The Postgraduate Program in Ecology and Conservation of Biodiversity of UESC offers courses at the masters and doctoral level, selecting candidates through two types of selective process: the regular and the institutional. The regular selection process usually happens in December of each year, which is open to any Brazilian or foreign candidate who has an interest in joining the programs. The ranking order of the successful candidates is used to assign the best placed scholarships available to the program. The number of grants varies from year to year, depending on the availability of funding agencies and advisors' quotas, and the rules of each selection process are spelled out in specific notices.

The institutional selection process, however, provides vacancies for candidates who are referred to the program by UESC partner institutions to develop dissertations or theses of interest to UESC and institutions. Candidates entry is also decided through a selection process, whose characteristics vary according to each vacancy, but always involve evidence and analysis of research proposals. But unlike the regular selection process, candidates for institutional vacancies do not receive scholarship grants from the program, because it is understood that the maintenance of the student in the program is the responsibility and interest of the partner institutions.