THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2025/2026

Timetable information in the Course Catalogue may be subject to change.

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DRPS : DPTs :  Edinburgh Futures Institute DPTs
Jump to: Year 1, Year 2

Year 1 Academic year: 2025/26, Starting in: September

Notes:
In Year 1, students must study 80 credits.
In Year 2, students must study 100 credits.

Across the 2 years of study, students must take the following courses:

a) 20 credits of the programme compulsory core courses:

- Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics, Law and Governance
- Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics as a Practice

b) 40 credits worth of EFI shared core courses:

- Futures Methods
- Insights Through Data [OR] Text Remix
- Ethical Data Futures
- Building Near Futures [OR] Representing Data

c) 60 credits of optional courses. These must include:

- A minimum of 20 credits of programme specific optional courses.
- Up to 40 credits of EFI educational portfolio optional courses.

d) 60 credits of the programme compulsory core final project courses:

- Knowledge Integration and Project Planning: Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics
- Futures Project: Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics

The programme compulsory core courses and the shared core courses introduce students to skills and concepts that will assist them when studying optional courses and the project. Therefore, we encourage students to take the two programme compulsory core courses during year one if possible.

Please aim to ensure that your credits are equally balanced across both semesters in a year. This is to ensure student workload is balanced.

Compulsory courses

You must take these courses

Course options

Group A

Select exactly 60 credits in this group.

Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics as a Practice (fusion on-site)

Select between 0 and 10 credits of the following courses
Notes:
This is a programme compulsory core course. It may be studied in either Year 1 or Year 2 of the programme.
AND

Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics (fusion on-site) - Programme Optional Course Collection

Select between 0 and 50 credits of the following courses
Notes:
EFI Postgraduate Taught students must take a minimum of 20 credits (2 courses) from this collection across both years of study.

Any course may only be taken once.

We would recommend that course credits should be equally split across semesters 1 and 2. This is to support students in managing an equal workload balance during their studies. However, we appreciate that this may not always be possible (or preferrable) for part-time students.

Please note that the following courses are also available as programme optional courses to students on other EFI programmes. This means that available spaces may be limited.

- Coloniality of Data
- Digital Influence
- Education, Personalisation and Surveillance
AND

Edinburgh Futures Institute Level 11 courses

Select between 0 and 40 credits from Edinburgh Futures Institute Level 11 courses
Notes:
Please note that EFI Postgraduate Taught students may only select from courses worth 10-credits within this collection.

Students enrolled on the owning programme of any course will be given priority. Therefore, we cannot always guarantee that you will be successful in gaining a space if student demand is high.
AND

EFI Shared Core Course Collection (fusion on-site) - Semester 1

Select between 0 and 10 credits of the following courses
AND

EFI Shared Core Course Collection (fusion on-site) - Semester 2

Select between 0 and 10 credits of the following courses
AND

Ethical Data Futures (fusion on-site)

Select between 0 and 10 credits of the following courses
Notes:
This is an EFI shared core compulsory course. It may be studied in either Year 1 or Year 2 of the programme.

Year 2 Academic year: 2025/26, Starting in: September

Notes:
In Year 1, students must study 80 credits.
In Year 2, students must study 100 credits.

Across the 2 years of study, students must take the following courses:

a) 20 credits of the programme compulsory core courses:

- Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics, Law and Governance
- Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics as a Practice

b) 40 credits worth of EFI shared core courses:

- Interdisciplinary Futures
- Insights Through Data [OR] Text Remix
- Ethical Data Futures
- Building Near Futures [OR] Representing Data

c) 60 credits of optional courses. These must include:

- A minimum of 20 credits of programme specific optional courses.
- Up to 40 credits of EFI educational portfolio optional courses.

d) 60 credits of the programme compulsory core final project courses:

- Knowledge Integration and Project Planning: Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics
- Futures Project: Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics

The programme compulsory core courses and the shared core courses introduce students to skills and concepts that will assist them when studying optional courses and the project. Therefore, we encourage students to take the two programme compulsory core courses during year one if possible.

Please aim to ensure that your credits are equally balanced across both semesters in a year. This is to ensure student workload is balanced.

Compulsory courses

You must take these courses

Course options

Group A

Select exactly 40 credits in this group.

Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics as a Practice (fusion on-site)

Select between 0 and 10 credits of the following courses
Notes:
This is a programme compulsory core course. If you did not study this course in Year 1 of the programme, then you MUST study it in Year 2.
AND

Data and Artificial Intelligence Ethics (fusion on-site) - Programme Optional Course Collection

Select between 0 and 40 credits of the following courses
Notes:
EFI Postgraduate Taught students must take a minimum of 20 credits (2 courses) from this collection across both years of study.

Any course may only be taken once.

We would recommend that course credits should be equally split across semesters 1 and 2. This is to support students in managing an equal workload balance during their studies. However, we appreciate that this may not always be possible (or preferrable) for part-time students.

Please note that the following courses are also available as programme optional courses to students on other EFI programmes. This means that available spaces may be limited.

- Coloniality of Data
- Digital Influence
- Education, Personalisation and Surveillance
AND

Edinburgh Futures Institute Level 11 courses

Select between 0 and 40 credits from Edinburgh Futures Institute Level 11 courses
Notes:
Please note that EFI Postgraduate Taught students may only select from courses worth 10-credits within this collection.

Students enrolled on the owning programme of any course will be given priority. Therefore, we cannot always guarantee that you will be successful in gaining a space if student demand is high.
AND

EFI Shared Core Course Collection (fusion on-site) - Semester 1

Select between 0 and 10 credits of the following courses
Notes:
Please note, if you did not study either of these courses in Year 1 of the programme, then you MUST study 1 course (10 credits) in Year 2.
AND

EFI Shared Core Course Collection (fusion on-site) - Semester 2

Select between 0 and 10 credits of the following courses
Notes:
Please note, if you did not study either of these courses in Year 1 of the programme, then you MUST study 1 course (10 credits) in Year 2.
AND

Ethical Data Futures (fusion on-site)

Select between 0 and 10 credits of the following courses

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