Animal Biology, Behaviour, Welfare and Ethics with Placement Year

Animal biology, behaviour, welfare and ethics is a programme that places the scientific study of animals alongside a sustained ethical engagement with how they are treated by humans and how that treatment can be improved. Biology provides the foundational understanding of animal physiology, evolution and ecology. Behaviour studies why animals do what they do, drawing on ethology and comparative psychology.

Welfare science asks how we assess and improve the conditions in which animals live. Ethics brings philosophical rigour to the normative questions these facts raise: what do humans owe to animals, and how should that shape our practices in farming, research, conservation and companion animal keeping?

At the Royal Veterinary College in London, this four-year full-time programme draws on the institution's international reputation in animal welfare science and its deep engagement with veterinary and biomedical research. The programme includes a year abroad, providing the opportunity to engage with animal science and welfare in a different national or institutional context. You will study anatomy, physiology, genetics, animal behaviour and cognition, welfare assessment methodologies, the ethics of human-animal relationships and the policy frameworks that govern how animals are kept and used.

The Royal Veterinary College's research and clinical environment provides an exceptional context for this kind of study, giving you exposure to working veterinary and scientific practice and the professional questions it raises about animal welfare.

Graduates go on to careers in animal welfare research and inspection, veterinary nursing, zoo and wildlife management, animal training and behaviour consultancy, policy, regulatory agencies and the pharmaceutical industry. Some go on to postgraduate study in animal welfare science, veterinary medicine, zoology or ethics, and some to doctoral research at the frontier of this rapidly developing field.