The Biodiversity of Australia program consists of two 3-credit courses (Biodiversity and Natural History of Tropical Australia and Field Research Techniques); UNM students will receive Honors credit for these courses. The program will consist of approximately 80 hours of lecture, student presentations about Australia, research projects, papers on projects, a final paper and a final exam. Every student is required to give two presentations about Australia during the course. You will need to prepare these presentations prior to departure. This is an intensive field experience and, with the exception of occasional breaks, students should expect to work from 7am to 10pm.
	Students attending the 2006 course should expect to pay an institute fee of approximately $2200 (due May) plus a $500 non-refundable deposit (due upon acceptance). The institute fee covers room and board, lectures, ground travel, and activities. Tuition and airfare will be paid by a grant from the National Science Foundation. We will arrange all air travel to take advantage of the best possible group-travel airfares. Students will have the option of additional travel after the course at their own expense.
Eligible students may use financial aid or scholarship money. In addition, we will provide a number of partial scholarships from our National Science Foundation grant. These will be available to students on a combination of merit and financial need. Students should not neglect to apply for this program because of the costs and every effort will be made to assist students with financial needs.
	While on the course everyone will stay in a variety of lodgings including youth hostels, research stations, and reasonably-priced hotels/apartments. Lodging will be basic but comfortable. During the majority of the course the students will do all cooking in an attempt to keep total costs down. Full kitchens will be available so think of your best recipes for a group of 17.