Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Psychology with Human Biology (Optional Placement)

at University of Plymouth United Kingdom

Realise your artistic potential. Guided by practising artists, you’ll develop creative approaches to making artwork, through opportunities to explore different techniques and technologies in dedicated fine art studios and specialist workshops. You will expand your art practice through a vibrant mix of studio work, and creative and critical thinking, which will deepen your understanding and refine your skills, to enable you to contribute to the expanding field of contemporary fine art.

Key Features

• Hone your existing talents and discover new ones with your own, dedicated studio space – as well as specialist shared spaces and facilities for textiles, metal and woodworking, plasterwork and ceramics workshops and life drawing classes.
• Connect and collaborate with others from around the world, thanks to our excellent links with overseas art and design institutions and international exchange opportunities in your second year.
• Explore the best way to express yourself – try drawing, video and sound, painting, printmaking, photography, performance and sculpture – to find the medium that’s right for you.
• Discover the possibilities of technology with fully equipped print and photo facilities, computers, audio-visual equipment, sound studio resources and expert technicians to support and guide you in your exploration.
• Enhance your understanding of art and the cultural context of your work with visiting lecturers and field trips to museums and galleries throughout the UK and Europe.
• Seize opportunities to enter local, national and international competitions and awards. Our students have been recognised in the Jerwood Drawing prize, travelled to Amsterdam for the Hans Brinker Trophy and won a contest to design the trophy for the prestigious Abercrombie Award.
• Develop your professional practice and engage with different audiences, through multiple opportunities to test your work, such as internal and external pop-up shows and exhibitions, open studios, and test spaces.
• Get gallery-ready and showcase your final project in a real exhibition space alongside students from our 12 art and design degrees. The Art and Design Degree Show is your chance to introduce friends, family, prospective employers and the general public to your work.

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.

Zoology is the science of animals and you will study the whole diversity of animal life, from tardigrades to elephants. You'll gain in-depth knowledge of how animals work, develop key lab skills in molecular biology, physiology, and cell biology that are sought after by employers and build fieldwork skills on two residential field trips.You'll also gain the expertise and skills to be a professional zoologist and work across a diverse range of professions or go on to further study.

Key Features

• Study the biology of animals in marine, terrestrial and freshwater aquatic habitats. A spectacular range of these habitats are right on our doorstep.
• Gain a strong foundation in theoretical aspects of ecology, physiology, anatomy, behaviour, evolution and genetics.
• Develop high-level laboratory skills across animal biology in a wide range of taxa and habitats and gain key transferrable skills that are sought after by employers.
• Undertake in-depth field studies of animals, including residential courses in the UK and abroad that develop field techniques and familiarity with a wide range of ecosystems and fauna.
• Undertake self-study throughout your course, using our well-equipped library and range of online scientific journals, as well as LABPlus, our unique laboratory and resource centre designed for science and engineering students.
• Have the opportunity to boost your employability by taking a placement year between your second and final years of study, working in the industry, anywhere in the world - you can read more about this in the 'course details' section of this page.
• Take an extended personal research project on a range of topics, often linked to ongoing staff research, in your final year.
• Benefit from our strong links with external organisations such as the Wildlife Trusts, the Natural History Museums in London and Plymouth, the National Marine Aquarium, the Field Studies Council, Whitley Wildlife Trust, the Donkey Sanctuary, Dartmoor National Park.
• Explore a range of contemporary issues in zoology.

A marine biology degree with an international reputation, you’ll explore the diversity of marine life from the coast to the deep-sea. Using a range of marine organisms from the smallest microbes to the largest marine vertebrates, you'll learn how marine species and ecosystems function, consider why we see such diversity of life in our oceans, and learn how to conserve this. You'll tackle big questions like how are humans and climate change affecting marine biodiversity?

Using some of the best marine facilities in Europe alongside field work in the marine and coastal habitats of Devon, France and South Africa, and the option of becoming an HSE diver, you'll gain arguably the best practical experience of any marine biology course. By the end of your degree, your wide-range of skills and in-depth knowledge of marine biology will allow you to tackle the most pressing environmental challenges that marine systems are facing.

Key Features

• We’re very proud of our National Student Survey (NSS) 2019 return including that 94% of student respondents said that staff made the subject interesting. Other feedback included 100% also agreeing that our staff are good at explaining things and that the course was intellectually stimulating.*
• Add an exciting extra dimension to your marine studies by examining marine organisms and ecosystems in a truly global context. If you are interested in how marine and coastal habitats work, why they are so diverse and how best to conserve them, this is the course for you.
• Access the University’s research vessels based in the Plymouth Sound Special Area for Conservation and our Marine Station.
• Benefit from our reputation as an international centre for marine and environmental research. Our expert teaching staff are active researchers and enthusiastic specialists in their fields.
• Study marine life in the wild with access to the beautiful and varied Devon and Cornwall coastline. A recent World Wildlife Fund report highlighted the South Devon coast – which can be reached on foot from campus – as the area of highest marine biodiversity in the UK.
• Deepen your experience through practical field and laboratory work, linked to lectures – something regularly praised by our external examiners. Our specialist facilities include advanced molecular and behavioural laboratories, a seawater aquarium, environmentally controlled labs and a new bespoke marine station opening in 2014/15.
• Increase your knowledge and apply your skills in an international setting, with two residential field courses abroad (France and South Africa – one of the most biodiverse places on earth), giving you the chance to study organisms and ecosystems not found in the UK.
• Develop a wide range of skills that will prepare you for your chosen career and make you attractive to employers – learn how to ask and answer research questions, and how to apply this skill to conservation challenges in the real world.  There is also the opportunity to gain the HSE PRO SCUBA qualification, for those with a suitable background in diving.
• Immerse yourself in Plymouth’s marine research culture. Alongside the University the city is home to several other world-leading establishments, one of the largest concentrations of marine science study in Europe. Take opportunities to gain extra experience working in one of the marine organisations located in Plymouth, alongside your studies.
• Take the opportunity to contribute to the latest research and advances in the field – many of our students have their research projects published in leading international peer-reviewed journals.
• Choose from a wide range of subjects that most interest you and are best suited to your intended career path, building your own specialisms and skills.
• LABplus is a unique open access laboratory and resource centre designed for students studying science and engineering courses. The lab provides a flexible workspace, computing facilities, specialist software, access to microscopes, microscope cameras and bespoke resources.

Smart urban futures is a unique and innovative new MA programme that will equip you to address design challenges at the boundaries between smart technologies and urban design and planning. You will gain skills in IoT, smart technologies, open data, 3D fabrication, augmented reality and virtual reality complimented by core teaching in urban design, planning and placemaking.

Through a design lab approach, you will develop digital prototyping and place-making projects that respond to the opportunities and needs of digital living, transport, health, mobility, governance and sustainability in a holistic approach to smart urban futures

Key Features

Are you passionate about understanding animal behaviour and applying this knowledge to improve welfare? Do you want to explore the evolution of behaviour in a variety of species? Applying an understanding of animal needs and health, you consider the many aspects of animal welfare, including an examination of the legal and ethical frameworks that safeguard welfare. You also undertake practical work, conducting behavioural and welfare assessment studies, gaining the skills sought by employers.

In the 2019 National Student Survey, 100% expressed overall satisfaction with the course; 93% of students felt staff on this course were good at explaining things; 83% felt that the staff made the subject interesting and 93% found the course intellectually stimulating.

Key Features

• You will build a strong foundation in the fundamental science that underpins the study and understanding of behaviour and welfare - including ecology, evolution, microbiology, physiology, nutrition, health and disease. You will then build onto this with in-depth study of behaviour, welfare and their links in your second and final years of study.
• You will take part in residential field courses in South Devon and the Netherlands, allowing you to develop and apply the understanding you gain through lectures and to study animal behaviour in both wild and captive settings - the latter including zoos and agricultural settings.
• You will benefit from our collaborations with Dartmoor Zoo, Paignton Zoo, Newquay Zoo, the Donkey Sanctuary and National Marine Aquarium, which enable a number of field-trips throughout your course to look at captive animal behaviour, welfare, conservation and rehabilitation.
• You will have opportunity to boost your employability by taking a placement year between your second and final years of study, working in the industry, anywhere in the world - you can read more about this in the 'course details' section of this page.
• You can broaden your horizons by taking your second year at one of a range of universities overseas offered in our year abroad scheme.
• You will be supported pastorally and academically by a personal tutor throughout your studies, and will have regular 1:1 meetings to discuss your progress formally.
• You will interact with and be lectured by academic staff who are research-active and well regarded in their fields.
• You will undertake self-study throughout your course, using our well-equipped library and range of online scientific journals, as well as LABPlus, our unique laboratory and resource centre designed for science and engineering students, which will provide you with flexible workspace, computing facilities, specialist software and bioinformatic applications, access to microscopes, cameras and bespoke resources designed by academic staff to support specific modules as well as more general self-study.

Experience nine months working in critical care and gain a degree at the same time, studying our Intercalated BSc (Hons) in Critical Care. Develop your clinical skills and specialist competencies specific to the care of critically ill, with placements in intensive and high dependency care. Our placement provision is varied and, where possible negotiated to assist you with the additional living costs incurred, such as accommodation and travel.

During your intercalation you will engage in quality improvement and develop your confidence and competence as a leader and member of the healthcare team. The unique mentoring, usually provided by a consultant in intensive care, will support your progression developing relationships and the wider networks, that are so valuable as you complete your medical degree and commence your early years as a doctor.

First choice for Health
Delivered by professional experts, our programmes are tailored to you and your career. Together, we address today's most challenging healthcare issues, through research-informed teaching and active, real-world learning.
#firstchoiceforhealth

Key Features

• Study with the only university to offer an intercalated degree in critical care in the UK
• Explore opportunities to set up placements within your preferred locality which helps with the cost of living and, the development of relationships and networks where you may wish to work when you complete your primary medical degree. 
• Experience a long practice placement working in challenging critical care environment that reflects the continuum of critical care provision. 
• Receive mentoring and supervision from an experienced clinician; for example, a Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine.
• Learn with and from others who represent the multi-professional team caring for the critically ill.
• Prepare to be a follower and leader exploring and applying key concepts, professional theories and evidence to practice. 
• Develop and hone your interpersonal, professional and clinical skills aligned to reputable competency frameworks and standards; for example, from the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine.
• Develop your ability to lead and manage quality improvement (QI) and audit and your opportunity to disseminate widely via poster and conference presentation and publication.
• Join our growing and active ‘socially connected’ community of intercalated students and graduates/alumni engaging in mentoring, program development, recruitment and educational activities.

Creatively solve design problems as you learn to harness the power of typography within graphic design. Collaborate with students from other disciplines and world-leading researchers to discover how graphic design makes a positive impact in the world. Work hands-on in an inspiring and dedicated studio environment with 360-degree views of the cityscape and ocean before joining our community of graduates working for leading design studios worldwide.

Key Features

• Prepare yourself for your dream career: our graduates finding creative fulfilment working for companies such as DesignBridge, Leo Burnett, Snask, IBM and The Times.
• In your final year you can choose a specialism to match your interests and career goals with options that relate directly to the design industry. Choose from identity and branding, editorial and publishing and Information design.
• Draw on support from committed tutors with long-term industry and academic experience.
• Fly high and join alumni and current students who have won national and international competitions.
• Engage with live client briefs, giving your creativity real-world impact.
• Explore our range of resources including printmaking workshops, photographic studios and Apple Mac workstations complete with the latest Adobe CC software.
• Develop your knowledge and develop yourself by taking advantage of a learning environment that includes open plan studios with a 360 degree view of Plymouth, a city at the heart of art and culture in the South West.
• Have direct contact with prestigious visiting speakers such as Jonathon Barnbrook, Michael Johnson and Angus Hyland. Get feedback on your work from practicing graphic designers during our ‘Industrial Liaison Day’.

Whether you are interested in mechatronics, artificial intelligence or the possibilities for biosensors, the BEng Robotics will encourage you to push your limits. Our emphasis on high level robotics, including mobile and humanoid automation, and our focus on the electronics and hardware that support industrial and service robotics is complemented by the hands-on approach you'll develop in our specialist laboratories.

You will work in a world-class research environment with staff internationally renowned for conducting cutting-edge service and cognitive robotics research. You will take part in robotics competitions offering invaluable opportunities for exciting and highly formative, practical sessions of intense study. You’ll capitalise on the opportunity to take a work placement in your third year, putting your robotics skills into action in the real world.

Have you considered

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

Key Features

• 100% of our graduates said the course was intellectually stimulating in the 2019 National Student Survey. 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.*
• Our robotics courses have a large number of laboratory practical sessions embedded in their modules, and this is a strong feature of the robotics teaching in Plymouth. This ensures that you can consolidate theory learned in lectures using real practical tasks, making your understanding of topics much more concrete.
• Develop in a broad range of subjects ranging from analogue and digital electronics to software programming and artificial intelligence, all in the context of robotics. 
• Advance your knowledge of electronics, microprocessors, and embedded systems forming the technological core of the course. This is supported by a thorough understanding of robotics concepts, such as control theory, sensors and motors. 
• Learn by doing in our high specification electronics, communications and robotics laboratories.
• Work in a world-class research environment with staff internationally renowned for conducting cutting-edge service and cognitive robotics research.
• Take part in robot football and other robotics competitions offering invaluable opportunities for exciting and highly formative, practical sessions of intense study. 
• Benefit from individual and group projects offering the possibility for you to consolidate your robotics knowledge by building and programming a variety of robots including small wheeled robots, industrial robots and humanoids.
• Draw on unique opportunities to engage in world-class robotics research, and in a variety of activities (for example, in the humanoid robot football, Federation of International Robot-soccer Association (FIRA) competition).
• Capitalise on the opportunity to take a work placement in your third year, putting your robotics skills into action in the real world.
• Join our Robotics Society and take the opportunity to assist robot development for international competitions such as the Robocup humanoid football league and robot athletics. 
• Immerse yourself in a degree accredited by the Institution for Engineering and Technology (IET), and meet the educational requirements for becoming a Chartered Engineer (CEng).
• Benefit from free IET membership while you are on the course.
• Work alongside internationally-renowned staff in a leading service and cognitive robotics research environment.
• 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.

Do you want to understand how a computer really works? You'll gain technical skills in computational theory, software development on a variety of devices and platforms, database development, computer hardware and networking. In addition to the technical content, you'll acquire an awareness of social, legal and ethical aspects of the IT industry.

This degree has a strong emphasis on practical skills which are extremely useful in the workplace. This provides an opportunity to accelerate your career. An optional, but strongly recommended, placement year is an opportunity to gain industrial experience and enhance your CV. Recent placement providers for our students include: the BBC, the Met Office, Microsoft, the National Physical Laboratory and Nestlé.

Have you Considered

• BSc (Hons) Computing and Software Development
• BSc (Hons) Cyber Security
• BSc (Hons) Games Development Technologies

Key Features

• We have strong connections with industry, including links with Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Cisco, Intel, Apple, Nvidia and many more. We are a member of Microsoft Imagine (formerly DreamSpark) which enable our students to acquire free software to support their studies.
• Distinguish yourself with a degree that’s accredited by and entitles membership of the BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT (Subject to approval). You may also gain registration as a Chartered IT Professional (CITP) and will partially meet the educational requirements for Chartered Engineering (CEng) registration.
• Be inspired by the creativity that our practical, hands-on course nurtures. Our ‘learning through doing’ ethos means you’ll quickly achieve expertise.
• Learn from dedicated teaching staff, who are engaged in internationally significant research, are actively creating and developing applications, and have a wealth of industry contacts.
• Lay strong foundations for a successful career, using our extensive industry links to secure a one-year work placement – giving you the vital industry experience and connections you’ll need when you graduate.
• Discover the many collaboration opportunities, which mirror the teamwork at the heart of the industry. In the second year, you’ll work in a team of developers on our integrating project, to create a complete system from concept to delivery – honing your professional and communication skills.
• Immerse yourself in our modern and well equipped labs, which run industry standard developer tools such as Microsoft Visual Studio, NetBeans, Android Studio, Apple X-Code (Apple labs only) and much more. The labs are regularly updated and refurbished and they all have free, unlimited and very fast Internet access.
• Benefit from our focused and relevant research, we work closely with our Big Data Group and our Centre for Robotics and Neural Systems, which conducts leading research reputation in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, big data and robotics.  You will be offered practical and theoretical modules ranging from Machine Learning, computational theory and AI through to computer vision and parallel computing. You will have access to current AI and robotics platforms for final year projects on topics such as deep learning, cognitive robotics and big data.
• Ensure you have the business, communication and personal skills employers are looking for, with our teaching programme that reflects the strong entrepreneurial spirit driving the computer industry.