We work in partnership with around 30 NHS Trusts across England, giving us strong, ongoing links with employers and healthcare professionals. These relationships ensure we stay aligned with current practice, workforce needs, and emerging developments in biomedical science. This insight directly informs our undergraduate teaching, so all students benefit from a curriculum that is up to date, professionally relevant, and closely connected to real NHS laboratory and healthcare environments.
Through our industry links with Roche Diagnostics, a global leader in healthcare innovation, we enhance your employability and career prospects. Our connections ensure your learning is shaped by real-world developments in diagnostic testing, emerging technologies, and how healthcare solutions are developed and delivered. You’ll gain valuable insight into a wide range of career pathways, from NHS laboratories to roles in industry such as diagnostics development, supply chains, and field applications, helping you graduate with the knowledge, skills, and awareness employers are looking for.
First year:
We will introduce you to molecular and cellular biology, looking at how organisms exist. You’ll also explore genetics and the role of DNA and RNA in explaining how we get to be who we are. After understanding what’s ‘normal’, we start to look at genetic damage and cancer.
You’ll look at the interaction between disease, health and the environment. Though climate change, for instance, mosquitoes have spread disease to new places.
Another module will cover the practical skills for life scientists, include lab safety and risk assessments. You will carry out some research to put your knowledge into action.
Second year:
With six hours in the lab each week, you’ll begin to explore more challenging questions.
To experience the feel of a real scientific workplace, we’ll also get you to work as part of a team in a simulated pathology lab. You could be doing a cross-match on a blood type or determining the bacteria on a slide. You’ll also develop professional skills such as time management and project management.
You’ll look at specific human diseases and how you detect and treat them. For one assignment, you’ll be given a patient’s history and diagnosis and will then piece together what happened.
Third year:
For diagnostic pathology, which brings together health and disease management, you’ll analyse case studies to reinforce your understanding and practise critical workplace skills.
We also cover current advances and bioethics. Science can pose huge ethical problems – are the risks, such as side-effects, worth the rewards? You could also be delving into vaccine challenges by studying data for measles outbreaks and vaccine rates.
You’ll complete an in-depth life science research project. It could anything from working on real cancer cells through to the role of AI in healthcare settings.
There are several optional modules as well, covering areas such as cancer biology and regenerative medicine and also immunotherapy.