Biomedical Science

Why study this course?

The Biomedical Science BSc is designed to help you play a key role in identifying diseases, monitoring treatment and undertaking research into infectious diseases and other pathologies. This course gives you the academic competencies required by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and is accredited by the Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS).

A one-year sandwich placement or two single-semester work placement modules can be undertaken to give you valuable work experience.

More about this course

Biomedical science transforms our understanding of health and disease. This course will put you at the cutting edge of science as you study everything from healthcare issues to research-based science, learning how disease is caused, identified and treated.

The subjects covered during the course are similar to the pre-clinical components of a medical degree, with topics including the structure and function of biological fluids, cells and tissues, and the relationship between bodily systems and health, disease and the environment.

Your study programme is designed so that core modules are delivered over two whole days per week, enabling you to juggle lectures with study and other responsibilities. Your first year will include an introduction to the key principles of biomedical science and place a heavy focus on developing the necessary laboratory skills and data manipulations. In Year 2, you’ll look at core discipline areas such as blood science, infection and tissue science. You’ll also get plenty of hands-on experience in a wide range of research techniques, such as spectrophotometry, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), electrophoresis and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Your third year will comprise more in-depth study of the major disciplines of biomedical science and you'll have the opportunity to specialise with an independent research project on a topic of your choosing.

Throughout the course, you’ll take practical classes in our £30 million Science Centre, which is equipped with 280 workstations and is the largest of its kind in Europe. You’ll also benefit from the guidance of our knowledgeable academic staff – many of whom are active researchers – as well as a range of external speakers working in the pathology industry who will keep you up to date with the latest biomedical developments and laboratory practices.

Course Modules

Module details below are subject to change. Please see the university website course page for full module details.
Year 1 modules include:

Professional Studies (core, 15 credits);
Anatomy and Physiology 1 (core, 15 credits);
Anatomy and Physiology 2 (core, 15 credits);
General Chemistry (core, 15 credits);
Cell Biology (core, 15 credits);
Biochemistry (core, 15 credits);
Fundamentals of Molecular Biology (core, 15 credits);
General Microbiology (core, 15 credits)

Year 2 modules include:

Tissue Science 1 (core, 15 credits);
Tissue Science 2 (core, 15 credits);
Infection Science 1 (core, 15 credits);
Infection Science 2 (core, 15 credits);
Fundamentals of Medicinal Chemistry (core, 15 credits);
Methods of Bioanalytical Analysis (core, 15 credits);
Blood Science (core, 15 credits);
Ethics for Science (core, 15 credits);
Parasitology (option, 15 credits);
Infection control (option, 15 credits);
Work placement (for Life Sciences) (option, 15 credits)

Year 3 modules include:

Project (core, 30 credits);
Clinical Biochemistry (core, 30 credits);
Advanced Tissue Science (core, 15 credits);
Systems Pathology (core, 15 credits);
Advanced Infection Science (core, 15 credits);
Advanced Blood Science (core, 15 credits);
Virology (option, 15 credits);
Applied Immunology (option, 15 credits);
Medical Genetics (option, 15 credits);
Genomics (option, 15 credits)

Professionally accredited courses provide industry-wide recognition of the quality of your qualification.

• Biomedical Science, Institute of