The Changing Face of Natural Resources Students, Education, and the Profession

There are many challenges facing natural resources programs in North American higher education today. Pressures exerted by a new generation of students, changing workplace requirements (including undergraduate core-knowledge requirements), and an increasingly specialized professoriate are great but not insurmountable. We discuss each of these issues and pose potential solutions to address each including adopting new pedagogical techniques for content delivery (e. g., adapting courses to be inclusive of new technologies), revising curriculum to meet the needs of a new suite of learners (e. g., developing curricula that allow structured flexibility of choices, designing a core curriculum that is a mix of single-discipline courses and courses that integrate across disciplines), and new strategies for faculty engagement in discipline-specific survey courses. By remaining deliberate and effective in our pursuit of quality higher education we have the opportunity to ensure we are delivering the best possible education to the future professionals of our disciplines. (JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT 73(4): 573-579; 2009)