How will I study biology and wildlife?

Field trips

All of our biology and wildlife-based courses take you out of the classroom and into the field. You'll have plenty of opportunities to get involved in UK-based residential courses going to places such as Blencathra in Cumbria and the Isle of Cumbrae in Scotland. You will also have the chance to take specialist modules where you will travel to the tropics for fieldwork. Previous years students have been to locations such as Gambia and Brazil.

Laboratory-based learning

As a biology and wildlife student, you're going to spend lots of time in our laboratories, so we've made sure that we have access to some of the best around. We've designed our facilities to mirror those used in professional practice, so that when you graduate you will have practical skills to get started in your career. 

During your studies, you'll be based in our state-of-the-art, integrated teaching laboratory, known as the Bodmer Labs. Throughout your degree, you will complete practical experiments and projects in these labs to strengthen your laboratory skills and help you apply complex scientific knowledge.

Lectures and tutorials

You are probably familiar with lectures and tutorials at school and college - they are a key part of building your theoretical knowledge at University too.

We use lectures to introduce you to core topics, with seminars and tutorials providing opportunities to discuss them with your tutors and other students in smaller groups and develop your understanding. Lectures and tutorials are delivered by our highly-skilled lecturers, who have real-world experience in their field.

Self-Directed Study

Take control of your own learning. Our Clifford Whitworth Library has physical and virtual resources to support your architecture studies. This modern learning space includes computing suites and multimedia libraries, with access to journals, databases, and software.

With an onsite café, breakout areas, comfy chairs and 24-hour access, it is the perfect place for writing up tutorial notes and researching assignments - day or night!

Assessments

Along with the learning comes assessment. Don't worry - we've shaped our assessments so they help you to check your progress and help you build skills that will support your future employability and academic success.  We provide regular feedback throughout your studies in the form of personal written communications, online notes, and group-based feedback.

Typical assessment combines coursework and exams, with coursework accounting for around one third of the marks in years one and two and up to a half of your marks in your final year.

As you can imagine, a lot of assessment takes place in the laboratory. Although you might be currently studying science at school or college, you might be unfamiliar with some of our approaches. During your first year, we include lots of opportunities for you to become familiar with them. Typical methods include: research projects, laboratory reports, essays, literature reviews, data analysis and presentations.