Our priority is to keep our students and staff safe and support their wellbeing, while protecting our community from the risks of Covid-19 on our site, based inside a hospital. We have listened to feedback and preferences from our student community about St George’s as a place to study.
We won’t be making any significant changes to the content of our programmes, but there will be some changes to the way they are delivered. Please see below for further details of how this may affect this course.
If government advice changes, we may need to update our plans, but our approach is designed to make it possible to continue with much of the on-campus teaching planned. If we do need to make changes, we will update this information, and will keep current students and offer holders informed by email.
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Location of study
All face-to-face teaching will take place on the campus that we share with St George’s Hospital in Tooting, with appropriate social distancing measures in place.
We have not explored alternative locations for teaching, and have no immediate plans to do so.
If government advice on social distancing changes, we will consider ways in which we can deliver teaching onsite in a manner that is safe for students and staff.
Course content
We are not making any significant changes to the content of the Biomedical Science BSc programme.
Overall, the course in structure and content will be similar as advertised.
There is a possibility that government advice on social distancing may change in the future and this may restrict access to the campus. Even if this were to be the case, we expect to be able to continue to deliver the core modules of the programme and the final year specialisms and pathways as planned.
How the course is being delivered
For students in all years, the programme has been re-designed to be a hybrid delivery of lectures delivered online as pre-recorded sessions or ‘live’ (synchronous) online lectures, and ‘live’ interactive weekly Q&A and discussion sessions.
Interactive small group tutorials, and the majority of laboratory and computer practicals will be delivered on site.
The existing learning outcomes for our modules and courses will remain in place.
From September to December 2021, all students will primarily access their learning, including learning materials, via the University’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), Canvas.
Hands-on practical teaching and learning activities will be delivered on campus, with appropriate social distancing and personal protective equipment (PPE) measures put in place and with controls on the number of people in each location.
The online components of the course will be designed to balance interactive real-time sessions with lecturers and other students alongside self-paced independent study.
Students will have clear learning pathways through the activities they are expected to engage with, and there will be opportunities to check learning and progress.
In the final year, we will continue to offer research projects that enable students to work with professional research groups tackling real medical and health problems.
We expect to be able to deliver laboratory-based projects with appropriate social distancing measures in 2021/22.
Our capacity to do so may change if government guidelines change. If that happens, we will do our best to provide alternative arrangements and to enable students to complete on schedule.
Non-lab research projects will also be offered, including those involving data analysis of previously collected data, surveys/questionnaires, bioinformatic analysis/data mining, or analysis of anonymised patient data.
To get the most from online study, hardware requirements will be established and communicated to all existing students and offer holders. Students will need their own personal computer or laptop and an internet connection in their place of accommodation. This needs to be in place at the start of the course. Once enrolled, students will have the ability to use Microsoft Office 365 as part of the University’s institutional licence, and will be able to access software required for their modules/courses via AppsAnywhere.
In addition, we offer Microsoft Office for Mac via Office 365, but only the following applications are available for Mac: Teams, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook and OneNote. Web-based Microsoft Office applications are available on Mac. Full details are available here.
There is a provision for students who may struggle to meet the hardware requirements through the university’s IT Hardship team.
Course length
We are expecting to deliver the course within the planned timescales, and for successful students to graduate at the expected time.
Assessments
We assess the knowledge, skills and attributes of our students in a variety of ways. These include formal written examinations, practical examinations and in-course assessments, which might include essays, practical write-ups and special study reports, oral presentations, poster presentations and research project vivas.
Formal written examinations, practical examinations, oral presentations and poster presentations would normally take place onsite.
However, we have developed online assessments so that these can go ahead regardless of whether students can attend site in the coming months.
Although some assessments are designed to be taken onsite, we developed an alternative strategy in 2020/21 to enable students to complete assessments remotely without coming to campus.
Through the process to agree changes to assessments, criteria were developed to ensure that they remained fair, valid and reliable and did not disadvantage any student.
This means that the assessment tasks will not change, but will be delivered online.
The impact will be limited because, although the way in which the assessment is being delivered is different, the assessment tasks, the learning outcomes that are being tested and the assessment criteria are the same.
The online assessments are also the same in terms of the challenges they present to students. The assessments are therefore consistent with the way they were intended to be delivered.
If assessments take place online, as in 2020/21, students will have (formative) practice exams, to get familiar with the process and make sure your WiFi, IT and environment are suitable for the exams.
In order to maintain an inclusive and equitable approach that recognises, for example, challenging domestic circumstances and poor home internet connections, we recognise that students will need to find an appropriate environment in which to take the assessment and make sure that they have IT equipment and a reliable internet connection. This may not be possible for all students.
Our aim is to lend equipment to students if their own facilities are inadequate.
We are also allowing students to apply to take their exam on campus using a networked computer or laptop with Wi-Fi connectivity.
Students can request assistance by contacting examonsite@sgul.ac.uk ideally 4 weeks before their exam if they think they will have difficulties meeting the requirements.
Placements and essential hands-on teaching
The majority of laboratory and computer practicals will be delivered onsite.
Although practical assessments in Years 1 and 2 are designed to be taken onsite, we have developed an alternative strategy allowing assessments to be completed remotely without coming to campus. This includes the majority of lab practical assessments and those previously undertaken onsite in computer rooms.
There is a possibility that government advice on social distancing may change. If that is the case, we will endeavour to re-design sessions, or delay practical components of the programme to a subsequent semester (or year), to protect the safety of our students.
In the final year, we will continue to offer research projects that enable students to work with professional research groups tackling real medical and health problems.
We expect to be able to deliver laboratory-based projects with appropriate social distancing measures in 2021/22. Our capacity to do so may change if government guidelines change. If that happens, we will do our best to provide alternative arrangements are to enable students to complete on schedule.
Non-lab research projects will also be offered, including those involving data analysis of previously collected data, surveys/questionnaires, bioinformatic analysis/data mining, or analysis of anonymised patient data.
We are continuing to offer the optional Professional Training Year between Years 2 and 3 of the programme.
However, some placements may not be available, depending on government advice at the time and the restrictions that the placement providers have to apply.
Additional costs
We do not expect students to incur any extra costs over and above those that we have advertised on the course page.
You will need a personal laptop or computer and access to the internet to participate in online lectures.
Information is available on recommended device specification.
If you are worried you might struggle to meet these requirements, you should email IThardship@sgul.ac.uk so we can look at support options for you.
Personal protective equipment (PPE), if needed, will be provided for you by the university.
Course timetable
For students in all years, the programme has been redesigned to be a hybrid delivery of lectures delivered online as pre-recorded sessions or ‘live’ (synchronous) online lectures, and ‘live’ interactive weekly Q&A and discussion sessions.
Meetings with personal tutors, interactive small group tutorials, the majority of laboratory and computer practicals, and some interactive weekly Q&A and discussion sessions will be delivered onsite.
Onsite delivery is expected to be 2 to 3 days per week.
Term dates
Consenting to changes
At enrolment or re-enrolment you consented to the changes we anticipated as a result of the pandemic, which were outlined on the ‘Covid-19 updates’ tab of your course page.
Any changes that we are making are the consequence of current public health advice and our need to anticipate changes to that advice. Our capacity to offer alternatives is therefore limited. We do not feel that the changes will adversely affect students.
If new you wish to avoid these changes by deferring your offer please contact admissions@sgul.ac.uk.
If continuing students wish to avoid these changes (e.g. by taking a year out from your studies) please discuss this directly with your course team in the first instance.
We remain, as always, focused on the best experience and outcomes for our students.
Making a complaint
If you have concerns about the quality of course delivery, please raise these with your course team in the first instance.
If you wish to take a more formal route, guidance is available to you in our student concerns and complaints procedure.