THIS summers prolonged hot and dry weather has brought the challenges facing farmers and land managers into sharp focus, with concerns over crop productivity, soil health and the long-term resilience of farming systems.
While spells of warm, dry weather can provide welcome harvesting conditions, increasingly frequent and intense heatwaves can have significant consequences for agriculture.
High temperatures and prolonged dry periods can reduce crop and grass yields, place additional pressure on livestock and water supplies, and accelerate the degradation of soils. Across the wider agricultural sector, changing weather patterns are also raising questions about food security and how farms can adapt to a changing climate.
It is against this backdrop that the Royal Agricultural University (RAU) is encouraging people considering a career in farming, land management and the rural sector to explore opportunities to study from this September.
The specialist university, based in Cirencester, offers undergraduate courses covering agriculture, agricultural business management, environment and sustainability, wildlife and conservation, as well as equine and farm management.
Daniella Miles, Head of Student Recruitment at the RAU, said: We offer a range of undergraduate courses in agriculture, agricultural business management, environment and sustainability, and wildlife and conservation, and many equine and farm management courses.
As well as the traditional three-year undergraduate degree programmes, we offer shorter two-year foundation degree courses after which you can do an optional top-up year to gain a full Bachelors degree if thats what you want.
Founded as the Royal Agricultural College in 1845, the RAU was the first agricultural college in the English-speaking world. It now also offers a range of full and part-time postgraduate courses.
Students are given opportunities for practical learning in the field alongside classroom teaching, while a number of scholarships and bursaries are available.
These include the Kaleb Cooper Agriculture Bursary, which is exclusive to the RAU and is now entering its fourth year.
Daniella said the university was also seeing a change in the type of students coming through Clearing, with the route no longer used solely by school leavers whose exam results were different from those expected.
She said: In recent years, weve found that more and more applicants are coming to us through Clearing because they have decided they want to study something different to what they originally thought they wanted to study, or have just decided, after working for a few years, that they want to undertake further study.
Often students think its too late to change their application or, in some cases, to apply to university for the first time but its not.
Applications remain open for courses beginning this September, with prospective students able to apply through the universitys Clearing programme.
The university is also holding a Clearing Open Afternoon on Saturday, August 15, giving prospective students and their families an opportunity to visit the campus and find out more about studying there.
RAU Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter McCaffery said preparing the next generation to tackle major challenges facing farming, food production and the environment remained central to the universitys work.
He said: We may be more than 180 years old but we are more societally relevant today than ever as we equip a new generation of students to meet the most pressing challenges that face us in the world today, including climate change, food security, sustainable land use, biodiversity loss, and heritage management.
More information about the RAUs courses and Clearing opportunities is available at rau.ac.uk/courses/clearing, by emailing [email protected] or calling the Clearing Hotline on 01285 889912.
