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

The University of Edinburgh has been delivering online postgraduate programmes since 2005 and is the largest provider of online programmes in the prestigious Russell Group of universities.

Online learning is aimed at people who want to study for a postgraduate qualification alongside ongoing personal and professional commitments. Most of our students continue in their employment while they study.

Student support for online students is given as much emphasis as for our on-campus learners. The 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.

A dedicated e-learning team ensures the programme runs smoothly and the programme is supported by an experienced team of a programme director, co-ordinator, administrator and course leaders. Each student is provided with a personal tutor. Courses are taught and completed entirely online.

The varied teaching includes:

• online lectures
• tutorials
• specialist external lectures
• scientific group discussions
• case studies
• problem-based learning scenarios
• literature based research
• computer-assisted learning
• quizzes

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.

The degree programme is structured to allow sequential progression from individual courses to Certificate, Diploma and MSc phases. Students may also exit the programme on completion of each phase.

The programme is designed to be taken part-time over three years at 20 hours per week, with the option to complete in up to six years if required.

The completion times are as follows:

• PgCert: 1-2 years
• PgDip: 2-4 years
• MSc: 3-6 years

Programme structure and content

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 postgraduate-level learning, without the time, or financial commitment, of a full award.

You may take a maximum of 50 credits worth of courses from within this degree over two years and gain a University of Edinburgh postgraduate award of academic credit.

It may also be possible to continue your studies after one year and put credits towards a postgraduate certificate, diploma or full masters degree. Any time spent taking courses through the PPD scheme will be deducted from the amount of time you have left to complete the higher award.

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.

• 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 2025/26 academic year and requirements for future academic years may differ. Entry requirements for the 2026/27 academic year will be published on 1 Oct 2025.

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

Regardless of your nationality or country of residence, you must demonstrate a level of English language competency which will enable you to succeed in your studies.

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. We do not accept IELTS One Skill Retake to meet our English language requirements.
• 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 65 with at least 59 in each component. We do not accept PTE Academic Online.
• Oxford ELLT: 7 overall with at least 6 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 five 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

Funding for postgraduate study is different to undergraduate study, and many students need to combine funding sources to pay for their studies.

Most students use a combination of the following funding to pay their tuition fees and living costs:

• borrowing money

  • taking out a loan

  • family support

• personal savings

• income from work

• employer sponsorship

• scholarships

Explore sources of funding for postgraduate study

As this is a part-time intermittent programme, also known as invoiced-at-course-level (ICL), it is not eligible for UK government loan funding.

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