Why Should You Study Animal Welfare at Edinburgh?
Why should you study animal welfare at Edinburgh university?
This has been on my mind as I get to grips with being the Director for International Animal Welfare Ethics and Law. 2026 marks ten years since I left the position of IAWEL coordinator to start as a research fellow in veterinary education. While I’ve always been with the programme teaching research methods in one form or another, it is different coming back as programme director, and I’ve been asking myself what I think this programme is, and why should someone want to come study with us?
If I was talking with my corporate head on, I’d be talking about what a field leader our MSc is, (one of) the first part time online animal welfare MScs, sister programme to Applied Animal Behaviour and Welfare ((one of) the first animal welfare MScs!), how much experience we have doing part time online degrees, and the wealth of experience that Edinburgh has in this field (the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies has been around for a while and consistently top ranked for research impact in our field)
These things are all true but I have to be honest, they’re not the things that excite me. Working on IAWEL these last few months has been so much fun. I have been so excited about working more closely with the Animal Welfare Centre again. I’ve been loving talking to our students again, who come from such a wide range of backgrounds. We have people in animal welfare charities, veterinary NGOs, pharma companies, academia, the farming industry, all sorts. My favourite discussions are the ones where each student brings their own expertise to the topic (ok ok ok I also really enjoy planning a welfare assessment for a velociraptor). The strength of the community is a huge asset to the programme.
I am also hugely proud of how we make higher education accessible. This doesn’t happen alone, having the strength of the Edinburgh postgraduate team behind us really helps. Every student has a student advisor to help them navigate the programme. As a team, we constantly ask ourselves if we’re equipping our students with the right skills. I often have a conversation with students who ask me if I think they might be able to do the full MSc after completing the Postgraduate Diploma, and they say “who is the dissertation for?” and I love answering “it’s for you!” Because this is a part time MSc to facilitate the non traditional student, the student who has kids (ask me about nursery illnesses …), the student who is retired and wants to do something fun, the student who has unpredictable health concerns - because, let’s face it, if your voices aren’t being heard then we are missing key parts of the animal welfare conversation.
But is that the why? It’s stuff I’m proud of, stuff that makes this a job that I love. It’s what gets me up early to run a live session even though I’m parent to two non-sleeping children. But is that why students should choose Edinburgh for their animal welfare degree?
I keep coming back to why I ended up leaving the programme ten years ago. I was frustrated when we talked about the best evidence for animal welfare, but animal welfare education was just ‘as it always was’. In a lecture from Peter Sandøe, one of our guest experts on animal ethics, I’d made a comment about how we could improve animal welfare by getting the message out. Peter laughed, kindly (!), and told me this was a common fallacy, and that actually knowledge does not equal changed behaviour. I couldn’t get it out of my head. How can we make a difference for animals then?
I’ve spent the last ten years chasing this question in veterinary science education. I’ve gone from a research fellow to a senior lecturer writing the textbook chapters on it. I’ve bridged the gap between animal welfare and science education research, and I lead on human behavioural change for animal welfare, as well as critically investigating the structures of power in veterinary science.
If this all sounds a bit self promotional, well … it is, in a way. Because if someone is thinking about studying animal welfare online, I think you should come do it with me and the team here. Why should you study here? Because we make a difference in animals lives, every day, in big and small ways. It’s not just an academic study of theory, but an applied, gritty, messy, and complicated science.
Study animal welfare because you can make a difference, regardless of who you are, how much time you have to study, or whether you’re the ‘right’ kind of student. Because International Animal Welfare Ethics and Law feels like home to me, and it’s wonderful to be back.