Biological Sciences | Undergraduate Degrees at University of Leeds

If you want a broad degree at molecular and cellular level of biology, the small things if you like, then this is the place for you and this is the course. So biological sciences is the study of cellular and molecular life. It's what goes on in the cell and how cells interact with First year was really broad, gave us a little bit of insight into loads of different areas, different topics. We have a little bit of biochemistry and cell biology in our first main module called the basis of life. We did microbiology, immunology, virology, a bit of plant science as well. They give you a taste, they basically introduce you how to use all the different machines using these little experiments. Going on to your second year there's a range of themes you can choose. You have infections and diseases, you have molecular medicine, if you're interested in plants you can learn about plants, plants and agriculture and then last comes molecular zoology like animals and other organisms. So that really lets you focus in on what you want to do. In the third year they continue with the same theme and they can then choose a project which relates to that theme. You can pick between a lab project where you work one-on-one with a supervisor in their lab or you'll do a literature review where your supervisor will tell you the area that they work in and then you write a review with a hypothesis based around that area. There are a whole range of different things that students can do to expand on the course that they're doing. They can do a year working in industry, we will support them in applying for internships either with pharmaceutical companies or in any other suitable branch of science that they're interested in. They can also have the opportunity to do a year abroad which means that they can go and study in a university elsewhere in the world. The other option that a number of students can take up is the MBiOL which is the four years integrated masters. The fourth year, basically three quarters of that year, is a research project in a research lab where they will be working alongside PhD students and principal investigators who are working at the cutting edge of science. You have researchers who are published, they're known all over the world. The stuff they're doing is stuff I didn't even imagine about when I first came to Leeds. You know that the lecturer that's explaining things to you has sort of written papers about that. It's really research based, research intensive. They're professionals, they're high in their world, they know what they're doing and they're happy to talk to you about it. They love it when you're interested in what they do. There's such a massive amount of support. You get a personal tutor, you get one-on-one meetings with them every term just to discuss how you're doing, if it's going well, any problems you've got. You really build a relationship with them, it's really nice. There's specific placement officers, study abroad officers, there's a main employability officer and so you always feel like someone's looking out for you. I arranged to come to an open day and when I came I just loved the campus and I had a really nice tour and I just sort of thought I can really imagine myself there. Just get a sense of a family almost. You weren't an undergraduate student that they weren't going to learn the name of, you were Sophie and you were coming to do biological science and they were going to teach at you the best they could. So it was a good decision, I made some really nice friends from all over the world. I'm really glad that I landed myself in Leeds and considering the opportunities that I've gotten here. Now I just feel like anything I want to pursue, I've got sort of the right stuff behind me to go through.