Developing animal welfare education with our on-campus MSc AABAW in collaboration with the SAC.

We are delighted that our MSc in Applied Animal Welfare and Behaviour (AABAW) has launched a new website at www.ed.ac.uk/vet/animal-behaviour 

The MSc AABAW was established as the first animal welfare Masters programme in the UK in 1990. The programme was originally introduced by Professor David Wood-Gush, who was one of the first scientists to investigate the effects of intensive farming on animal behaviour and welfare. He was then joined by Nat Waran (now the Director of the JMICAWE) to become the first programme director. Over the last 22 years the programme has grown significantly, and today, under the directorship of Dr Susan Jarvis, it has a strong international reputation, and the support of well-known local and international animal welfare organisations including WSPA, SSPCA, UFAW and RSPCA.

The University of Edinburgh, through the R(D)SVS's Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education (JMICAWE) and the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC), through their Animal Welfare Team, continue to collaborate in the development and delivery, of what has become known as the gold standard PG taught programme, in applied animal behaviour and animal welfare.  One of the main aims is to enhance student knowledge and understanding of the scientific study of the application of animal behaviour for assessing and improving animal welfare.

Students from this programme join a research rich taught programme and gain knowledge that can be applied to working within:

research

animal management

animal care

production

inspection, assessment and preparation of legislation

Students also benefit from the considerable knowledge and experience of professionals working throughout the international animal behaviour and welfare community. In addition to the core SAC and University teaching team, we invite many guest lecturers from worldwide organisations and institutes.

Applications have closed for 2012-13, and due to the popularity of this programme, we urge potential applicants to visit the website www.ed.ac.uk/vet/animal-behaviour or visit the Facebook page www.facebook.com/MScAABAW to get the information required for early application for 2013-2014.