Animal Care, Science & Management

Animal Care At EDC's Houghall Campus

Honestly, it's not hard to see why our animal care courses are one of our most popular areas.

Our animal care centre is absolutely jam-packed with exciting creatures (more on those later!) and animal care/animal management courses at EDC include plenty of hands-on work experience of interacting with all of them.

You'll also be studying in a fantastic, modern facility at our Houghall campus in the heart of Durham. In 2016, the college opened a new, purpose-built small animal care centre.

Houghall's now the largest specialist land-based training provider in the North East, so you know you're coming somewhere that's been recognised for its quality education!

Inside the residents are always changing and expanding as we get new animals, but you'll find a snake house, lizard house, aquatics, small mammals and an outdoor area which currently houses our resident goats.

There's also a commercial dog grooming studio, a 22 bay kennel unit where many staff house their dogs, and a new dog agility and walking area too.

The whole centre is worth over £3 million - a small price to pay to ensure you get the very best small animal care education the area has to offer.

Fancy taking a look for yourself? View our video below to get an idea of what animal care is all about.

More Than Just Care

While learning to care for a wide variety of animals is the core of your course here at Houghall, there's so much more to animal care than just the care part!

As part of your studies, you'll be learning all about the unique physiology of animals, learning the science behind everything from how they live, breathe and eat so you can get an in-depth understanding of the differences between animals (which can be huge).

Students progressing onto our Level 3 course in Animal Care, Science and Management have the opportunity to apply for university entrance, where you could move on to a wide range of degree options which further develop your scientific understanding of animals. These can include such examples as Animal Science, Animal Behaviour, Veterinary Nursing, Zoology and a range of Conservation-related degrees too.

New From September 2023

East Durham College's Houghall Campus is working in partnership with the University of Sunderland to provide a new FdSc and BSc top up in Animal Management which will hopefully start running from September 2023. You will study at Houghall, in Durham, and the award you will receive will be from the University of Sunderland. Once you have successfully passed the Foundation degree (FdSc) you have the option to top up the Foundation degree to a full honours degree again studying at our Houghall campus in Durham. Once the course is confirmed you will be able to apply of this course via UCAS.

In the meantime, any queries for the FdSc Animal Management course can be made to the course team by contacting either:

Rebecca Sweet (Higher Education Course Leader) MSc, BSc (Hons) rebecca.sweet@eastdurham.ac.uk 

James Mulvany (Programme Area Lead Animal Higher Education) BSc PGCE FHEA james.mulvany@eastdurham.ac.uk

Apply Now to Study A Course in Animal Care, Science & Management

This all sound like something you'd be interested in? 

Awesome - if you're thinking a course in animal care might be for you, the next step is to actually apply for a course!

You can do this via our course finder. Once you've find the right one for you, submit your application online and we'll be in touch to invite you to one of our next open evenings!