Institute of Rural Sciences
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Institute of Rural Sciences is a department of Aberystwyth University , and is located in the town of Aberystwyth on the west coast of Wales, on Cardigan Bay. It has a remit for teaching, research as well as business innovation in the area of land use and the rural economy. Taught undergraduate degree schemes offered by the Institute include those in Agriculture, Animal Science, Countryside Management and Species Conservation, Equine Science, as well as Tourism Management [1]. The Institute has approximately 500 undergraduate students, approximately 40 postgraduate students, 28 full-time lecturers and a similar number of part-time associate-lecturers[1]. The Institute has three research groups: Environmental Ecology, Animal Science and Rural Development. In addition, the institute is also the home to the Organic Centre Wales [2], as well as the Farm Business Survey [3] unit of the Welsh Assembly Government.
The Institute of Rural Sciences was formed from the merger of the Welsh Agricultural College with the University's Department of Agriculture in 1995. The Institute is housed on the Llanbadarn Campus of the University, on the former site of the Welsh Agricultural College.
Plans to merge the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research with Aberystwyth University in April of 2008 are at an advanced stage. This merger will lead to one large department for the life-sciences that also contains a merged Institute of Rural Sciences and Institute of Biological Sciences. The merged entity is to be called the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS)- IBERS. The merger is in order to maximise opportunities for undergraduates as well as to expedite research in the land-based sciences.
