BA (Hons) in Animal Welfare and Society

• Develop high-level knowledge of animal behaviour, training, welfare, and conservation
  • Study at the University’s Centre for Animal Welfare and take advantage of its partnerships with major animal welfare organisations
  • Gain hands-on practice and learn how to perform welfare assessments in the field
  • Kick-start a career in diverse areas such as teaching, veterinary work or seek accreditation as an animal behaviourist

You will explore connections and relationships between humans and other animals, and critically review theories, philosophies and issues concerning their treatment of them. You will study a range of issues including animal welfare; animal ethics; animal law; consuming animals; criminality and animals; animal representations; animals and policy; environment and animals; and animal advocacy.

Throughout the course, you explore crucial questions about human relationships with other animals. How do we understand them? What are our responsibilities to them? Should we eat them? Why do we develop emotional attachments to them? Why do we vilify some animals and not others? An essential element of the course is how humans relate to other animals, and what it means to be human.

This interdisciplinary course engages with scholarly work from the arts and humanities, social sciences and natural sciences in order to examine how humans may reconsider their relationship with animals. The broad scope and thought-provoking content enable you to discover and explore your areas of interest.

The course is both classroom-based and field-based. Through internships and other work-placement opportunities, you are able to experience working with animals and/or organisations associated with animal issues.

The University of Winchester empowers students to reach their full potential and make a difference in the world. Set in Winchester, a beautiful, quintessential English city with a rich heritage and vibrant contemporary culture, the university’s friendly and compact campuses give students the benefit of city and campus living. We are well situated with excellent transport links allowing you to reach London or the coast in an hour, and Southampton Airport is just a 10-minute train journey away.

The university offers a selection of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees that are taught across our five faculties:

• Faculty of Business and Digital Technologies: A modern, forward-thinking faculty offering a range of disciples including Accounting, Economics, Business Management, Computer Science and Marketing.
• Faculty of Education and the Arts: Has a long and established history of providing high-quality degrees, and is home to the Institute of Education, Department of Education and Childhood Studies, Department of Performing Arts, and School of Media and Film.
• Faculty of Health and Wellbeing: Outstanding degrees that are committed to progressing health and well-being for all life. The faculty includes Nursing, Physiotherapy, Social Work, Animal Welfare and Sports degrees.
• Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences: Passionate about what makes us human, we offer research-led teaching and outstanding support in Anthropology; Archaeology; History; Psychology; Social Sciences including Politics and Geography; Philosophy; English and Creative Writing.
• Faculty of Law, Crime and Justice: Bringing together the department of Law and the department of Policing, Criminology and Forensics, the faculty uses an interdisciplinary approach to offer a dynamic range of degrees that offer the use of specialist facilities.