MSc / MA Human Animal Interaction

You’ll carry out a placement and research project to gain direct experience tailored to your individual career goals. You may be able to undertake a placement or conduct data collection for your research project at suitable organisations outside the UK.

We have experience in delivering placement modules and we have excellent links with partners in industry and the third sector. Established partnerships with relevant organisations also offer research projects to students, within the Making the Most of Masters framework.

If you’re interested in studying a module from this course, the Postgraduate Certificate or the Postgraduate Diploma then please email Graduate Admissions to discuss your course of study.

The Psychology department has outstanding laboratory space fitted with high-quality equipment. It has excellent computing infrastructure, and both research and teaching activities are supported by in-house technical staff with computing, programming, electronic and audio-video expertise.

Psychology masters students have access to a dedicated suite of study and teaching rooms.

Psychology at the University of Stirling has a vibrant research culture and is one of the leading psychology departments in the UK. It ranked in the top 20 in the recent research assessment (REF 2014). It was one of only seven non-Russell group universities to do so, the others being Birkbeck, Royal Holloway, Sussex, Essex, St Andrews and Bangor (source: Times Higher Education magazine).

Our quality of research publications ranked third in Scotland after Aberdeen and Glasgow. The relevance of our psychology research activity to society received the highest possible rating, which only four other psychology departments in the UK achieved (REF 2014 results).

As a postgraduate taught student you’ll be part of our lively research community, meeting up for weekly research seminars and informal specialist discussion groups.

Teaching is delivered in a number of ways, including tutorials, demonstrations and practical classes, but the majority is seminar-based. Students are typically taught in small groups in specialist classes, or with first year PhD students or other postgraduate students (for example, in modules from other MSc courses).  

A range of assessment methods are used across the programme, including:

• research proposals
• critical reviews
• a logic model
• reflective journals for placements
• oral presentations
• popular science articles
• dissertation

Course director

Professor Hannah Buchanan Smith

h.m.buchanan-smith@stir.ac.uk

General enquiries

Louise Lavery

louise.lavery@stir.ac.uk

There are typically five £1,000 competitive bursaries to contribute towards fees or maintenance costs for students beginning a taught Masters course in Psychology. All students, formally accepted onto the MSc course are eligible to apply for these awards.

If you have the talent, ability and drive to study with us, we want to make sure you make the most of the opportunity – regardless of your financial circumstances.

Learn more about available funding opportunities or use our scholarship finder to explore our range of scholarships.

If you’re domiciled in the UK, you can typically apply to your relevant funding body for help with living costs. This usually takes the form of student loans, grants or bursaries, and the amount awarded depends upon your personal circumstances and household income.

EU and overseas students won’t normally be able to claim living support through SAAS or other UK public funding bodies. You should contact the relevant authority in your country to find out if you’re eligible to receive support.

Find out about the cost of living for students at Stirling

We aim to be as flexible as possible, and offer a wide range of payment methods - including the option to pay fees by instalments. Learn more about how to pay