Biology with a Year Abroad BSc (C101) & MBiolSci (C10C)

Entry Requirements: BSc (C101) AAA, MBiolSci (C10C)AAA

Biology is the science of life: how living organisms function, develop, reproduce and evolve, from the scale of genes up to that of ecosystems. This course addresses questions such as:

• How does evolution by natural selection work, and how can it explain behaviour?
• What determines biodiversity and how can we help preserve it?
• How can genomics inform us about diversity, behaviour and development?
• How do ecosystems in different parts of the world, and the threats to them, differ?

The Biology with a Year Abroad (BSc) degree programme is designed for those students who seek to enhance their experience of biology by spending a year of study at a major university in Canada, the USA, or Australia. It is one of the few three-year BSc courses available in the UK in which it is possible to spend a full year of study overseas in an English speaking country. You work closely with our Year Abroad tutor and our International Office to select an appropriate university with a strong biology programme similar to ours at Sheffield.

This course provides insight into the full range and depth of topics that make up modern whole-organism biology, spanning disciplines such as biodiversity, evolutionary biology, behavioural ecology, global climate change, molecular ecology, environmental biology and genomics. By spending a year overseas you will be exposed to an even greater range of teaching styles and philosophies and gain insight into the organisms, environments and biological issues of concern in a very different part of the world.

Why Biology with a Year Abroad at Sheffield?

This course is based on our highly popular and extremely successful Biology degree programme (C100), which benefits from the outstanding breadth of biological expertise at Sheffield. We have over 100 academic staff in biological sciences, with expertise ranging from micro-organisms, through all major groups of plants, to crustaceans, insects, fish, amphibians, birds and mammals including humans. The department has outstanding modern facilities for studying terrestrial insects, birds, fish and aquatic invertebrates.

The second year (Level 2) of this course is spent studying an approved biology programme at a leading university in the USA, Canada, or Australia. You will return to Sheffield for Level 3 where you'll follow the same wide ranging programme of study as the Biology degree, including a research project and research dissertation. You may have the opportunity to attend a field course at the start of Level 3 (either in the UK or overseas) and you may also be able to attend field courses run by your host institution during your study abroad.

Why should I choose Biology with a Year Abroad?

The Biology course offers a wide ranging and flexible course in modern biology, and the Biology with a Year Abroad degree inherits this breadth and flexibility, but adds the opportunity to create an even more diverse course of study through the Level 2 study abroad. The year abroad provides you with an excellent opportunity to enhance your understanding of biology by gaining first-hand experience of non-UK ecosystems and their associated fauna and flora, as well as taking subjects not available at Sheffield (e.g., marine biology). It will appeal particularly to students who are interested in an international career in science. It extends your biological experience to organisms, ecosystems and environments that do not occur in the UK, such as coral reefs, temperate rain forests, high-mountains and deserts. It also exposes you to different approaches to science, and different systems of managing and funding science.

Because all the host countries are English speaking, you can focus on the biology you are studying, not the challenge of doing this in another language. All the institutions which participate in this programme are major universities in their national systems, and both the institution and programme of study are carefully checked for compatibility, in both content and level, with the Sheffield programme. However, within that framework you will have study opportunities that do not exist in the Sheffield course and contact with a whole new group of students and staff.

What can I do with a Biology with a Year Abroad degree?

The course will give you the same sorts of scientific opportunities as the Biology BSc, with the additional dimension added by the diversity of international academic and personal experience gained from the year abroad. The course may be of particular benefit to students who envisage a career in scientific research abroad or international conservation, or the bio-molecular science or biomedical science industries. It would also be of value if you are contemplating work, or further scientific study, of any sort in the country in which you studied. Like all our degrees it also provides training in transferable skills, such as data analysis, project planning, critical thinking and written and spoken communication, which are useful in whatever career direction you choose.

What does the Biology with Year Abroad MBiolSci involve?

The 4 year MBiolSci with Year Abroad is designed for students who wish to combine the exciting intellectual experience abroad in Year 2 with a more in depth experience of research in Year 4. Years 1 to 3 are the same as the BSc but year 4 is devoted to an extensive individual research project and advanced courses in research and communication skills (full details are provided on a separate page). Examples of recent Level 4 research projects in biology include: Can bacteria evolve resistance to the insect immune system? Coat colour polymorphism in Soay sheep, The effect of urbanisation in stream communities, Drought responses of C4 grasses.