Master of Arts in Human Animal Interaction

at University of Stirling United Kingdom

There is an increasing global demand for nations, organisations and communities to increase their resilience to potential crises and disasters. Most recently, the Covid-19 pandemic has shown the impact that a global pandemic can have on humanity and the economy. You will acquire the skills to engage with the problems facing those working in disaster interventions, including family reunification, safeguarding children, adults and other vulnerable groups and rebuilding sustainable, resilient communities post disaster. This includes exploring disaster mitigation, preparation and prevention strategies within a community engagement and coproduction framework to create new, long-term responses owned and endorsed by communities.

You will be encouraged to learn from each other and innovate in disaster responses by exploring complex disaster issues in the safety of the classroom using videos, simulations and small group exercises. Your skills will be enhanced further through participation in a field-based learning opportunity involving a period of shadowing practitioners within humanitarian agencies, emergency responders and government departments responsible for deploying emergency personnel. Here, you will learn about agency policy, procedures and practices during deployment.

If you really want to understand the modern world, it’s essential to unlock the patterns of the past. History courses can help you do exactly that – and here at the University of Stirling, we take an innovative approach to guiding you through the major events and periods that have shaped us all.

Our History degree will equip you with a wide range of intellectual and personal skills. You’ll gain an awareness of how different societies across the world have changed over time, by exploring areas such as Scottish, British, European, American and African history. You’ll also engage with different types of history, including political, social, cultural, gender, race, computer and environmental.

History lecturers and staff at Stirling are leaders in their field. In the most recent Research Excellence Framework assessment, 98% of our research in history was classed as world-leading or internationally excellent. That expertise and passion feeds into every aspect of your course to ensure you reach your final year of study functioning as a fully-fledged historian in your own right. Along the way, you’ll enjoy the freedom to not only focus in on specialty areas of history that interest you most, but also to combine your studies with one of 16 other subjects that broaden your professional possibilities – from journalism to teaching, politics and sociology.

Our course will teach you the full scope of life through multiple biological disciplines: from bacteria to blue whales, from enzymes to ecosystems. For the first two years you’ll develop an in-depth understanding of the general processes that govern life on Earth, before specialising according to your interests in the latter half of the degree programme. As you develop your practical skills you’ll become involved with research, giving you the opportunity to contribute to biological discoveries.

On this Masters course, you’ll learn to produce fine, nuanced writing and a body of work in either poetry, fiction or creative non-fiction. We combine intensive writers’ workshops, technique-focused classes and one-to-one tuition by distinguished writers, along with fascinating and useful visits from authors, agents and publishers to help you on your creative journey.

The course is designed to develop your writing talent. It allows you to intensively focus on a project while engaging with a range of genres and working practices that draw upon our rich expertise in contemporary literature, publishing, film, media and journalism. You’ll also develop skills in listening, editing and peer feedback.

Our course is open to all, whether you’re already well established in your career, starting out on your creative journey or want to take our MLitt later in life to enhance your skills and explore new creative prospects.

Interested in the management and delivery of sport? Wonder how psychology enhances sports performance? Considered the local and global importance and impact of sport? If you’re thinking about a career in sport, a Sports Studies degree from Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence will help you be the difference.

We’ve developed a course that provides our graduates with a breadth of knowledge and practical experiences that can be applied to a wide range of sport related careers. Our course is flexible - we offer a wide variety of module options and it can be combined with a range of subjects, including Accountancy, Film and Media, History, Business Studies, Journalism, Marketing, and Psychology.

You can choose from modules exploring four subject areas:

• Sports Policy and Management
• Physical Activity and Health
• Development of Sport
• Sport, Culture and Society

In addition, our extracurricular volunteering opportunities and Sport Union clubs enable you to earn qualifications and gain valuable sport management experience alongside your academic degree.

Food from aquatic systems is essential for much of the world’s population. However, with wild catches of seafood declining in many places, aquaculture is playing an increasing role as an alternative source of high-quality, nutritious food - and as an employer. Controlling disease is important to the ongoing success of this industry.

This Masters in Aquatic Veterinary Studies provides you with training in the wide range of disciplines and skills you need for the investigation, prevention and control of aquatic animal diseases. You’ll develop an understanding of the biology, husbandry and environment of farmed aquatic species, as well as specialist expertise in aquatic animal diseases.

You’ll study at the Institute of Aquaculture, one of the top institutions in this field. It’s internationally recognised for both research and teaching and has more than 70 staff and 80 postgraduate students.

The Institute of Aquaculture has received the UK’s most prestigious academic honour – the Queen’s Anniversary Prize 2019. The honour recognises outstanding work that shows quality and innovation, and delivers real benefit to the wider world through education and training. It recognises our pioneering work in the world’s fastest-growing food production sector and our bid to tackle global hunger.

The Institute of Aquaculture has pioneered the development of aquaculture disease management. We have over 40 years of experience in investigating and controlling fish and shrimp diseases worldwide, which it uses to improve your problem-solving skills, ultimately equipping you to make a real contribution to the sustainability of aquaculture.

Our Masters degree in Gender Studies examines the history, context and development of key debates around gender, sexuality and identity, exploring commonalities and differences in the ways they have played out in a range of contemporary, historical and global cultures.

Developed by specialists who are passionately engaged with gender, feminist and queer issues, the strength of our programme lies in its interdisciplinary curriculum which branches across multiple fields ranging from: film, media and literary studies, sociology, history, philosophy, curation and politics.  

Through core modules like Understanding Gender, Researching Gender and Key Feminist Thinkers, you’ll explore a range of theoretical and methodological approaches for studying gender. You’ll also delve into the ways in which academic debate informs, is shaped by and is at times distanced from how gender actually ‘works’ in true situations.

The course places the application of learning to real-world contexts at the heart of its teaching. You’ll have the opportunity to apply your learning on a research placement. The course team has established links with potential placement providers from the third sector, as well as with a number of organisations who are committed to gender equality as part of their work in arts, culture and sport.

If you have aspirations of working in the heritage, conservation or tourism sectors, our dedicated Heritage and Tourism degree is the perfect starting point. This course is a fully integrated degree taught in conjunction with Forth Valley College. You'll spend the first two years studying at the college and the final two studying at the University of Stirling campus, whilst benefitting from dual registration and the full range of their combined resources and facilities.

The course is supported and shaped by leading organisations such as Historic Environment Scotland, VisitScotland and Scottish Canals, and delivered jointly by the University of Stirling and Forth Valley College. Your studies will reflect the importance of combining academic knowledge with a firm grasp of management and business. You’ll learn about heritage, tourism, history, exhibition design, sociology, marketing and environmental studies – as well as the challenges facing the management and promotion of historic and natural environments in Scotland and beyond.

Every aspect of the course is informed by the internationally-recognised expertise of our academic staff and their extensive networks with professional partners, helping to distinguish our programme from other heritage and tourism courses. You can be confident that everything you’re learning is rooted in the latest academic and applied industry thinking, and designed to prepare you for a career in the heritage and tourism sectors. You’ll also apply your skills in real-world settings while you study – further sharpening the skills you’ll put to use when you transition into the exciting professional world of heritage and tourism.

You’ll discover how to assess the issues surrounding crime and social problems. We’ll help you answer questions such as: how does society work, how are crime and other social problems situated in society, and how do different cultures understand these problems? What can we learn from the success of social policies in other countries?

Our BA (Hons) Criminology and Social Policy degree provides an international approach to help you understand a wide range of social issues, including crime and criminal justice, inequality and welfare, race, immigration, disability, addictions, youth and ageing. We’ll give you the skills to research, analyse and assess the key issues for yourself. You’ll also benefit from our strong research links with on-campus organisations such as the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, the Scottish Institute for Policing Research, the Salvation Army Centre for Addiction Services and Research, and the Dementia Centre.

By aligning the course with the FRM curriculum, rigorous academic learning is coupled with practitioner-driven insight and certification. Through this combination, students are better prepared to succeed in the challenging field of risk management.

As you study you’ll acquire a broad knowledge of finance, financial theory and the practical methods used to analyse financial data. Further specialist knowledge and analytical skills are developed in financial risk management, including how to identify, measure and manage a broad range of financial risk types including operational risk, foreign exchange risk, liquidity risk and market risk.

You’ll have access to professional financial databases including Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters Eikon, Datastream and S&P Capital IQ. There’s also an opportunity to attend our series of guest lectures by professionals from the industry. All these features help to enhance employability, increase participation, improve learning, and play a part in a world-leading student experience.