School of Horticulture

Not open to the public, the School of Horticulture is located next to the Jodrell Laboratory and is the base for students of the three-year Kew Diploma in Horticulture.

It occupies a large Decimus Burton converted, eighteenth-century, Grade II listed building, now converted into a modern educational centre. There are fully-equipped lecture rooms, a design studio, library, laboratory, computer suite, common room, kitchen, and administrative offices. The adjacent 200-seat lecture theatre in the Jodrell Laboratory is used for major conferences and seminars. Students also have access to Kew's extensive resources, including the main library which has one of the finest collections of botanical books, journals and archives in the world.

The Kew Diploma offers a broad-based training in amenity and botanical horticulture. The aim of the course is to provide students with an opportunity to study scientific, technical and managerial subjects at first degree level, whilst gaining practical experience and responsibility working in possibly the world's foremost botanic garden.

Students become Kew employees and are paid during the three-year course, including during the lecture block trimesters.

Find out more about the Kew Diploma

The course seeks to provide an integrated theoretical and practical curriculum, based on all the operations of the Gardens. It encourages student-centred learning so that all students have an opportunity to pursue the studies that interest them most. Practical applications of theoretical principles are demonstrated to students, referring throughout to current and future needs of the horticultural industry. It goes almost without saying that at Kew students are taught to apply the highest standards of professional practice in their careers.

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Carry on to: Bonsai House