Postgraduates
Academic staff of ICER routinely supervise students enrolled in the University’s PhD programme, on a broad range of topics related to tourism and environment. A list of previous PhD theses from ICER is available below. All PhD students must be enrolled within a School of the University, whether or not they are attached to and supervised within a Research Centre such as ICER. ICER is housed within the Griffith School of Environment, and its PhD students are generally enrolled through GSE. ICER does have academic members within the Griffith Business School, but PhD students supervised by those members would commonly enrol through our sister centre, the Centre for Tourism Sport and Service Industries Innovation (TSSI) which is housed within GBS. This is largely for reasons of administrative convenience. Cross supervision between the two Centres, with one co supervisor from each, is also possible.
The application and enrolment process for PhD students at Griffith University is handled through the Griffith Graduate Research School, GGRS. All potential candidates must apply via GGRS. However, students should generally make informal contact with potential academic supervisors several months in advance, to establish a proposed research topic. Students who have their own external sources of funding can generally apply to commence at any time, but are subject to the same academic evaluation procedure and criteria as those applying for scholarships. A range of competitive scholarships are available through GGRS, with the main round in October each year, and a subsidiary round in June. Several scholarships are available for living costs, and in the case of international students, also for fees. Most of these scholarships are competitive across all areas and academic disciplines of the University, but some are earmarked for particular fields, including ecotourism.
Griffith University also offers coursework Masters programmes in both tourism and environmental science, but there is currently no coursework Masters in ecotourism.
Definitive information on entry requirements is available on the GGRS site. Generally, however, it is a requirement for direct entry to any PhD programme at Griffith University, that the applicant must have first completed a research thesis at Honours or Masters level, in a university assessed by the Australian Government as equivalent to Australian universities, which involved at least one semester of full time research study, and where the thesis was graded or marked. Generally speaking, scholarships are only offered to students who received high grades in previous theses. There are also English language requirements. Please check the GGRS site for eligibility before contacting ICER staff in regard to possible research projects.
PhD Candidates and Graduates
- Barros, A. (current) Mountain Tourism on Aconcagua National Park, Argentina
- Mossaz, A. (current) Tourism and Conservation of Big Cats
- Virkki, D. (current) Fire Regimes and Native Wildlife
- Treby, D. (current) Hollow-bearing Trees and Native Wildlife
- Steven, R. Tourism and Bird Conservation
- Byrnes, T. (Thesis submitted 2010) Environmental Self-Regulation by Boat Tour Operators
- Gurung, H. (2008) Community Governance of Protected Areas in Nepal
- Oost, M. (2008) Effects of Tourist Feeding of Bird Communities in National Parks
- Ollenburg, C. (2007) Farm Tourism in Australia
- Worboys, G. (2007) Evaluating Effectiveness of Protected Area Management
- Growcock, A. (2005) Impacts of Backcountry Camping in the Australian Alps National Parks
- Johnston, F. (2005) Exotic Plants in the Australian Alps
- Littlefair, C. ( 2003) The Effectiveness of Education and Interpretation in Reducing the Impacts of Visitors in National Parks
- Scherrer, P. (2003) Monitoring Vegetation Change in the Kosciuszko Alpine Zone
- Ward, J. (2000) The Net Economic Benefits of Recreation and Timber Production in Selected New South Wales Native Forests
- Warnken, J. (1996) EIA and Environmental Monitoring in Tourism
- Warnken, W. (1996) Threshold Detection of Ecotourism Impact: Microbiological and Chemical Indicators of Recreational Effects on Water Quality in a Subtropical Rainforest Conservation Reserve
- Weeks, B. (1996) Quality Assurance/Quality Improvement in Environmental Training for Tour Operators and Guides
Undergraduates
ICER is responsible for the academic content and leadership of a series of ecotourism field courses, which are offered by the Griffith School of Environment under course code ENV3403, and run with the assistance of Griffith International. These courses are run principally for students taking the ecotourism major in the Bachelor of Environmental Science, but are also available to interested students in other degree programmes throughout Griffith University. Limited places are also available to students from other universities, and to former students acting as volunteer staff. These courses receive significant subsidies from the University, currently totalling $1000 per student, and are very popular. There is a quota for the maximum number of students on each course, generally about 25 each year. Students are selected on the basis of academic performance and demonstrated interest in ecotourism topics. Courses are generally run once every two years, in summer semester, and the course description appears on the University’s website only in those years in which it is offered. Each time the course is run, the outline is modified to match the detailed programme, itinerary and teaching goals. Previous courses have been run in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Nepal and Ecuador. This is a standard 10 credit point course, which includes lectures, assignments and examinations as well as the field component. As with other courses, HECS is payable by Australian students, and course fees are generally applicable for international students. For information on enrolment, students should contact the School Administrative Officer of the Griffith School of Environment, Gold Coast campus.