The management of land, property and business in the countryside offers a rewarding and challenging career. This three-year degree course provides a highly-regarded route to equip you for such a career.

Subjects covered include agriculture and farm management, landscape appraisal, environmental science and management, woodland management, building construction, law, valuation and planning. A separate and important stream of business studies subjects includes economics, accounting, finance, marketing and tax planning, all with emphasis on countryside applications.

We were one of the first institutions to establish a university partnership with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) by whom the course is fully accredited. Typically a graduate is employed as a trainee with a firm of chartered surveyors and undertakes a two-year Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) in one of the specialist areas of practice recognised by the RICS. Graduates may also seek qualification as an agricultural valuer with the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV).

About the course

Each year of the course comprises eight modules of study, divided initially into three streams, under the headings of Property, Land Use and Business, as set out opposite. In the final year, a double module of study is devoted to personal research for a dissertation on a subject of your choosing, under the guidance of a member of academic staff familiar with the subject matter. In your final year, you’ll also choose two further modules of study, from a range of elective subjects, to suit your specialist areas of interest.

You will attend lectures, smaller group tutorials and practical sessions, depending on the particular subject being taught.

We have our own arable and livestock farms to demonstrate a range of farm enterprises, both conventional and organic, together with conservation principles and other property management issues. You will also visit local farms, commercial properties and rural estates where owners, occupiers and their professional advisers can provide additional insights into the issues arising in the profession of rural land management.

A variety of methods is used to assess your performance, but assessed coursework features strongly throughout the course, often based on case studies which help you to see the practical application of the subjects you are studying. The case study material becomes more complex and challenging throughout the course, as you learn to integrate the subject matter studied in different modules. This culminates in the final year with case studies in the module Rural Professional Practice which are supplied by practising surveyors from their own portfolios of work.

What you need to join the Course

Offers will typically be based on a UCAS score of 300 points, normally from three subjects passed at A2 level (not including General Studies). Required UCAS points are occasionally subject to change. You should also have achieved GCSE passes at Grade C or above in English and Mathematics.

Alternative entry routes are available if you have other qualifications, including a Diploma, AVCE, GNVQ, overseas qualifications and prior experience; although entry is subject to approval by the programme manager and admissions staff. 

You are encouraged to undertake practical farming and professional experience before starting the course. If you take a gap year, it would be expected that you spend some part of it in relevant work experience. The programme manager will be happy to provide further guidance to you about what work experience would be most suitable for your circumstances.

Career Prospects

We have an excellent employment record, and the wide network of former students ensures a warm welcome for our graduates throughout the land management profession. Nationally and internationally recognised firms of chartered surveyors recruit regularly from our course.

We also place graduates in many other APC training jobs, as they arise, with smaller firms, private estates and other large landowners, such as the National Trust.

The academic staff of the School will support you in your career applications and assist you in the first and second year to find work experience placements for your vacations. This work experience is invaluable to enable you to make your own contacts in the profession and gain an understanding of the diverse nature of professional work so that you can decide on the type of work that you would most enjoy.

Should you not decide to follow a career in the surveying profession, many alternatives open to you, including further study for a higher degree, or a career in law or accountancy, as well as normal graduate opportunities in industry and business. Again our network provides contacts in many suitable fields of employment.