Optional Courses

Choosing your courses pre-arrival and changing courses once you arrive.

MSc Programmes with Optional Courses

Students on the following MSc programmes will be asked to pre-select optional courses:

  • MSc Animal Breeding and Genetics
  • MSc Biochemistry
  • MSc Bioinformatics
  • MSc Biotechnology
  • MSc Data Science for Biology
  • MSc Drug Discovery and Translational Biology
  • MSc Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity
  • MSc Evolutionary Genetics
  • MSc Human Complex Trait Genetics
  • MSc Quantitative Genetics and Genome Analysis
  • MSc Synthetic Biology and Biotechnology

From mid-July students who have accepted an unconditional offer on any of the programmes listed below will receive an email with a link to select their option courses. Before making your selections please read the guidance below. 

How to choose your option courses

Degree Programme Tables (DPTs) (linked below) set out the typical study path for your chosen degree, detailing core, compulsory and option courses available. You should refer to the information provided in the DPT for your chosen programme to help inform your option course choices. 

Click on the course links within the DPTs to explore detailed information about the topics covered and how they are assessed. 

Important points to note

  • You are automatically enrolled onto the compulsory courses for your programme, you do not need to select these.
  • Courses are worth 10 or 20 credits, the number of credits can be viewed in the DPT. The DPT shows how many optional courses you will need to take in Semester 1 and Semester 2 to make a total of 60 credits each semester.
  • We will ask you to select more courses than you need, and will do our best and allocate courses as fairly as we can, however, where demand exceeds the spaces available, you might not get your top choices.
  • Individual course timetables can be viewed by selecting the 'Timetable' link in the course descriptions available from the DPT.
  • Please use the provisional draft MSc timetable available below to check which courses have timetable clashes. You will not be allocated to courses that have a timetable clash.
  • You may contact the Course Organiser for more information about a particular course before making your selections.
  • If you are allocated a course that you find is unsuitable, you may be able to change this up until the end of Week 2 in either semester, please contact your Student Adviser to do this. 

MSc timetable

MSc Shared Timetable 2025-26 (248.27 KB / PDF)

Option course registration deadline

All choices must be made by the deadline given in the email asking you to select your optional courses. If you are an Unconditional Firm offer holder and have not received information on how to select your optional courses by mid-August please email pgtbiol@ed.ac.uk for further information.

Please note:

  • You can submit your course choices multiple times up until the deadline, your final submission will be the one that is used.
  • Any students who have not registered their choices by the deadline will make their selections during Welcome Week, although it is likely that choices will be limited at this time. 

What happens next?

You will be enrolled on your optional courses by Welcome Week and you will be able to see your enrolments on MyEd and Learn Ultra. 

To request changes to your optional courses, please contact your Student Advisor in the first instance, noting that a strict deadline is in place to make changes (changes cannot be made after the end of Week 2). 

MyEd

You will meet your Student Adviser and Programme Director at various times during Welcome Week. 

Find out about Welcome Week

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