Biological Sciences with Foundation BSc (Hons)

University of West London

Looking for a practice-based, hands-on biological sciences course that allows you to explore and research your own ideas, do research individually and as part of a team, write research papers and give conference talks, and prepare you for a rewarding career? Choose BSc Biological Sciences at UWL. This new and highly contemporary course provides excellent teaching in all of the key areas of biological sciences and will also help you learn how to design biological research, analyse and model data, and present your results, preparing you for a career where your skills can be applied. You will do a year-long project as part of a team in the second year, and another year-long project individually, in your third and final year, as well as present your research at the course research conference. You will study biostatistics, programming in R, and data modelling. Subject to your interests and preferences you could either mix and match the modules you take in the second and third years of your studies or specialise – from the second year - by taking one of four specialist pathways: developmental biology, genomics and computational biology, ecology and conservation, or animal behaviour and artificial intelligence. Our course will not only teach you the fundamentals of biology, biological research methods and biostatistics, but will provide you with plenty of opportunity to practice. Your practice-based learning will include performing lab and field techniques and procedures and writing academic and industry relevant reports and other documents, undertaking research based on your own ideas as part of a team in the second year, presenting the outcomes of that research at a student conference at the end of that year, writing up research papers and proposals, and finishing with an individual research project in the final year of the course. Importantly, you will be able to do all that alongside specialising, if you so choose, in one of our pathways: developmental biology, genomics and computational biology, ecology and conservation, and animal behaviour and artificial intelligence. Your specialisation – should you choose to pursue it during your degree – will be noted in your BSc (Honours) certificate. Our course will train you not only to design and conduct research, but also to analyse and model data. You will learn biostatistics, computing and programming in R – the most commonly used programming language for data analysis in biosciences, and – subject to your choice – also the basics of applied machine learning and modelling. Throughout, you will be prepared to succeed in your chosen professional field, whether that is as an ecologist, or a clinical scientist, or a researcher, or a data analyst. Upon successful completion of the BSc Biological Sciences, you will be equipped to pursue a wide range of careers in biology related professions and research in the public and private sectors, including teaching and research in academia. These could be:
• working as an ecologist for an ecological consultancy
• a conservation or animal behaviour specialist in a conservation charity or a zoo
• a clinical or laboratory geneticist, a clinical study manager, or a genetic counsellor
• a computational genomics and data scientist
• biotechnologist or a research scientist in the pharmaceutical industryYou may also choose to further your studies with our MSc and PhD coursesFurther study that can be undertaken upon course completion:
• MSc Bioinformatics
• MSc Dementia Care
• MSc Person-Centred Health and Social CareThis course includes a foundation year.