Biomedical Science BSc (Hons)

First Year Module in Focus: Health and Disease

This module will survey the epidemiology of the most common human diseases contracted in developed nations, give insight into the pathophysiology of these conditions and an overview of modern treatments. Finally, given estimates of the general effect of genetics versus environment on our health, we cover life-style strategies to minimise, delay and perhaps avoid the contraction of these diseases. The module also focuses on the development of skills essential for working in a multidisciplinary team in the medical or biosciences whatever your vocation.

Second Year Module in Focus: Systems Physiology I

The first semester of this module is devoted to the physiology of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Over 12 weeks, both of these systems will be thoroughly described, including examples of pathologies encountered in clinics or GP surgeries. Dissections and the heart and lungs will be performed to highlight how anatomical structures support physiological functions, in both organs. A practical session will also be devoted to studying how hydration affects the cardiovascular system, with students as participants.

The second semester will focus on sensory physiology (the different senses to detect light, sound, touch, taste and smell), gastrointestinal and renal physiology. Again, dissections of several organs will also be performed in these 12 weeks. Students will also measure their own creatinine levels. The module concludes with how the renal and cardiovascular systems are intertwined. Understanding how the human body works is at the centre of this module. Skills acquired herein will include statistical analyses, report writing, critical analysis of experiments and their interpretations, as well as analysing how pathologies can be explained by organ dysfunction.

Third Year Module in Focus: Clinical Biochemistry

The module concentrates on clinical utility and understanding how biochemical investigations are used in clinical medicine for disease diagnosis. Disease diagnosis is a complex process, which involves an account of patient history plus signs and symptoms in conjunction with various biochemical, biological and histological clinical tests.

Throughout this module you will consider the biochemical and metabolic changes that occur during human disease states, gaining knowledge on how blood electrolyte and pH homeostatic changes can be used to diagnose certain conditions. You will also develop and understanding of how biochemical markers can be used to determine organ and endocrine gland involvement and appreciate the biochemical alterations that occur in chronic illness such as, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. Specific case histories will be used to interpret real clinical data with respect to disease diagnoses with you becoming diagnosticians.

Teaching

You are taught through a combination of lectures, seminars, group work, interactive workshops and laboratory practicals. Interactive workshops take a variety of formats and are intended to enable the application of learning through discussion and small group activities. Seminars enable the discussion and development of understanding of topics covered in lectures, and laboratory practicals are focused on developing subject specific skills and applied individual and group project work.

In addition, meetings with personal academic tutors are scheduled on at least 4 occasions in the first year and three occasions in each of the other years of a course.

You have the opportunity to engage with professional Biomedical Science practitioners and visit relevant potential employers in a range of different modules in each year.

You will use a range of excellent laboratory facilities, computing suites and software relevant to Biomedical Science throughout the course.

Contact time

In a typical week you will have around 16 contact hours of teaching and in the final year you will have slightly less contact time in order to do more independent study.

The nature of your contact time will vary from module to module but for a 15-credit module it will typically be structured around:

• 4–8 hours of interactive workshops
• 4–7 hours of supervised laboratory practicals
• 1 hour of group workshops
• 1 hour of Study Skills (first year only)

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, students are expected to undertake around 24 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve:

• Reviewing lecture notes and reading around topics to reinforce and expand on content
• Directed and self-directed reading and watching of video content
• Working through problems in appropriate texts and online
• Preparation of coursework assignments and revising for exams
• Working with colleagues on team tasks and projects

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources.

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. Our biomedical team is made up of senior academics, professional practitioners with clinical experience, demonstrators and technical laboratory officers. The team includes internationally-recognised scientists whose specialist areas include: cardiovascular disease, wound healing, cancers, diabetes and dementia-related disorders.

Postgraduate research students who have undertaken teacher training may also contribute to the teaching of seminars under the supervision of the module leader. Teaching is informed by research and consultancy, and 56 per cent of University lecturers have a higher education teaching qualification or are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy. You can learn more about the staff by visiting our staff profiles.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or ‘formative’ assignments. Each module has one or more formal or ‘summative’ assessment, which is graded and counts towards the overall module grade.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is: 

Year 1

• 4 x practical reports/files
• 3 x exams
• 2 x short in-class test assessments
• 2 x group-based oral presentations
• 2 x essays
• 1 x practical test

Year 2

• 6 x exams
• 3 x practical reports/handbooks
• 1 x research proposal
• 1 x group report
• 1 x reflective report
• 1 x practical test

Year 3

• 6 x exams
• 2 x essays
• 1 x research project dissertation
• 1 x poster presentation
• 1 x interim review
• 1 x practical test
• 1 x group report
• 1 x individual presentation
• 1 x practical report / 1 x group poster

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback on examination performance is available upon request from the module leader. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.

We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest programme specification document.