Breaking News: MSc Commonwealth Scholarships 2019

BREAKING NEWS: Our Online Masters Degree International Animal Welfare, Ethics and Law has been selected to be eligible for Commonwealth Scholarships for 2019.

Do you want to study at a top UK university and stay in your home country – able to work and have family commitments and study at masters level? If so, the University of Edinburgh’s online masters degrees allow you to do this.

International Animal Welfare, Ethics and Law is an online masters degree with the aim to provide knowledge and a critical understanding of animal welfare science, with a focus on the international issues arising from animal use in all its forms.

For a September 2019 start, applicants from the following countries have the possibility to apply for Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholarships covering all university fees for three years.

The eligible countries are: Bangladesh; Cameroon; Ghana; India; Kenya; Lesotho; Malawi; Mozambique; Nigeria; Pakistan; Rwanda; Sierra Leone; Sri Lanka; Eswatini; Tanzania; The Gambia; Uganda: Zambia.

In order to be eligible you MUST apply by the 15^th of March 2019. Please apply here: 

http://edin.ac/2R7jUYQ

You MUST also get an English Language certificate as soon as possible –IELTS or TOEFL.

We cannot guarantee the awarding of the scholarship as they are by competition and decided by the Commonwealth Scholarship committee. 

For further information, please email IAWEL@ed.ac.uk

 

Lekking capercaillies - Director Cathy Dwyer on BBC Sounds

Cathy took part in a phone interview with John Beattie on his BBC Sounds programme last week, discussing aggressive behaviour by a lekking capercaillie on Glen Tanar Estate, Aberdeenshire.  The interview provides an interesting insight into such lekking behaviours amongst Scotland's wild animal species.

The piece starts 48:15 minutes into the programme.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000210j

Introducing Roxy Woodrow RVN to the JMICAWE Team

Roxy has joined JMICAWE on a 6-month contract, working with Heather Bacon & Louise Connelly to develop education resources in dog population management.

Roxanne moved to Edinburgh in 2007 to study Biological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh after spending her childhood abroad, mostly in the Middle East and Asia. After earning her Honours Bachelor's degree, she continued her studies in Veterinary Nursing at the College of Animal Welfare. Roxanne qualified as a Veterinary Nurse in 2015 and began her career working at the University of Edinburgh’s Hospital for Small Animals, working as a surgical veterinary nurse within the hospital and then progressing to specialist orthopaedic nurse. The teaching referral hospital allowed her to fulfil her interests in both referral level veterinary nursing as well as teaching the veterinary students and trainee veterinary nurses.

Since July 2018, Roxanne has spent her time volunteering in Sri Lanka and India with two animal welfare charities with a focus on street dog population control and rabies immunisation.

Yesterday was our team project review day, followed by our post-Christmas office party - quite the first day for Roxy!  We welcome her to the team and look forward to working with her over the next six months.

Introducing Kirstin McIlvaney to the JMICAWE team

Today was Kirstin's first official day with JMICAWE, where she will work alongside Director Tamsin Coombs as Co-Ordinator on the On Campus Applied Animal Behaviour & Welfare MSc.

By way of an introduction, here is Kirstin in her own words:-

During a gap year spent working as an international show jumping groom I developed a keen interest in equine behaviour and modern training methods. This led me to complete a Masters in Zoology at the University of Glasgow which further widened my interest into the behaviour and welfare of other of domesticated species. I joined the Animal Behaviour and Welfare team at SRUC as a research assistant shortly after graduating, where I spent 14 years, initially working with Prof. Cathy Dwyer on a transgenerational study of maternal behaviour and neonatal development in sheep. This study required training Scottish Blackface sheep to stand still for regular ultrasound scan measurements to be made, which tested all of my experience working with flighty prey species as well as most of my patience!   

I worked with a huge variety of species during my time at SRUC as well as the animal production systems in which they are kept. I provided technical assistance and experimental management on many projects including the development of welfare indicators, out wintering beef cattle, factors influencing pig aggression and investigating the role of maternal care on positive welfare.

With a particular interest in non-invasive means of data collection (such as the use of sensors to monitor welfare) my attention has followed the role new technologies can bring and how we manage data collected from them, which focussed me on improving the efficiency of data collection as well as promoting high standards of data management at SRUC.

I have been involved in supporting students with their own research projects for many years and look forward to sharing my wide range of experience and my enthusiasm for high standards of practical research practices in my new role as MSc Co-ordinator.

A warm welcome to Kirstin, we all look forward to working with you.

Happy New Year for 2019

Happy New Year for 2019

As 2019 begins we would like to thank all our collaborators, colleagues, friends, and supporters for their help, enthusiasm and dedication to making the world a better place for animals, and for the people who depend on them, over the past year.

2018 was a busy year for the JMICAWE team – we welcomed two new members of staff to the team: Dr Fiona Lang joined us for a year to work with the team on a project funded by Animal Welfare Foundation to determine the priority animal welfare issues for different species in the UK; and Dr Louise Connelly has recently joined the team for two years to develop our digital learning materials. Part of Louise’s role will be to help develop resources for, and promote, our Dog Welfare Assessment App which we launched in May. We are also delighted with the recognition of the dedication and hard work of one of our veterinary nurses, Hayley Walters, who received an MBE from the Prince of Wales in April for services to animal welfare.

Over the last 12 months we have delivered teaching in animal behaviour, welfare and ethics to our undergraduate students throughout the year; delivered a short course on animal welfare to final year students in May; and supported the 2^nd student-led Veterinary Ethics Conference in September. We have also taught more than 220 MSc students on our 3 Masters programmes, either on the campus in Edinburgh or worldwide through our online MSc programmes. Internationally we have been involved in the delivery of teaching, training and workshops on animal welfare, animal behaviour and veterinary clinical skills in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, China, Vietnam, Japan and India. We also continue to promote the vital role of veterinary nurses in animal welfare and are working with colleagues in India and Sri Lanka to develop curricula and resources to support this.

We have been working closely with a number of different organisations, nationally and internationally, in developing animal welfare activities and have been part of the WSAVA team that developed international guidelines for animal welfare. We were also very pleased to be able to support the International Veterinary Students Association in their animal welfare conference in Munich; UFAW and City University in the Animal Welfare Beyond Borders conference in Hong Kong; and ICCAW for the Farm Animal Welfare conference in Beijing.  

We look forward to a similarly productive year in 2019, and wish you all a very happy and healthy year in all your activities to improve animal welfare.