Thinking of a Diploma?

Robert Paxton

Diploma in Apiculture students have come from:

Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, Greece, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique, Netherlands, Pakistan, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda, UK, Zambia.

In Beekeeping & Development 2 I gave details of the Diploma in Apiculture at Cardiff University. Who are the students of the Diploma in Apiculture at Cardiff University?

Some 49 students from across the world have taken the course since its inception seven years ago. Honey bees are distributed across the world, and so are people interested in studying and working with them!

Together with other postgraduates (MPhil and PhD students) working on honey bees at Cardiff, there is always good mix of people from many different countries: the bee laboratory at Cardiff sometimes feels like the United Nations. All have beekeeping experiences and are highly motivated and interested in studying and working with honey bees.

Exchange of information within a rich diversity of participants is positive feature of the Diploma course With ready access to the nearby IBRA headquarters and flow of visiting bee scientists, extensionists and sabbatical workers to Cardiff, visiting both IBRA and Cardiff University, Diploma students have stimulating environment.

But what sort of people attend the Diploma course? Generally, they are government or NGO employees who already have some experience with bees. Some are practically oriented, others are interested in more academic study. Many have first degrees, others without a degree but with practical experiences are readily admitted and can benefit from the course. Once the course is completed, participants return to their home countries, hopefully to improve their own work as a result of their experiences and knowledge from Cardiff.

Two examples of past Diploma students may help to give an idea of who attends the course, and what benefits they gain.

Carlos Echazarreta was in the 1987 class at Cardiff. After completing the course, he returned to his previous job at the Department of Apiculture of the Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan, Mexico, where he has been researching into Africanized honey bees (that coincidentally arrived in the Yucatan Peninsula in 1987). He now heads the Research and Postgraduate Affairs Office of the Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Science at the university. This September he organised and ran a tropical beekeeping course at the Department of Apiculture in Yucatan (see Beekeeping & Development 22, page 6).

Liana Hassan was in the 1989 class at Cardiff. After completing his Diploma he returned to his home country of Tanzania to head the nation’s beekeeping research centre at Arusha. He is now working on a project to design and test top-bar hives in collaboration with Nicola Bradbear at IBRA (see Beekeeping & Development 21, page 11.

Experiences and knowledge gained from the Diploma in Apiculture and its research element have helped both Carlos and Liana to develop their work for the benefit of local beekeepers. If you want to know what participation in the course is really like, why not contact someone from your own or a neighbouring country who has already attended.

For more information on the Diploma in Apiculture at Cardiff and its past students: Dr Robert Paxton, The School of Pure and Applied Biology, University of Wales College of Cardiff.