Students and industry

There are a number of ways to engage our students with industry.

We support students on taught programmes, be they undergraduate or masters level, to undertake projects in an industrial setting, as well as supporting PhD students with their internships. These projects vary from short summer placements, industrial projects as dissertations (for undergraduate and masters students), or as year-long placements.

The School of Biological Sciences is working with organisations to improve the employability of our graduates by actively seeking opportunities for students to undertake work based projects in the Life Sciences. This is an exciting opportunity to work with our students, addressing a real need within your business.

There are many potential benefits to your organisation to being involved in these initiatives

Tap into research skills in using biological principals and systems to create new products, services and industries
A high-calibre, temporary resource to assist with a strategic project
The opportunity undertake smaller projects that might have been on hold or would not otherwise have been done
Access to intelligent minds, bringing innovation, skills and knowledge
Opportunities to get energy and fresh insights to a particular business area; a different perspective to problems and a new motivated member of the team.

Our international standing attracts some of the brightest minds from across the globe. As the modern inheritors of a 400-year-old reputation for excellence, our staff and students contribute to a vibrant academic community whose visions are shaping tomorrow’s world.

Types of student placement with the School of Biological Sciences

Undergraduate students

Year-long placements

Each year, some students choose to take a year out of their degree programme and gain a year of relevant work experience. This does not form part of the degree, and is not credited, although we encourage and support students who wish to do a year long placement in between their penultimate and final year. Placements vary greatly, and students are required to submit a report to the Academic Supervisor. We are committed to helping our students with these excellent opportunities.

Summer placements

We also encourage students to undertake shorter projects throughout their summer vacation period, from around June - September. If you would like to offer a short vacation placement or project, please get in touch via the email address below.

Masters students

Research projects in industry

We are working with organisations to improve the employability of our graduates by seeking opportunities for masters students to undertake projects in industry settings. This is an exciting opportunity to work with our students over a 12 week project, addressing a real need within your business.

Work based projects could be:

preliminary research for proposed developments
input into an ongoing project
a review of a new or existing area
a general idea of a business need which requires further development
market research.

Students eligible to undertake a work based project will be studying with the School of Biological Sciences on one of our MSc programmes. We are offer the chance to work with masters level students from a wide range of disciplines from within Biological Sciences. Students are studying in one, or a combination, of the following fields; biochemistry, bioinformatics, biotechnology, data science, drug discovery, synthetic biology and whole system biology.

Past projects have included “Development of novel tools for studying Parkinson disease pathology using Drosophila”, “Creation of a RT-PCR method for the detection of Hepatitis E in pork and pork products” and “Detection of antibodies and antigens for use on DNA oligo-based microarray”. We accept a wide variety of projects, and are happy to discuss any of your ideas.

Requirements from your organisation

A challenging project that is important to the organisation
A clearly scoped work plan with clear milestones
Work space and equipment necessary for the tasks required
An experienced employee who will act as a supervisor / mentor to support the student and include them into the work team
An induction process covering workplace culture, professional standards, health and safety and technical requirements
We encourage organisation supervisors to comment and advise on ONE draft of the dissertation only and complete a short feedback form at the end of the project.

Timescales

Projects will tend to start in early May and finish at the end of July.

How to get involved

To submit a project idea, please complete the below form by the beginning of December. We will review these on an ongoing basis, working with our academic team to ensure we can meet academic requirements. We'll be in touch soon after this is submitted to discuss scope, delivery, recruitment of students and next steps.

Submit your industry project idea here