Progress in the biological sciences has been rapid during the past 25 years, and the integrated structure of the School has enabled us to develop both undergraduate courses and research interests in interdisciplinary areas where progress is most exciting.
Teaching faculty within the School are divided into three main groups - Biochemistry, Biology and Experimental Psychology - but collaboration among groups means that firm demarcations are avoided.
During the first two terms, you follow a Preliminary Course consisting of four or five subjects appropriate to your degree programme. These include Cellular Biochemistry; Evolution; Physiology and Behaviour of Animals; Chemistry; Mathematics; Introduction to Human Sciences; Introduction to Psychology; Physics; and Research Methods in Psychology. Psychology students take a common first-year course with BA Psychology students; for others there are chemistry, physics and mathematics courses allowing you to take courses best suited to your knowledge and skills. Students with no A level Biology may be advised to take a self-tutoring Introductory Biology course.
You may be able to change from one degree programme to another at the end of your second term and in some cases later.
Courses in each of the four terms following the Preliminary Course provide you with a basic core of knowledge and understanding of your chosen subject. During the second year, most students also follow an arts course in the Arts/Science scheme to develop their interests outside their main discipline.
Final year
You choose four courses from a selection of about 20 options. Some students choose options covering a wide range of topics; others prefer to specialise, often in preparation for a proposed career. Personal tutors and course organisers are always available to provide advice on appropriate course combinations to suit different interests and proposed careers.
An element of the final-year work is a practical project (in some cases optional), which is a piece of original research carried out under the supervision of a member of faculty and written up in the form of a research paper.
If you take Biochemistry or Biology with European Studies, or Psychology or Biology with North American Studies, your third year is spent at a continental or North American university as appropriate. The third-year options are therefore deferred until the fourth year, following the return from abroad. The Human Sciences, Biochemistry and Molecular Sciences in Biotechnology (sandwich course) degrees also extend over four years. There is also a four-year BSc in Biological Sciences, with the foundation year taught at Chichester College of Technology.
Most courses also involve laboratory classes as a way of illustrating course material and teaching the practical skills necessary for a career in the biological sciences. The University has its own field station in Ashdown Forest, about 18 miles from the University.
After the Preliminary Course, all work is assessed by end-of-year examinations and/or course-work. The final examination, taken at the end of the final year, covers mainly final-year work, but all examinations taken after the Preliminary Course, together with the final-year project, contribute to the degree assessment.
Our School Joint Committee, chaired by a student, provides a forum where students and faculty can meet to discuss issues associated with courses and other aspects of life in the School.
Our graduates have excellent employment prospects. Around a quarter go on to further training or degrees in areas related to their degree. Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry graduates are particularly sought after by industry and the Health Service. Employers increasingly recognise that the combination of numeracy with an ability to write clearly about abstract concepts, that characterises a good Psychology or Biology graduate, provides an excellent background to a career in management or administration.
The School is one of only eight Biological Science departments in the UK to receive the highest research rating in the Government's recent research assessment exercise. Over 300 scientists are involved in research, including about 55 teaching faculty, 100 research fellows, 120 postgraduate research students and a number of visiting faculty.
The interdisciplinary nature and organisation of the School facilitates collaboration between groups, and has helped to place it in the forefront of recent developments in exciting areas, such as molecular and cellular biology, molecular genetics and biotechnology, environmental biology and ecology, Third World crop productivity, the neurosciences, artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology, and population and evolutionary biology.
Much of the research is on topics of medical importance, e.g. diabetes, cancer biology, antibiotics, schistosomiasis, deafness, amnesia and autism. The School also has a major Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Neurosciences.
The presence of so much research activity in biological sciences at the University benefits everyone in the School, including undergraduates. Students studying in a flourishing research environment benefit by contact with a community of scientists much broader than that provided by the teaching faculty alone. Undergraduate research projects can be undertaken in association with groups that are leading the field. As an undergraduate in this School, you have the opportunity to appreciate directly what life is like as a working scientist.
© Copyright the University of Sussex 1995.
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Last update 10th November 1995