Biology and Education (Professional Placement Year)

Develop the knowledge, skills and experience you need to become an educator across diverse settings.

• Explore important current themes in Education, such as social justice, inclusion, wellbeing, sustainability, and education policy.

• Study a broad range of Biology topics, such as microbiology, ecology, animal behaviour, medical biology, plant biology and food studies.

• Build skills that employers look for, including research, teamwork, and the ability to understand and interpret complex information.

Are you passionate about changing lives through education?

Our Biology and Education degree builds your knowledge of biology alongside your understanding of how education transforms individual outcomes and societies.

In your Education modules, you’ll develop a portfolio of skills that employers look for, such as creative thinking, taking initiative, networking, and problem solving. You’ll explore these skills through the lens of sustainability, global citizenship and digital literacy, from local and global perspectives.

In Biology, you'll explore themes such as biodiversity, ecology, environmental management, microbiology and nutrition. We use our unique campus, with its rich variety of woodland, grassland and freshwater habitats, extensively in practical work.

Many of our graduates choose to become teachers in schools, but that's not the only path open to you. We'll support you in achieving your aspirations as a professional educator – however they develop during the degree.

Combined Honour Awards
At Bath Spa University many of our undergraduate programmes can be combined, so you don’t have to limit yourself to one subject. If you choose to study a combined award then in Year One you’ll start by studying both subjects in equal depth. From Year Two you can choose whether to continue with equal numbers of modules from each subject, or whether you want to select additional modules in one or the other. Upon successful completion of the programme you will graduate with a joint degree.

More about the Professional Placement Year
A Professional Placement Year (PPY), traditionally known as a sandwich year, is where you undertake a period of work with an external organisation for between 9-13 months. The placement occurs between your second and final years of undergraduate study. You can engage in multiple placements to make up the total time and are required to source the placement(s) yourself, with support from the Careers team.