Subject area: Biomedical Sciences

Introducing Biomedical Sciences

What will you study?

Our Biomedical Sciences programmes have a common structure in Years 1 and 2. The compulsory courses in the pre-honours years will provide you with a firm grounding in the knowledge, understanding and skills required for our specialist disciplines of:

• anatomy and development
• infectious diseases
• neuroscience
• pharmacology
• physiology or reproductive biology

In Years 3 and 4, you will focus on exploring your chosen discipline in depth. There are opportunities to transfer between honours disciplines at the end of Years 2 and 3.

Year 1

Each year of our Biomedical Sciences programmes is defined by an overarching theme. Year 1 highlights Inspirational Science, examining the importance of Biomedical Sciences to health and disease.

We use examples of discovery and breakthroughs in understanding to capture the excitement of our students. This will help to facilitate your transformation into an active learner.

Year 2

In Year 2, you will develop the building blocks of discipline-specific knowledge and understanding. At the same time, you will examine each of our honours disciplines through the key research questions being asked by academic staff and the wider Biomedical Sciences research community.

Year 3

Year 3 looks at the key processes of learning, or developing knowledge, from experiment placed in the context of a chosen discipline.

You examine how the application of the blocks of knowledge developed in Years 1 and 2 support the enquiry and discovery process.

You will also learn about:

• the scientific method
• structured reasoning
• inferences from data
• design of experiments
• the range of experimental techniques currently available in the Biomedical Sciences

Year 3 study involves compulsory, discipline-specific, and elective course choices.

Year 4

Year 4 is orientated to "research in practice". This is the process of learning by experiment, employing the knowledge and skills base developed across the programme. You will explore how new knowledge is produced and shared.

The Senior Honours year places students at the cutting edge of modern biomedical research. You will undertake a major research project, working alongside internationally recognised research scientists and clinicians. This will involve either:

• original laboratory-based biomedical research
• clinically related research, or
• data/literature analysis-based research

Applications

Please apply for only one of the programmes in this group. Compulsory courses in Years 1 and 2 keep programmes in all our honours biomedical sciences disciplines open. You will have the opportunity to switch between honours programmes at the end of Year 2 and at the end of Year 3, provided the required courses have been passed.

Note: we are currently reviewing the structure and names of our programmes for the 2023 admissions cycle. Updates will be confirmed and available by April 2023.