13 Jul 2022
Four new courses, including two that officials believe are the first of their kind in the UK, are due to begin this autumn.
Allister Webb
Job Title
Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) has unveiled plans to deliver four new courses from this September, including two believed to be the first of their kind in the UK.
Two degree courses, plus a masters programme and an HND course intended to boost the training of technicians, are set to be offered at campuses across the country.
The moves come as work on the college’s bid to set up a new school of veterinary medicine at the Craibstone site in Aberdeen continues.
SRUC academic director Jamie Newbold said: “These new courses add to SRUC’s strength and depth of provision in animal welfare and veterinary science as we move towards becoming an enterprise university at the heart of our sustainable natural economy.”
The Craibstone site will be the base for a new HND programme in rural animal health, which is thought to be a UK first.
The college believes the HND will meet a growing demand for technicians to work with veterinary teams in rural practice.
The other UK first is an undergraduate degree in animal welfare science, which will be taught from the college’s Edinburgh campus.
Elsewhere, a BSc equine science and management programme will be the first degree course to be delivered at the Oatridge campus in West Lothian.
The college will also be offering a 12-month master of research course in zoonoses and epidemiology, mostly through distance learning platforms, from the Inverness campus. The programme is also available to part-time students.
The announcements follow last month’s appointment of Jim Anderson as the college’s new head of veterinary education.
