Â鶹AV

Two one-semester courses and three seminar courses at the postgraduate level complement an area of research (resulting in a thesis) under the supervision of one of our staff—many of whom are leaders in their respective fields. Entrance to this program is highly competitive, requiring an excellent B.Sc. and letters of reference. Graduates of this program are well prepared for careers in the animal industry, the pharmaceutical sector, and many varied fields in biotechnology.

The Applied Master's program must be taken with the Sustainable Agriculture concentration. Please see the respective program description for the Sustainable Agriculture option.

Climate change and rising human population have increased the need for sustainable agricultural practices. The Sustainable Agriculture option is taken with a M.Sc. Applied (Non-Thesis) program, and designed for students who wish to supplement their basic degree with graduate studies in animal science, with a specific focus on sustainability in agriculture. Students will be exposed to different approaches to improve the sustainability of agricultural systems through specialized coursework and a research project. The program aims to provide graduate training in applied areas of animal production with a view toward integrating technology and management in sustainable animal production with allied areas of agricultural resource utilisation.

Since the Ph.D. is primarily a research degree, the amount of coursework required will normally be considerably less than is the case for the M.Sc. It depends on the background of the individual student and must be approved by the student's advisory committee. At a minimum, it includes two seminar courses at the graduate level and the Ph.D. Comprehensive Examination as an admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. As with the M.Sc. (Thesis), admission is based on an excellent track record. Suitable candidates are encouraged to contact potential supervisors within their chosen area of interest. Applicants should, however, be aware that no professor is in a position to accept students without formal approval of the application by the Graduate Â鶹AV Committee.

Bioinformatics research lies at the intersection of biological/medical sciences and mathematics/computer science/engineering. The intention of the Bioinformatics Option is to train students to become researchers in this interdisciplinary field. This includes the development of strategies for experimental design, the construction of tools to analyze datasets, the application of modelling techniques, the creation of tools for manipulating bioinformatics data, the integration of biological databases, and the use of algorithms and statistics.