Colleges and Universities

We offer free, bespoke group visits for university and college students to enrich your course or student experience.

Each session is tailored to your needs and led by our education team. Topics we regularly cover include botany, plant science, evolution and conservation. Sessions are typically held outdoors and begin with a short introduction to the Botanic Garden. Students will benefit from hands-on learning, exclusive access to our living collections and insights from our staff and researchers.

These sessions are open to any higher education group — whether that’s a course cohort, student society, subject-specific club or an interdisciplinary team with an interest in plants and the natural world.

Planning your visit

To book a facilitated session, please contact the Higher Education Coordinator at education@botanic.cam.ac.uk to discuss your requirements. You can then book a visit using the relevant college or university booking form. College and university educators are also welcome to arrange self-guided educational visits for student groups, free of charge, using the same form.

Enhance your study by taking the Botany Hour class at the Botanic Garden to learn botany, plant systematics and comparative morphology.

This weekly course offers a deep dive into the evolutionary relationships and structure of plants. You’ll begin with an overview of plant systematics and land plant groups such as mosses, ferns and conifers, before focusing on flowering plant diversity through the Tree of Life — including ANA-grade, Magnoliids, Eudicots and Monocots. Over 60 plant families are covered in detail.

Each session includes:

• A structured approach to comparing plant lineages through morphology, ecology and uses

• Illustrated slides and curated reading lists

• A short weekly quiz to reinforce learning

• Access to live plant material from the Garden’s collections

Key details

• When: Thursdays, 8:30–9:30am; 35 sessions; Late September 2025 – Early July 2026

• Where: Cambridge University Botanic Garden (Garden Room) or online

• Cost: Free – but attendance at a minimum of 25 sessions is required

• Eligibility: Open to anyone affiliated with a higher education or research institution

• Taught by: Dr Ángela Cano (Deputy Curator) and guest speakers

Applications for 2025-2026 are now closed. Applications for 2026-2027 will open beginning August 2026.

The Cambridge University Botanic Garden Certificate in Botany is a new training programme for up to 15 advanced students and early-career researchers who are looking to develop an understanding of plant morphology and comparative systematics.

Plant science is entering an exciting era. Genomics, metabolomics, synthetic biology and developmental biology are transforming how we study, understand and engineer the plant world. Yet these advances, and their real-world impact, still depend on something increasingly rare: deep, first-hand knowledge of botany.

The ability to recognise, describe and interpret the extraordinary variety of plant forms remains the foundation of modern plant science. Without this grounding, researchers risk becoming fluent in molecular and computational techniques around a handful of model organisms but disconnected from the living organisms and ecosystems that enable them to interpret their findings accurately, and to apply their science meaningfully in the real world.

The new Certificate in Botany responds directly to this need. This immersive course brings participants together in Cambridge to master the foundations of plant systematics and comparative morphology. Taught by experts from the Botanic Garden and University academics, the course combines daily lectures with hands-on study of living material, specialist seminars and field excursions. More than sixty temperate and tropical plant families will be explored in depth, uniting theory and practice in a holistic and exciting learning experience.

The programme aims to equip participants with:

• Fluency in morphological terminology, enabling precise description and comparative analysis.
• The ability to identify and interpret plant diversity within morphological, phylogenetic and floristic frameworks.
• The conceptual breadth to connect molecular data with whole-organism biology, evolution and ecology.
• The intellectual confidence to design sampling strategies using appropriate taxa and extend their research beyond model systems.

The Certificate in Botany will run from 6 July – 1 August 2026. Participants requiring accommodation will be housed in Queens’ College, Cambridge, with teaching taking place at the Botanic Garden.

Applications are welcomed from students or researchers who have a solid foundation in plant science and are looking to deepen their understanding of plant diversity and morphology through intensive, practical study. While the programme is aimed at those with prior plant sciences training, applications are also welcomed from researchers in related fields who can demonstrate a strong motivation to develop their systematic and morphological understanding of plants. Further details, including information on how to apply, will be released in January 2026.

Our Plant Explainer programme offers students the chance to volunteer at Garden events and drop-in sessions. If you’re passionate about plants and interested in gaining experience in science communication, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact the Higher Education Coordinator at education@botanic.cam.ac.uk to find out more about the programme.

We also welcome enquiries from college and university students seeking educational work placements at the Garden. Opportunities are currently limited, but we are working to formalise and expand this offering in the future.