ecology in their professional engine."
The Biodiv'In program therefore involves a training project that aims to:
- Developing one's "primary profession" to better integrate biodiversity issues into one's career; this is referred to as greening one's profession and professional reorientation.
- Changing jobs to enter a new profession within the ecology and biodiversity sector is referred to as a career change.
- Each student will find themselves, with their career plans, more or less aligned with one or both of these two professional objectives upon completing the Biodv’In program.
Know-how and skills
Regardless of their career plans, students on the Biodiv'In program have little or no scientific and technical background in ecology. The main and common skills and competencies targeted by the program are therefore:
- Scientific and technical foundations in ecology at the generalist level to master's degree level.
- Knowledge and methodologies of environmental and ecological engineering.
- Knowledge and methodologies for biodiversity management and conservation.
- Project management and communication applied to the professional field of ecology and biodiversity.
- Approach, methodology, analysis, and scientific writing.
- Innovation and business creation.
A set of optional courses, educational projects, and a six-month internship (or a six-month work-study program) allows students to specialize to a greater or lesser extent in professional engineering skills such as "design" or management skills such as "projects/missions." They can also choose to specialize in aquatic or terrestrial ecology.
Organization
Special facilities
The training year can be completed over two separate academic years, not necessarily consecutive, by splitting the first semester (September-February) from the second semester (March-August).
Open alternately
Type of contract | Apprenticeship contract, Professional training contract |
|---|
see section on organization
Program
The Biodiv'In program schedule is limited to one year of training. It is broken down into:
- Six months of teaching (September–February) and six months of internship (March–August), in the traditional program:
- Four months of teaching (September-November and January-February) and eight months of learning (November-December and March-August), in a work-study program.
The teaching component, which includes both traditional and apprenticeship pathways, comprises the following, depending on the set of options and projects chosen by the student:
- 180 to 195 hours of instruction in the form of lectures, tutorials, practical work, or fieldwork.
- 214 to 268 hours of educational projects.
The professional placement component, whether through the traditional route or the apprenticeship route, lasts between six and eight months on a full-time basis (35 hours per week) as an intern or apprentice, respectively.
The 60 ECTS teaching program is divided into:
- 4 compulsory teaching units for 12 ECTS credits.
- 2 compulsory teaching project units for 8 ECTS credits.
- 6 optional teaching units for 14 ECTS credits
- 1 compulsory professional placement unit worth 26 ECTS credits (internship or apprenticeship).
Ecology Fair-1
2 credits1hChoice 1
4 creditsChoose one of two options:
Management and exploitation of living resources
4 creditsConservation ecology
4 credits
EU CHOICE 2
10 creditsChoose 1 out of 3
EU Choice 4
EU CHOICE 3
10 creditsChoose 1 out of 22
Urban ecology
2 creditsSustainable use of animal resources hunting
2 creditsEcology of marine and coastal ecosystems
2 credits8hAgroecology
2 creditsConservation biology
2 creditsModeling of watercourses
2 creditsEcological Engineering and Restoration (ERC sequence)
2 creditsBehavioral ecology
2 credits6hGEMAPI (Aquatic Environment Management & Flood Prevention)
2 creditsMediation and Territorial Governance
2 creditsEcology Fair-2
2 credits1hSociety Ecology Environment Anthropo (Pyrenees seminar)
2 creditsTools and methods for the dynamic study of marine ecosystems
2 credits3hManaging a citizen science project
2 creditsImpacts of climate change on organisms,
2 creditsAdvanced GIS
2 creditsIndividual Project in GE 1
2 creditsGIS
2 creditsGlobal Changes: Characterization, Impacts & Adaptations
2 creditsOrganizational communication
2 credits15hNew technologies for studying biodiversity
2 creditsPollution bioremediation
2 credits
EU CHOICE 4
10 creditsPollution and bioremediation of ecosystems
EU CHOICE 7
6 creditsChoose 1 out of 22
Urban ecology
2 creditsSustainable use of animal resources hunting
2 creditsEcology of marine and coastal ecosystems
2 credits8hAgroecology
2 creditsConservation biology
2 creditsModeling of watercourses
2 creditsEcological Engineering and Restoration (ERC sequence)
2 creditsBehavioral ecology
2 credits6hGEMAPI (Aquatic Environment Management & Flood Prevention)
2 creditsMediation and Territorial Governance
2 creditsEcology Fair-2
2 credits1hSociety Ecology Environment Anthropo (Pyrenees seminar)
2 creditsTools and methods for the dynamic study of marine ecosystems
2 credits3hManaging a citizen science project
2 creditsImpacts of climate change on organisms,
2 creditsAdvanced GIS
2 creditsIndividual Project in GE 1
2 creditsGIS
2 creditsGlobal Changes: Characterization, Impacts & Adaptations
2 creditsOrganizational communication
2 credits15hNew technologies for studying biodiversity
2 creditsPollution bioremediation
2 credits
Aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems
4 creditsEcology Keys
2 creditsM2-GE Apprenticeship Project
6 creditsTools for regional consultation
2 credits
End-of-studies internship M2 GE Biodiv'In
22 creditsCOGITHON
4 creditsProfessionalization M2 GE
4 credits
Admission
Registration procedures
Applications can be submitted on the following platforms:
French & European students:
- For M2 students, applicants must submit their application via the e-candidat application:https://candidature.umontpellier.fr/candidature
International students from outside the EU: follow the "Études en France" procedure:https://pastel.diplomatie.gouv.fr/etudesenfrance/dyn/public/authentification/login.html
Target audience
The Biodiv'In program is primarily open to graduates with a master's degree in a field other than general and applied ecology. The following are eligible for direct admission to the program at the M2 level:
Graduates of any master's degree program in France, excluding professional master's degrees in ecology such as "IEGB"; in exceptional cases, graduates of a research-oriented master's degree program in ecology may also be eligible.
Graduates of any engineering school in France; marginally, students in their fifth year of engineering school, provided that it is science-based (agronomy, veterinary science, environment, mining, SPI, etc.).
Any other foreign qualification equivalent to a five-year university degree.
Graduates who have acquired at least one year of full-time professional experience after their first five-year degree are sought after as a priority.
Candidates with an apprenticeship contract or a professional training contract will be given priority.
Mandatory prerequisites
Designed to be accessible to people who have not studied ecology or even necessarily completed a basic science degree, the Biodiv'In program comprises three compulsory teaching units on scientific ecology and biodiversity management, worth 10 ECTS credits. A good general knowledge of science and ecology is therefore still necessary! This knowledge can be acquired through initial training, professional experience, or voluntary and personal initiatives (evening classes, self-study, community activities, etc.) and should provide the foundation of knowledge and skills needed to follow and succeed in the general and applied ecology courses at the bachelor's level offered in the Biodiv'In program.
A clear and precise professional project that can be used to justify a training program via the Biodiv'In pathway that is both feasible and relevant!
Written English skills sufficient to use and produce scientific and professional resources.
Recommended prerequisites
Professional or volunteer experience, or education/training equivalent to approximately 50 hours of undergraduate-level biology, ecology, and environmental studies.
Knowledge and practice of scientific methods, reasoning, and analysis.
Personal and meaningful knowledge and involvement, or better yet, activity, in the field of the environment, and/or ecology, and/or nature conservation.
And after
Continuing education
The Biodiv'In program trains graduates to become "engineer-technicians" for the job market at the master's level. It does not prepare students to pursue further studies at a doctoral school, write a thesis, or obtain a doctoral degree. Nevertheless, according to regulations, the Master's degree in Environmental Management and its Biodiv'In program, like all master's degrees recognized by the French Ministry of Higher Education, constitute the necessary and sufficient prerequisite for applying to a doctoral school... It will therefore not prevent any future Biodiv'In graduates from exercising this right and succeeding!
Continuing studies abroad
No further studies are offered directly by the Biodiv'In program in France or abroad.
Professional integration
The dual expertise of Biodiv'In graduates is specific to both the initial training and professional experience of each candidate BEFORE entering the program, and the educational choices of each student during the program. As a result, the professional fields and sectors, occupations, and employers in the potential job market are numerous and diverse.
The main professional fields in France and abroad are:
- Ecological and Environmental Engineering Program
- Biodiversity management and conservation program.
- Water engineering and management program.
- Energy engineering and management program.
- Agriculture, forestry, agri-food, and agronomy (agroecology and organic farming) sector.
- Engineering and waste and pollution management program.
- Transportation engineering and management program.
- Construction and development sector.
- Economic, commercial, and financial sector (circular economy, green finance, short supply chains, etc.)
- Political and legal fields
- Human health sector
The main employers are in France and abroad:
- Design offices.
- Associations, cooperatives, and NGOs
- Private companies: microbusinesses, SMEs, mid-sized companies, and large corporations.
- Local authorities (regions, departments, local communities, and municipalities).
- Public institutions (including applied research laboratories).
- Central and decentralized government services.
The main "executive-level" professions in France and abroad are:
- Research Officer
- Design engineer
- Project Manager
- project manager
- Research engineer.
- Conservative