BSc Biology

Our BSc Biology course covers a diverse range of topics within the study of living organisms, allowing you to discover areas of interest early on in your degree and choose what you want to focus on.

You can keep your options open and cover a wide variety of areas, or you can identify those that interest and hopefully excite you to focus on particular biological topics. Interdisciplinarity is encouraged, and you have the opportunity to enrol on courses at the University College for Interdisciplinary Learning in the second and third year.

A highlight of the course is the opportunity to go on a  field course  in the UK and abroad, travelling to locations chosen for the richness of their flora and fauna.

Throughout the course, you will benefit from a wide spectrum of training in biological sciences from staff who are specialists in their chosen subject areas.

A range of study options

You can extend your degree by a year to undertake an integrated master's , gain industrial/professional experience , study with entrepreneurship or learn a modern language .

It is possible to broaden your degree by taking units from the University College , Business and Management for all Programmes or the University Centre for Academic English in exchange for a few units from your degree.

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.

Flexibility to transfer between courses

You can transfer between most of our bioscience courses at the end of your first year or, in some cases, later.

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.

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, short note questions, problem sets and other authentic assessments.Year 2 contributes 30% to your overall degree mark.

Final year

Lecture units are usually assessed by essay-based exam or extended coursework. Students also take two honours papers: degree programme-specific examinations comprising essays and data-handling problems.

A significant part of the year (accounting for one-quarter of the overall degree mark) is the project, which is assessed through a presentation and a written report.

The final year contributes 60% to your overall degree mark.

Find out more about what it's like to study at Manchester on the  Biology, Medicine and Health Student Blog .

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);
• immunofluorescence microscopy.

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.