Biochemistry and Genetics with a Year in Industry BSc

This course allows you to complete a year-long, paid work placement as part of your degree. You'll pay reduced fees for the year you're on placement and you'll have the support you need from your tutor and the University. Most students earn salaries during their placements and many are offered a graduate-level job at the end.

Previous students have found placements at global pharmaceutical companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Unilever. But your placement doesn't have to be in the lab - this course gives you the freedom to test out an alternative career path. For example, you could pursue a role in market research, communications or business development within or outside of the bioscience industry.

You'll study these two highly complementary subjects that are fundamental to biotechnology and medicine. You'll learn about proteins, enzymes, hormones and receptors, the structure and expression of genes, inheritance and mutations. We'll also introduce you to how biochemistry and genetics can be applied to the major challenges affecting humanity today, from understanding and treating a range of diseases to how we feed a global population and how new drugs are designed.

All of our students take compulsory modules designed to give you specialist knowledge of biochemistry and genetics, whilst also introducing you to microbiology and molecular biology. As you progress through your degree and discover what you're passionate about, optional modules will allow you to explore your chosen subject in greater depth, specialise in one area, keep your interests broad or even switch to another degree programme within the molecular biosciences.

In your first year, you'll spend six hours in the lab each week learning the practical skills and knowledge that every bioscientist needs including how to establish bacterial cultures, assess bioenergetics and perform gene cloning. Analysis classes will equip you with the skills you'll use outside the lab from interacting with your data to interpreting your findings. Your lectures will give you a broad understanding of the molecular biosciences, allowing you to explore what you're most interested in.

In your second year, you'll begin learning more advanced scientific techniques both in the lab and in lectures with topics including experimental design, genome editing using CRISPR/Cas9 and protein purification. You'll continue to take analysis classes to develop your data handling skills further and you can choose to study modules like "Molecules to Market", allowing you to work in teams to come up with pioneering science enterprise ideas to launch a virtual business.

In your third year, you'll return from placement and complete an extended research project alongside your chosen specialist modules. This will reflect an area of molecular bioscience that interests you and will take place either in the lab or in industry. Depending on your interests and career goals, you can choose a project from: experimental science, clinical diagnostics, industrial biotechnology, molecular systems and computing, science communication or education and outreach.

If you want to study biochemistry and genetics but don't meet the entry requirements to go straight into the first year, our Biosciences with Foundation Year could be for you. After successfully completing the one-year programme, you'll progress onto the first year of your chosen degree.