Human Anatomy MSc

This 12-month programme offers a rare opportunity to learn anatomy from dissection and experience teaching human anatomy. This is an ideal stepping-stone to a career in anatomy teaching and research.

With this highly regarded qualification, you will gain major transferable skills through an intensive on-campus dissection course and develop teaching experience at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

What will you study?

This programme has two main strands.

Develop your in-depth knowledge of human anatomy through dissection

Anatomical knowledge will be learned to a level to teach undergraduate and postgraduate students and professions allied to medicine. This strand will involve the dissection of a body in groups of three to five students over two semesters.

A major component of this course involves self-directed learning. When there are no scheduled lectures or tutorials, students are required to spend their time in the lab, fully engaged in the process of dissecting and learning anatomy from their assigned dissected body.

Additionally, there will be regular "surgeries" where teaching staff will be present to offer guidance and support during the dissections.

Learn to teach anatomy

The second strand is anatomy teaching, covering the theoretical and practical aspects of teaching anatomy to undergraduate and postgraduate students. Alongside theoretical lectures and workshops in the first semester, you will focus on observing the teaching of anatomy to medical undergraduate students.

In the second semester you will be involved in preparing and carrying out teaching sessions to both small and large groups of students. You will compile an end-of-year teaching portfolio based on:

• the theoretical material you learn
• the observations you make
• the practical experience you have gained
• the experience that you will gain can be used towards an application as associate fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Embryology course

Complementing these strands will be a lecture-based embryology course. This will provide you with an understanding of normal human development and how normal development can go wrong, manifested in commonly observed congenital abnormalities.

You will also study:

• Neuroanatomy
• Embryology
• Anatomy law and ethics
• Medical imaging
• The health and safety of embalming procedures and handling bodies
• The legal and historical aspects of anatomy in Scotland and the UK
• An introduction to the ethics of using bodies in medical education

These entry requirements are for the 2025/26 academic year and requirements for future academic years may differ. Entry requirements for the 2026/27 academic year will be published on 1 Oct 2025.

A UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, in a medical, biomedical or relevant bioscience subject, or other subject allied to medicine.

We may also consider applicants with a UK 2:1 or 2:2 honours degree or its international equivalent, if you have other qualifications with relevant work experience, normally of at least one year; for example if you have human anatomy work experience (i.e. human anatomy tutor, demonstrator, dissector etc) or in medical and paramedical fields. Please contact the programme team to check before you apply.

Students from China

This degree is Band B.

• Postgraduate entry requirements for students from China

International qualifications

Check whether your international qualifications meet our general entry requirements:

• Entry requirements by country

English language requirements

Regardless of your nationality or country of residence, you must demonstrate a level of English language competency which will enable you to succeed in your studies.

English language tests

We accept the following English language qualifications at the grades specified:

• IELTS Academic: total 6.5 with at least 6.0 in each component. We do not accept IELTS One Skill Retake to meet our English language requirements.
• TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition): total 92 with at least 20 in each component. We do not accept TOEFL MyBest Score to meet our English language requirements.
• C1 Advanced (CAE) / C2 Proficiency (CPE): total 176 with at least 169 in each component.
• Trinity ISE: ISE II with distinctions in all four components.
• PTE Academic: total 65 with at least 59 in each component. We do not accept PTE Academic Online.
• Oxford ELLT: 7 overall with at least 6 in each component.

Unless you are a national of a majority English speaking country, your English language qualification must be no more than three and a half years old from the start of the month in which the programme you are applying to study begins. If you are using an IELTS, PTE Academic, TOEFL, Trinity ISE, or Oxford ELLT test, it must be no more than two years old on the first of the month in which the programme begins, regardless of your nationality. (Revised 14 January 2025 to include Oxford ELLT.)

Degrees taught and assessed in English

We also accept an undergraduate or postgraduate degree that has been taught and assessed in English in a majority English speaking country, as defined by UK Visas and Immigration:

• UKVI list of majority English speaking countries

We also accept a degree that has been taught and assessed in English from a university on our list of approved universities in non-majority English speaking countries (non-MESC).

• Approved universities in non-MESC

If you are not a national of a majority English speaking country, then your degree must be no more than five years old at the beginning of your programme of study.

Find out more about our language requirements:

• English language requirements

This programme has been designed to help you gain a highly regarded qualification in anatomy and the teaching of anatomy.

It will provide you with a set of major transferable skills such as:

• dissecting experience
• teaching experience
• expertise in health and safety
• anatomy law and ethics

This programme can therefore open up possibilities in:

• anatomy teaching
• anatomy laboratories
• further studies in medical and biomedical sciences
• further research leading to a PhD

and many more, increasing your long-term career prospects.

Our students come to us from all over the world with a huge range of expertise. Many students will go on to anatomy teaching positions in academic institutes within the UK or overseas. Some continue in research by achieving funding for a PhD position. A number of our students choose to study medicine.