Overview

The BSc (Hons) Animal Science and Welfare provides you with the skillset, knowledge and hands-on experience to be career-ready in the animal science and welfare care industries.

The course centres around three core themes: animal biology, animal behaviour, and animal welfare. At our Middlesbrough campus, you study animal biology, including animal physiology, cell and tissue structure, and bioethical understanding of animal welfare. At our partner institute, East Durham College (Houghall campus), you gain hands-on experience with native and exotic animals. This includes understanding their physiology, nutrition and digestion, husbandry, and management, and how scientific tools and research can benefit the health and welfare of all animal species.

The animal behaviour and welfare themes modules and research experiences at Houghall are delivered by highly trained and specialist animal welfare staff. Your free travel bus pass enables you to attend Houghall.

The Houghall campus is on a 476-acre estate close to Durham city centre and houses a diversity of animals. These include a purpose-built small animal care centre with several specialist facilities, including a reptile house, invertebrate house, small mammal house and several large animal enclosures. There is also a commercial dog grooming studio, 22-bay dog kennel, and dog agility and walking area. The site is also home to horse riding stables, an arena, and commercial pig and cattle facilities. An optional work placement year is included, at no extra cost.

This course includes a foundation year - ideal if you need additional preparation or if you don't have sufficient grades to join Year 1 of a degree.

Top reasons to study animal science and welfare

• Hands-on practical experience in labs, on the farm, and in urban and countryside settings
• A strong scientific foundation in animal science and welfare
• Our teaching team includes active and internationally published researchers

Course structure

Year 0 (foundation year) core modules

Big Data

Big data – it’s a phrase that a lot of people would argue is overused, or at least not always used in the appropriate context. So what is it really? How is it made and how do we make sense of it?

In this module, you learn how big data is not just abundant but a growing field in so many aspects of our society from policing and conservation to health and bioinformatics. You explore how groups and communities use and share big data to help keep themselves safe in disaster zones around the world. You begin to value the role data plays in helping to make sense of community relationships in society, from uncovering criminal networks, tracking disease outbreaks to developing a deeper understanding of our ecology.

Data might end up in a data-frame spreadsheet format but it doesn’t begin there. It is often created with people and animals engaging with each other and technology. You explore how search engines collate and store the data we need to help make predictions, enhance decision making, or simply to better understand society’s needs.

Experiment Methods for life

This module is based around a series of laboratory sessions. The first sessions emphasise important foundation skills, such as how to work safely in a practical environment and how to properly document practical work. These are followed by a series of sessions based on your wider academic interests including the basics of microscopy, handling microorganisms, safe handling food, using volumetric glassware and investigating acid base titrations.

Global Grand Challenge

This module focuses on how science can help address some of the biggest global Grand Challenges that face society. This reflects the University’s focus on externally facing research that makes a real, practical difference to the lives of people and the success of businesses and economies.

You work on a project in a group, to enabling you to develop innovative answers to some of the biggest issues of our time based on five thematic areas – health and wellbeing, resilient and secure societies, digital and creative economy, sustainable environments and learning for the 21st century.

Introduction to Animal science

Study animal science from the perspective of domesticated animals including farm animals, horses and companion animals.

Whilst reviewing animal science from an interdisciplinary perspective you develop an understanding of recent developments in animal science, the underlying scientific principles and how these can be applied to animal nutrition, breeding, fertility, health, behaviour, physiology and anatomy. Practical sessions are delivered at the East Durham College Houghall Campus and focus on the methodologies used to safely handle animals. You gain hands-on experience of animal husbandry, nutrition and health.

Life On Earth

You explore the diversity of life on earth and the concept of evolution. You consider Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection to demonstrate relationships between species, the principles of taxonomy and speciation, and how they relate to the evolutionary tree.

You are introduced to the physiological processes, cellular organisation, homeostasis, metabolism, growth, reproduction, response to stimuli and adaptation - all hallmarks of living organisms equipping diverse species to survive and thrive.

Life Science

This module focuses on the life sciences from a human perspective. While developing an understanding of human biology you explore the role of different but interconnected life science disciplines in modern life.

While reviewing life science from an interdisciplinary context, relatable to a variety of backgrounds, you examine the major human body systems – cardiovascular, respiratory, excretory, endocrine, nervous, digestive, skeletal and reproductive. This module enables you to appreciate how such knowledge is relevant to issues in health, disease and modern society.

Year 1 core modules

Animal And Plant Biology

This module focuses on multicellular organisms such as animals and plants to introduce physiology, population biology, ecology and the complexity of ecosystems. You gain a thorough introduction with the lecture series and develop these themes during seminars integrating discussion, problem solving and quantitative techniques.

Lectures and practical seminars are also an opportunity to comprehend the relevance of the biological processes introduced to our human societies. Learning is also supported by a field trip within the local area, a first-hand experience of animal and plant biological surveying in the natural environment.

Biodiversity And Evolution

You study the concept of evolution and how it led to the development of biodiversity and the world we now inhabit. You discuss evolution by natural selection and our development from the common ancestor, along with the principles of taxonomy, speciation and the evolutionary tree to demonstrate relationships between species. We highlight the impact of modern molecular methods of taxonomy in the form of phylogenetics, particularly the discovery of the domain of archaea. We discuss the complex biodiversity of the microbial, plant and animal worlds and their importance in ecological balance for the earth, human kind and society in the form of conservation. Lectures and tutorial sessions provide an insight into the theoretical aspects of evolution and biodiversity, and you discuss and analyse problem-based exercises to affirm your theoretical knowledge.

Cell Biology

You increase your understanding of biological processes at the cellular level. You will explore eukaryotic cell architecture and function with a molecular and mammalian focus, and learn about cell division and the cell cycle, genetic organisation of cells, DNA replication and gene expression. Your exploration of these aspects of cell and molecular biology will be supported by a series of laboratory-based sessions.

Global Enviornmental Issue

Humankind faces environmental challenges which are severe and varied. Threats as diverse as climate change, the supply of fresh water, soil fertility and plastic waste pose problems which differ in immediacy and scale. You will be introduced to the careful appraisal of information relating to these challenges, how the scale of the problem and its consequences may be measured and where the solutions might lie.

Introdution to Animal Welfare

You are introduced to animal welfare, developing your understanding of how the impact of the environment on both farmed and companion animals can affect animals’ wellbeing. You discuss the complex issues of animal welfare from a scientific, ethical and practical perspective as well as being aware of the relationship between the animal and the environment and how it can influence the overall welfare of the animal. Practical sessions are delivered at the East Durham College Houghall Campus and focus on animal welfare together with the relationship between the animal and the environment in which it lives.

Large Animal Management and Handling

You learn about animal anatomy and physiology, basic nutrition and digestion, as well as husbandry, management and production systems of these large animals. You explore subjects such as the growth and welfare of farmed animals and horses, protein evaluation systems for ruminants and non-ruminants, and comparisons to wild animals where applicable. Practical sessions are delivered at the East Durham College Houghall Campus and focus on the methodologies used to safely handle large animals. You gain hands-on experience of animal husbandry, nutrition and health.

Career opportunities

You will be well placed to seek employment in a range of sectors that support animal science and welfare including public services, zoos, wildlife parks, charities, conservation, and animal research. This degree will also provide a strong basis for postgraduate study.

Work placement

A work placement officer and the University's careers service are available to help you with applying for a placement. Advice is also available on job hunting and networking.

By taking a work placement year you gain experience favoured by graduate recruiters and develop your technical skillset. You also gain the transferable skills required in any professional environment, including communication, negotiation, teamwork, leadership, organisation, confidence, self-reliance, problem-solving, being able to work under pressure, and commercial awareness.

An increasing number of employers view a placement as a year-long interview and, as a result, placements are increasingly becoming an essential part of an organisation's pre-selection strategy in their graduate recruitment process.

Potential benefits from completing a work placement year include:

• improved job prospects
• enhanced employment skills and improved career progression opportunities
• a higher starting salary than your full-time counterparts
• a better degree classification
• a richer CV
• a year's salary before completing your degree
• experience of workplace culture
• the opportunity to design and base your final-year project within a working environment.