This case study describes a scheme whereby students undertake the research for their final year project while on expeditions over a summer vacation. Many students in Zoology or Marine and Freshwater Biology (but the scheme we describe could suit programmes in Ecology and Conservation Biology) are interested in field-based projects and are particularly attracted to the idea of doing fieldwork abroad in areas of high biodiversity. At Glasgow the pattern for laboratory-based projects is that they stretch over most of two semesters concurrently with taught modules and that they occupy about one third of a student's time over up to 20 weeks (including writing-up). This is a substantial time commitment and field based projects are expected to be broadly equivalent. The scheme allows students to do the field-based part of the project (in the UK or abroad but this case history concentrates on projects abroad) during the summer vacation between the Junior Honours and Final years (3rd and 4th years of a Scottish degree). This case study was included in the UK Centre for Bioscience Teaching Bioscience: Enhancing Learning Guide "Student Research Projects: Guidance on Practice in the Biosciences"
