Course summary

Spend a year on a paid work placement as part of your degree. Combining a placement year with our MBiolSci course allows you to gain work experience in industry, before adding an extra year of research training back in the lab in your fourth year. Study the full extent of biological sciences, tackling global challenges such as the biodiversity crisis, antibiotic resistance, and cancer. Gain invaluable research experience in your final year working alongside world-leading academics. Study biological sciences at the University of Sheffield and discover a broad and vibrant spectrum of study across all scales of biological systems. Our five-year masters degree gives you an opportunity to focus on a major research project that builds on the broad and vibrant spectrum of modules you’ve studied in your first three years. From year one, you can begin to shape your own path - choosing to specialise or maintain a broad approach - from organisms and the environment, to biomedicine, human health and the molecular biosciences. At Sheffield, you’ll be encouraged to be creative, think independently, and express your ideas. You can contribute to work on cancer and ageing in conjunction with the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals. Or you might choose to do field research projects in the Peak District National Park, or travel for a field course in the UK or abroad. As you progress through your degree, you’ll have the option to specialise in aspects of human biology, molecular biology, biotechnology, biodiversity or sustainability. You’ll have the chance to carry out your own research projects in the lab and the field, where you can use the latest equipment to get hands-on experience. For your placement year, you’ll gain valuable experience of working in industry, business, for a charity or the government. You'll pay reduced fees while you're on placement, and we do everything we can with you and our partners to ensure it’s paid. You’ll work alongside professionals to acquire skills and knowledge that will make you a great candidate for future jobs, and see how the concepts and ideas you learn during your degree are put into practice on the front lines of industry. Your final year is devoted to a major research project in the lab or in the field. You’ll work alongside our world-leading academics and explore a topic of your choosing in depth. Why study this course?

• Five year course - the ultimate kick-start to your career, resulting in a masters degree, with your fifth year focusing on a major research project.

• Build connections and a career - placement organisations include GSK, Proctor and Gamble, Middlemarch Environmental, Paraxel Statistical Programming, Kew Gardens, and Sydney Environmental Group.

• 4th in the UK for research quality - the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 rated 98% of research and impact from the School of Biosciences as world-leading or internationally excellent.

• Make the course your own - enjoy the freedom to take a broad approach, or choose the topics you want to study across the breadth of biology.

• Close links with the NHS - complete research on cancer and ageing in partnership with the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals.