Postgraduate

Livestock Health and Production (MSC, Postgraduate Diploma and Postgraduate Certificate)

How you study

Although the programme is designed to be followed successfully with a minimum of direct academic support, students are able to receive support in several ways:

• Up to three written assignments for each course will be provided for you to complete and submit for tutor comment and guidance. (The marks for the best of these will count in the formal assessment process.) Although the marks obtained on the other essays do not contribute to the overall assessment, students often find it helpful to receive academic feedback on their work, to ensure that they are reaching the standard required for the Diploma or MSc. In addition, writing essays can be a useful aid in preparing for examinations.

• Students are offered tutorial support for academic matters through the External Programme Office at The Royal Veterinary College. Your enquiry will be answered by an appropriate member of the panel of experts from the college academic staff who support this programme. However, The Royal Veterinary College is unable to provide support on non-academic matters.

• An online discussion board has been introduced for selected courses. This provides the opportunity to collaborate with others via discussion rooms. You will require access to the internet (either dial-up or broadband) to participate. At set times, a tutor will be online to answer questions and the University is planning to run tutorials during the academic year.

• Students are invited to allow the University to give their names and addresses to other students studying on the programme in their locality, so that networking and mutual support can be arranged locally if desired.

Study materials

When you first register as an External student for the MSc or Postgraduate Diploma, you will receive:

• a Student Handbook, giving you information on planning your studies, preparing for examinations and study techniques

• a Course pack for each course you study containing a folder of directed learning notes along with a series of readings (copies of specially selected book chapters and articles). These will present the most concise and readable information and recent developments in the field.

• Textbooks for certain courses

• Videos for certain courses

• Samples of past examination papers and, where a course has previously been examined, an examiner's report

• CD-ROMs (for certain courses).

In subsequent years of your registration, you will receive an updated Handbook; the relevant course pack for any additional courses you begin studying; any sample/past examination papers and reports not previously received.

The programme is designed so that you are provided with all the materials you need to study. The materials are comprehensive so you will be able to complete the courses without access to any additional books or readings. There is, therefore, no need to purchase expensive textbooks, or to spend valuable time in trying to locate journals which may not be available locally.

Period of study and time commitment

Students registering for the MSc degree programmes have a minimum of two years and a maximum of five years in which to complete, whilst Postgraduate Diploma and Postgraduate Certificate students have a minimum of one year and a maximum of five. The ‘study year’ is effectively between February and September, with examinations in early/mid-October.

Because individuals differ in the number of hours per week they need to devote to study, and in the number of years in which they would like to complete the programme, it is difficult to be precise about the number of hours’ study required. A rough guide, however, is that to complete in the minimum period you should be prepared for not less than 10 hours of study per week and 15 hours would be recommended. It is very important that the hours given to study, however many they may be, should be given consistently.