Course summary

Biological Sciences at Imperial aims to understand the behaviour of living systems from the level of cells up to whole organisms and ecosystems. The Department of Life Sciences offers a number of degrees in Biological Sciences, with some degrees enabling you to choose from a broad selection of modules, and others allowing you to specialise in a particular area. This specialist course focuses on the interaction between living organisms and species and their environment, and you will assess the impact plants, animals and microbes have on their ecosystem. All Biological Sciences students follow the same core modules for the first year, covering the basic areas of biology alongside key scientific skills. This gives you a solid grounding in the fundamental topics, and prepares you for advanced study. In the second year you study further core modules including behavioural ecology and genetics. In your final year you will complete a research project on a topic of your choice, and choose from an even wider selection of modules such as population and community ecology, biodiversity and conservation biology, and a tropical biology field course. Our teaching is enriched by the Department’s internationally leading research programme, so you’ll be learning at the very cutting edge of the subject. You will also benefit from access to our outstanding facilities, including for genomic and cell biology studies, tissue culture suites and the most modern microscopes. The structure of the Department's courses means that transfer between different Biological Sciences degrees is usually possible up until the end of the first year. If you are an international student, transferring to a different course could have an impact on your Tier 4 visa, but our International Student Support Team are here to help advise and support you. As well as your main Imperial degree, you will also receive the award of the Associateship of the Royal College of Science (ARCS) on completion of this course.