International Animal Welfare, Ethics and Law (Online Learning) MSc, PgDip (ICL), PgCert (ICL), PgProfDev

Our online learning technology is fully interactive, award-winning and enables you to communicate with our highly qualified teaching staff from the comfort of your own home or workplace.

Our online students not only have access to Edinburgh’s excellent resources, but also become part of a supportive online community, bringing together students and tutors from around the world.

We use a blend of online learning methods, such as:

• discussion forums
• podcasts
• live tutorials

The programme is modular, allowing us to offer a flexible student-centred approach to the choice of courses studied.

You may choose to study to certificate, diploma or masters level.

You can take up to 6 years to complete the full MSc programme, and there is also the option to graduate with either an International Animal Welfare, Ethics and Law postgraduate certificate or diploma.

• Read more about the flexible programme structure

Year 1: certificate

You will take two compulsory courses - International Animal Welfare Science and Animal Ethics, Policy and Law - plus an optional course.

Year 2: diploma

You can choose up to 60 credits of optional courses, which include:

• Production Animal Welfare
• International Cat and Dog Welfare
• Captive and Free-ranging Wild Animal Welfare
• Welfare of Animals Used for Scientific Purposes
• Clinical Animal Behaviour
• Equine Behaviour and Welfare
• Equitation Science
• Anthrozoology
• Poultry Behaviour & Welfare in Commercial Systems
• Making Science Relevant to Policy and Decision Making

Year 3: masters

You complete a dissertation of between 10,000-15,000 words which can be a research project or an extended systematic review of the literature in a topic of Animal Welfare Science, Ethics or Law.

• Read more about the dissertation element

Postgraduate Professional Development

Postgraduate Professional Development (PPD) is aimed at working professionals who want to advance their knowledge through a postgraduate-level course(s), without the time or financial commitment of a full Masters, Postgraduate Diploma or Postgraduate Certificate.

You may take a maximum of 40 credits worth of courses over two years through our PPD scheme.* These lead to a University of Edinburgh postgraduate award of academic credit.

Alternatively, after one year of taking courses you can choose to transfer your credits and continue on to studying towards a higher award on a Masters, Postgraduate Diploma or Postgraduate Certificate programme.

Although PPD courses have various start dates throughout a year you may only start a Masters, Postgraduate Diploma or Postgraduate Certificate programme in the month of September.

Any time spent studying PPD will be deducted from the amount of time you will have left to complete a Masters, Postgraduate Diploma or Postgraduate Certificate programme.

• More information on PPD

Find out more about compulsory and optional courses

We link to the latest information available. Please note that this may be for a previous academic year and should be considered indicative.

Graduates can use their qualification to enhance their career prospects in:

• academia
• research

• governmental and non-governmental organisations and consultancies

• Read more about potential career opportunities

These entry requirements are for the 2023/24 academic year and requirements for future academic years may differ. Entry requirements for the 2024/25 academic year will be published on 2 October 2023.

A UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, in animal science, biology, psychology, zoology or veterinary science.

We may also consider your application if you have a degree in social science, ethics or law, or if you are an experienced veterinary nurse; please contact the programme team to check before you apply.

If you have relevant work experience and an undergraduate degree in an area other than science, law, ethics or social science we may also consider your application. Please contact the programme team to check before you apply. You may be admitted to the certificate level or Postgraduate Professional Development only in the first instance.

Computer Requirements

This is an online programme so you will be accessing materials, discussion boards and a range of tools via the internet. While the programme team and the University's Information Services (IS) department provide distance learning support, please remember that you are still responsible for your own technical set-up.

You are not expected to be a technical whizz, and we provide guidance and training for the tools we use. However, we expect that you will take responsibility for your access to the programme, make back-ups of your work and organise alternative access if required.

• Computer Requirements: https://www.ed.ac.uk/vet/studying/postgraduate/taught-programmes/studying-online/computer-requirements

Students from China

This degree is Band D.

• Postgraduate entry requirements for students from China

International qualifications

Check whether your international qualifications meet our general entry requirements:

• Entry requirements by country

English language requirements

You must demonstrate a level of English language competency at a level that will enable you to succeed in your studies, regardless of your nationality or country of residence.

English language tests

We accept the following English language qualifications at the grades specified:

• IELTS Academic: total 6.5 with at least 6.0 in each component.
• TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition): total 92 with at least 20 in each component. We do not accept TOEFL MyBest Score to meet our English language requirements.
• C1 Advanced (CAE) / C2 Proficiency (CPE): total 176 with at least 169 in each component.
• Trinity ISE: ISE II with distinctions in all four components.
• PTE Academic: total 62 with at least 59 in each component.

Your English language qualification must be no more than three and a half years old from the start date of the programme you are applying to study, unless you are using IELTS, TOEFL, Trinity ISE or PTE, in which case it must be no more than two years old.

Degrees taught and assessed in English

We also accept an undergraduate or postgraduate degree that has been taught and assessed in English in a majority English speaking country, as defined by UK Visas and Immigration:

• UKVI list of majority English speaking countries

We also accept a degree that has been taught and assessed in English from a university on our list of approved universities in non-majority English speaking countries (non-MESC).

• Approved universities in non-MESC

If you are not a national of a majority English speaking country, then your degree must be no more than three and a half years old at the beginning of your programme of study.

Find out more about our language requirements:

• English language requirements

Application fee

None.

Deposit

None.

Additional programme costs

None.

Tuition fees

The University of Edinburgh offers a small number of scholarships to outstanding candidates. These are very competitive. We publish data on the success rate for scholarship applications to help you understand the level of demand.

• Scholarship applications - success rates

Other funding opportunities

• Online Learning Scholarships

Search for scholarships and funding opportunities:

• Search for funding