Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Biological Sciences (Optional Placement)

at University of Plymouth United Kingdom

Statisticians play a vital and increasing part in all areas of society, business and industry. We have recently seen the importance of statistical analysis and thinking in understanding and managing the Covid-19 pandemic as an example.

You will gain key statistical knowledge and skills to build data fluency that is very much valued by employers. You will have the opportunity to work on a statistics project that provides innovative solutions to real-world problems driven by business, information technology, engineering, finance, medicine, biology and psychology.

Key Features

• This programme provides a deeper knowledge of statistical techniques and a broader experience of data analysis than our BSc (Hons) Mathematics programme. It also covers all the mathematics necessary for a career as a professional mathematician.
• Your experience of studying Statistics at Plymouth will be different from school, because you will learn with experts who design clinical trials, collaborate with national and international health organisations, and provide consultancy to medical practitioners and financial institutions. You will solve problems of contemporary importance using real-world data. For example, you will meet techniques for monitoring and understanding the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Your lectures are also highly qualified and renowned practitioners of mathematics and statistics education. They include authors of text books used worldwide, winners of prestigious research prizes for statistical education, and Senior Fellows of the Higher Education Academy. They are dedicated to enabling students from different educational backgrounds to reach their full potential and maintain it long-term.
• You will have the opportunity to collaborate with lecturers on a mathematics or statistics research project, one output of which is a report which also provides material for discussion in job interviews. The Plymouth Mathematics and Statistics programme is designed to enable you to become a creative, analytical and persevering problem solver and to discuss technical results with non-specialist collaborators clearly and in-depth.
• You will gain knowledge of techniques relevant to business, education, engineering, health and wellbeing, psychology, science, social media analytics and sport, which will make you highly valuable to an extremely broad range of employers.
• You will be equipped with subject-specific knowledge needed by mathematicians and statisticians throughout their working lives. You will learn how to master state-of-the-art analytical software in such a way that you can quickly become familiar with programs that you will use in the workplace.
• You will be part of the close-knit, collaborative and supportive family that is Mathematical Sciences at Plymouth and that is based in the naturally beautiful South West. We are highly committed to interactive student engagement and personalized learning, as this enables us to check regularly your knowledge and skills consolidation together with your general development. This means that studying with us will provide you with the strongest possible foundations for life-long professional success.

Physical geography and geology examines how the Earth’s surface is shaped by natural and human processes. This knowledge is key to addressing many of the complex sustainability challenges facing the planet. Our new modules explore geohazards and risk, clean energy transitions, and long term environmental change. Students gain specialist academic, international fieldwork and laboratory skills providing a springboard to an exciting and diverse range of careers.

Have you Considered

• BSc (Hons) Geography
• BSc (Hons) Geography with Ocean Science
• BSc (Hons) Geology
• BSc (Hons) Geology with Ocean Science

Key Features

• Our new modules address critical sustainability challenges: reducing risk from natural hazards, harnessing cleaner energy sources and how to combat climate and environmental change.
• Our approachable staff share their cutting-edge research and expertise through varied teaching practices in lectures, tutorials, practical classes and field courses.
• Learn to apply the latest techniques in the field and laboratory. Our substantial fieldwork programme provides opportunities in a variety of UK and overseas locations including Death Valley USA, Spain, Sicily and Cyprus.
• Study modules dedicated to addressing the connection between physical geography and geology, such as ‘long-term landscape development’.
• Progress your skills in our open access laboratory, LABplus.
• Develop your confidence with a personal tutor, providing you with weekly guidance throughout your first year.
• Our PALS mentoring scheme provides you with support from students in the year ahead.
• Plymouth's coastal location, close to Dartmoor and two UNESCO World Heritage sites provides the perfect setting for studying geology, with opportunities for fieldwork right on our doorstep.
• Receive essential field safety equipment free as part of your welcome package.
• Work towards becoming a Chartered Geologist, our accreditation by the Geological Society, the world’s oldest and most prestigious national learned society for geology, helps you to gain the required experience.
• Take the opportunity to spend your second year studying abroad in Canada, Australia, USA or elsewhere through our direct exchange, Erasmus or ISEP programmes. Plymouth is currently the only UK institution to offer exchanges through ISEP, giving our students the greatest range of Earth science exchange opportunities available.

Take your skills to the next level with MA Game Design. Refine 3D modelling, 2D art and animation skills, level design and gameplay coding. Games industry experts will guide you through aspects of game design and development, game theory, and industrial contexts. You will develop your portfolio, and in the final module, work as a team to produce and ship a fully-fledged game

MA Game Design provides an explorative insight into creating videogames. Not only will students hone the craft of developing their own videogames, but also learn more about the dynamic medium itself. Combining practice and theory to result in a balanced approach to foster imaginative and creative experiences.

Key Features

Do you have the ambition to develop the electrical power systems and renewable energies of tomorrow? Whether focused on embedded microcontrollers, power converters, or high frequency communications, you’ll be developing your understanding of the high-level aspects of electronics on the BEng course. Electrical and electronic engineering, accredited by The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), will provide you with a solid foundation for engineering a wide range of electrical systems.

You will balance teaching sessions with hands-on practical experiences throughout the course. You’ll draw on our strong industry links and benefit from industry participation in course development, delivery and project sponsorship. You’ll take advantage of our flexible course, allowing you to switch between electronics and robotics until your final year, as your interests develop.

Have you Considered

• MEng (Hons) Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• BEng (Hons) Robotics

Key Features

• 100% of our graduates said they were satisfied with the quality of their degree in the 2019 National Student Survey (first place) and that the course provided opportunities to apply what was learnt. No doubt because from the day you join us until the day you graduate you’ll be testing and applying everything you learn in our fantastic labs.*
• Immerse yourself in a degree accredited by the Institution for Engineering and Technology (IET) to meet the educational requirements for chartered engineer (CEng) status after some additional learning, either workbased or further advanced study.
• Ranked 14th overall in the country for electrical engineering (Guardian league tables 2020).
• Develop highly practical skills and learn through doing. 
• Draw on our strong industry links and benefit from industry participation in course development, delivery and project sponsorship.
• Take advantage of our flexible course, allowing you to switch between electronics and robotics until your final year, as your interests develop.  
• Benefit from free IET membership (while at University) as the University is an IET Academic Partner.
• Take part in our final year student project open day, showcasing the excellence of the engineering skills development and the high levels of achievement of our undergraduates, with many industrially sponsored prizes awarded.
• Balance laboratory sessions with hands-on practical experiences throughout the course. 
• Develop your skills, with opportunities throughout your degree to build and program embedded systems, advanced mobile communications devices, and solar power systems.
• Hone your expertise in your final year project, offering you a chance to design and develop an original system or device on the theme of your choice.
• Demonstrate your abilities to future employers with your final year project. Many of our graduates quote this aspect as having helped them get a good job.
• Access one of the largest undergraduate laboratory spaces in the country, which you can use to further your own understanding of communications, electronics and renewable energy technologies. 
• Receive electronic tools for studying.
• Transfer to MEng is possible after the first or second year following the demonstration of an excellent overall achievement. 
• Study a broad range of topics from electrical and electronics, power, communications and microprocessors before choosing your final year project to gain expertise and experience in a specialist area.
• To complement your formal learning we offer regular PALS sessions that provide the opportunity for you to learn with and from your peers. Share knowledge, discuss ideas, and ask questions in a relaxed and friendly environment.

Interested in how people think, act and interact? Discover how thoughts, feelings and motivations shape our behaviour. A hands-on approach to learning across social, developmental, clinical, cognitive psychology and neuroscience will provide you the skills relevant across a range of careers, from education and health to business and the media. Shape the psychology graduate you want to be, and carve out your future in anything from professional psychology to marketing and management.

Key Features

• Hands-on learning in our psychology experiential learning lab. We embedded practical activities throughout the course, so you can put new knowledge into practice and build practical skills for future careers. 
• Shape the psychologist you want to be. Course choices and our option-based final year give the freedom to explore the areas of psychology that interest and benefit you the most.
• As a successful graduate, you are eligible for Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership with the British Psychological Society.
• Gain valuable real-world experience by putting your skills and knowledge into practice with an optional placement year, or take part in an international exchange year by studying abroad.

Digital Media Design will teach you high level industry production skills including coding, 3D modelling, UI/UX (user interface and user experience) design, creative practice and design skills. You’ll get a chance to make games, websites, apps, interactive and virtual reality experiences. At the cutting edge of art and design for 28 years the Institute of Digital Art and Technology has graduates across in digital creative industries worldwide – including Apple, Nintendo, Spotify and Sony.

Key Features

• Stay one step ahead with a programme designed in close collaboration with industry leaders to ensure technologies, skills and techniques are bang up to date.
• Access all areas – keep working into the evening in our dedicated lab space open until 10.00pm, and take advantage of our other amazing facilities, including a 35 seat, 360° immersive vision theatre.
• Your assessments are 100% coursework – no exams!
• Be inspired by lecturers who are experts in their field, with backgrounds in both industry and research. The exciting work going on in our research groups, i-DAT and Transtech, feeds back into the teaching on this course.
• Get ready for work - take the optional Placement Year (after your second year) and secure a paid placement in industry. You’ll gain invaluable professional experience.
• Our graduates have gone on to work in some of the biggest tech, design and games companies worldwide including: Electronic Arts, IBM, Yahoo and Reddit!
• Broaden your horizons with great enrichment activities including overseas field trips in Amsterdam, Berlin and Barcelona to attend conferences and visit galleries.
• Professional networking is vital within the creative industries – we embed our students within local, national and international networks, conferences and festivals such as Digital Plymouth, Art Futura, CodeMotion and Transmediale
• Get exclusive insights with talks from guest speakers from the creative arts and technology industries.

Are you fascinated by the designs of large coastal structures such as seawalls and breakwaters and how these withstand attack by the sea? Do you want to help protect our coastal communities from the threat of flooding and sea level rise? Do you want to understand how to plan and construct a port? Our MEng graduates in civil and coastal engineering are trained as civil engineers with specialist knowledge in the realisation of projects that are essential to the functioning of coastal societies.

This accredited MEng provides the further learning component required for Chartered Engineer status. You will be supported and inspired by our enthusiastic academic staff. They will encourage you to enhance your professional experience through attendance at meetings and seminars, and the option of a paid year in industry with a civil engineering employer. You will also be offered a mentor from our network of Plymouth Civil Engineers to help guide you at the start of your professional career.

Have you considered

• BEng (Hons) Civil Engineering
• MEng (Hons) Civil Engineering
• BEng (Hons) Civil and Coastal Engineering
• BEng (Hons) Civil Engineering with Foundation Year

Key Features

Do you want to help women have the best pregnancy and birth possible? This course equips you with the skills, knowledge and professional insight needed to become a registered midwife. Whether it’s helping clients before labour, or giving support to new mothers, you’ll learn through doing - building your confidence as you go. You’ll also discover the social and cultural influences that shape maternity care today, so you graduate ready to excel as a fully-rounded healthcare professional.

Become a 'Registered Midwife' with the Nursing and Midwifery Council as soon as you successfully complete the course. Midwives are highly employable, some midwives choose careers in specialist clinical roles or midwifery education and research.

Key Features

• Become a 'Registered Midwife' with the Nursing and Midwifery Council as soon as you successfully complete the course.
• Spend 55 per cent of your time learning through doing, in a range of real placements, in partnership with real clients.
• Learn how to work as part of a multi-professional  team.
• Build confidence through clinical skills and theory sessions, priming you to be at your best when working directly with real clients.
• Extend your skills in IT, numeracy and literacy to support your clinical and professional midwifery practice.
• Learn about the psychological and social impacts of having a baby and how to effectively communicate with and support your clients.
• Develop a critical approach to research, enabling you to provide evidence-based care.
• Enhance your employability with modules in mentorship and newborn examination.
• Develop the professional knowledge, skills and attributes to enable you to work as an autonomous practitioner fit for the future.

Designed for graduates with a non-nutrition background, this broad-ranging programme offers you an advanced understanding of nutrition and the links between diet and health. Core nutrition science will underpin a critical evaluation of the role of nutrition in public health at the local, national and international level.

This contemporary masters degree is designed to develop professionals with a broad range of skills in human nutrition who are equipped to manage and lead in a range of dynamic settings, such as public health nutrition, health promotion, sports nutrition, the media, research and government.

Key Features

• Designed for graduates with a non-nutrition background, this full time programme will provide you with a new and alternative career pathway.
• Train to become an evidence based nutrition professional equipped to manage and lead in dynamic settings.
• The only programme of this type in the south-west region.
• Delivered by a team with extensive experience in the delivery of masters level modules and a diverse range of expertise in nutrition, public health, research, sports nutrition and physiology. The team have external recognition for the quality of feedback to support student learning.
• The programme will be accredited with the Association for Nutrition (AfN) allowing students who have completed the masters to apply for direct entry at associate level to the UK Voluntary Register of Nutritionists (UKVRN).
• Focuses on public health nutrition and disease prevention at the local, national and international level.
• Develop an advanced knowledge and understanding of current and topical issues in sports nutrition and apply them to current practice utilising links with local sporting partnerships. 
• Engage with local AfN registrants who will provide curriculum enrichment, local expertise and knowledge of future career pathways.
• Research informed teaching will be embedded throughout the curriculum.
• Issues around sustainability of nutrition will be threaded throughout the programme. 
• Gain a core understanding of professional practice and ethics, elements of which are embedded within the programme.

Do you want to release your creative impulses and imagination, and nurture your intellectual drives whilst responding to real life design concerns? Studying BA (Hons) Architecture at the University of Plymouth will offer you an opportunity to do so! Our course – accredited by professional bodies (ARB and RIBA) – allows you to engage with current affairs and ever-changing global currents across multiple fields, whilst consciously being oriented towards proposing sensitive responses.

You will learn to think outside the box by engaging in multi-faceted and integrated processes of building design; covering subjects to do with architecture, urbanism and critical theories, to communications, sustainable systems and technologies. Doing this in a stimulating, dynamic and collegial environment will allow you to gain the confidence to ask questions, challenge inherited beliefs and gain skills employers value highly, whilst appreciating the built environment past, present and future.