
- UCAS course code
- BCC8
- UCAS institution code
- M20
BSc Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology with Industrial/Professional Experience / Course details
Year of entry: 2021
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Course description
Our BSc Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology with Industrial/Professional Experience course will enable you to gain experience of the workplace on a year-long placement during your degree, making you more attractive to potential employers after graduation.
The course combines major topics in experimental psychology and neuroscience to offer a broad grounding in this exciting field of behavioural science.
The psychology component covers topics such as:
- how humans and animals think (cognitive processes);
- how the world is sensed (perception);
- comparative and developmental studies;
- abnormal psychology.
The neuroscience component of the course covers topics such as:
- animal behaviour;
- learning and memory;
- the action of drugs on the nervous system;
- how humans and animals sense and respond to their environment.
In Year 3, you will have the opportunity to go on a placement with one of our `trusted partner' organisations in the UK or abroad. Alternatively, you can choose to arrange your own placement (subject to approval from the School of Biological Sciences).
Placements range from research project work to roles in education, the biotechnology industry and science communication.
Our degree is accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS), which means as well as providing a solid foundation for a career in biological sciences, it constitutes your first step towards professional chartered psychologist status.
The course also has Advanced Accreditation from the Royal Society of Biology , which recognises academic excellence in the biosciences and highlights degrees that educate the research and development leaders and innovators of the future.
Special features
BPS and RSB accreditation
This degree is accredited by the British Psychological Society and the Royal Society of Biology.
A range of study options available
You can extend your degree by a year to undertake an integrated master's or gain industrial/professional experience .
Foundation year available
You can prepare for the full degree course if you do not have the appropriate qualifications for direct entry by undertaking our foundation course first.
Teaching and learning
You will benefit from a wide range of teaching and learning methods that suit the content and aims of each course unit.
These range from lectures and tutorials to practicals and research projects, including the final year project .
Find out more about how you will learn and see a typical Year 1 timetable on our teaching and learning page.
Coursework and assessment
Assessment methods vary widely to suit the nature of the course unit and each level of study.
- Lecture units are usually assessed by written exam (multiple choice or essay-based), which are held at the end of an academic semester in either January or May/June.
- Field courses are usually assessed via oral and written presentations, group work and/or projects.
- Practical units are usually assessed by experimental report and/or short written assignment and/or written exam.
- The proportion of independent study assignments increases during each year of study.
Year 1
Lecture units are usually assessed by e-learning activities during the unit and multiple choice exams at the end of the semester. Year 1 contributes 10% to your overall degree mark.
Year 2
Lecture units are usually assessed by essay-based exam.Year 2 contributes 30% to your overall degree mark.
Final year
Lecture units are usually assessed by essay-based exam. Students also take an honours paper: this is a degree programme-specific examination comprising data-handling and interpretation.
A significant part of the year (accounting for one-quarter of the overall degree mark) is the project, which is assessed by literature review and a written report.
The final year contributes 60% to your overall degree mark.
Course unit details
This course is modular. You will study compulsory course units and choose some optional units.
Most units are assigned 10 credits and you will take 120 credits each year.
Course content for year 1
You will gain a broad introduction to biological sciences, including the nervous system and pharmacology, which are relevant to cognitive neuroscience.
Psychology topics will include social psychology, brain structure and function and perception and cognition.
Year 1 also provides an introduction to the essential data handling and laboratory skills required for all biological scientists.
Course units for year 1
The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
Title | Code | Credit rating | Mandatory/optional |
---|---|---|---|
Academic Tutorials Year 1 | BIOL10000 | 10 | Mandatory |
Introduction to Laboratory Science | BIOL10401 | 10 | Mandatory |
Introduction to Experimental Biology - Human Biology | BIOL10422 | 10 | Mandatory |
Writing and Referencing Skills (online unit) | BIOL10741 | 0 | Mandatory |
Drugs: From Molecules to Man | BIOL10822 | 10 | Mandatory |
Excitable Cells: the Foundations of Neuroscience | BIOL10832 | 10 | Mandatory |
Research Methods & Statistics | PSYC10100 | 20 | Mandatory |
Introduction to Cognition | PSYC10421 | 10 | Mandatory |
Brain & Behaviour | PSYC11212 | 10 | Mandatory |
Sensation & Perception | PSYC11312 | 10 | Mandatory |
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Course content for year 2
You will continue your studies in greater depth and begin to specialise. You will also undertake a dissertation.
In the Research Skills unit, you have the opportunity to carry out techniques that are widely used in current biological science research.
Course units for year 2
The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
Title | Code | Credit rating | Mandatory/optional |
---|---|---|---|
2nd Year Tutorial (Sem 1 - Cognitive Neuroscience & Psychology) | BIOL20021 | 0 | Mandatory |
Neuroscience RSM | BIOL20922 | 10 | Mandatory |
Dissertation | BIOL21090 | 10 | Mandatory |
Membrane Excitability: Ion Channels & Transporters in Action | BIOL21321 | 10 | Mandatory |
Motor Systems | BIOL21332 | 10 | Mandatory |
Sensory Systems | BIOL21341 | 10 | Mandatory |
Perception and Action | PSYC21012 | 10 | Mandatory |
Topics and Issues in Developmental Psychology | PSYC21021 | 10 | Mandatory |
Cognitive Neuroscience | PSYC21022 | 10 | Mandatory |
Personality and Individual Differences | PSYC21042 | 10 | Mandatory |
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Course content for year 3
You will spend your third year on a placement with one of our partner organisations in the UK or overseas.
We have partner organisations including pharmaceutical companies, research institutes and hospitals. Our Anatomical Sciences students have recently had placements with companies such as Unilever, Boehringer Ingelheim RCV GmbH and Co KG in Vienna.
Our range of placements reflects both research career paths and the growing range of science careers outside of the laboratory in science enterprise, education and communication. We are unique in providing such a range of placements to our students.
Approximately 60% of placed students undertake paid placements or placements which are Erasmus+ funded.
Read more about our industrial/professional experience placements .
Course content for year 4
Final year topics reflect the current hotspots of bioscience and psychology endeavour and the research interests of our staff, and are constantly being updated.
You will undertake an independent in-depth research project .
Course units for year 4
The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
Title | Code | Credit rating | Mandatory/optional |
---|---|---|---|
Academic Tutorials Year 3 | BIOL30000 | 0 | Mandatory |
Projects | BIOL30030 | 30 | Optional |
Life Sciences Enterprise Project | BIOL31080 | 30 | Optional |
Education/eLearning Project | BIOL31220 | 30 | Optional |
Science Media Project | BIOL31230 | 30 | Optional |
HSTM Project | BIOL31250 | 30 | Optional |
Chemical Communication in Animals (L) | BIOL31461 | 10 | Optional |
Bioethics: Contemporary Issues in Science & Biomedicine (E) | BIOL31522 | 10 | Optional |
Neuroinflammation in Health & Disease (E) | BIOL31612 | 10 | Optional |
Imaging in Biomedical Research (E) | BIOL31631 | 10 | Optional |
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Additional fee information
Scholarships and bursaries
What our students say
Find out more about what it's like to study at Manchester on the Biology, Medicine and Health Student Blog .
Facilities
Learning facilities
Our modern teaching labs are equipped for a range of biological and biomedical techniques. The following are just a few of the techniques you could undertake during your degree:
- polymerase chain reaction (PCR);
- DNA sequencing;
- gel electrophoresis;
- spectrophotometry;
- dissection and histology;
- electroencephalography (EEG) and electrocardiography (ECG);
- galvanic skin response (GSR);
- virtual reality;
- transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS);
- eye-tracking during scene perception and reading.
Our computing facilities include access to over 200 PCs in dedicated clusters and e-learning tools including online lecture notes, discussion boards, lecture podcasts and quizzes.
You will also have access to the University's other facilities for undergraduate students.
Research facilities
As a final year student, you have the opportunity to undertake a project in the labs of our world-class bioscience researchers.To support our research, we have extensive research facilities equipped with high-quality technology.