Biomedical Science

If English is not your first language and you are not a national of a country deemed by either the UK Home Office or St George’s, University of London to be ‘majority English speaking’ listed here, you will be required to meet the English Language requirements outlined below. Tests are valid for a period of two years. 

All modules are compulsory. The year is assessed by individual module assessment, and worth 120 credits in total.

With the exception of those following the Clinical Bioscience pathway, all Biomedical Science BSc students select a pathway of 75 credits of taught modules (shared with the Intercalated BSc programme and Year 3 of the Biomedical Science BSc programme), and a 45 credit research project.

You will study 75 credits of taught modules, and a ‘with’ degree title will be awarded to reflect the modules taken. You can choose to qualify with ‘Biomedical Science BSc’ if you prefer. A full list of award titles can be seen on the Study tab above.

In your third year you will undertake a compulsory research project module (45 credits) and select further taught module options (75 credits). If you successfully complete 75 credits or more within a specific subject, you will be awarded a degree title that reflects this specialisation:

• Biomedical Science with Anatomy BSc

• Biomedical Science with Cell and Molecular Biology BSc

• Biomedical Science with Genomics BSc

• Biomedical Science with Global Health BSc

• Biomedical Science with Immunity and Infection BSc

• Biomedical Science with Medical Ethics and Humanities BSc

• Biomedical Science with Physiology and Pharmacology BSc

• Biomedical Science with Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience BSc

• Clinical Bioscience BSc

This option is open to all students who achieve 60 percent or above by the end of year 2. (Year 1 counts for a third of your marks and year 2 counts for two-thirds.) Students enrolled on the BSc can opt to transfer from to the MSci pathway at the end of Year 2, subject to available spaces and academic achievement.

This option is open to all students who achieve 66 percent or above by the end of year 2 (year 1 counts for a third of your marks and year 2 counts for two-thirds). 

Up to 60 places will be available on this pathway; 25 of these places are reserved for internal ‘clinical transfer’ students who are successful in securing a conditional offer for fast-track graduate entry to MBBS4 at St George’s. (Where the number of qualifying students applying to the Clinical Bioscience award exceeds the number of spaces available, places (except for clinical transfer students) will be allocated based on academic ranking at the end of Year 2.)

On the BSc Clinical Bioscience, you study compulsory taught modules (75 credits), optional modules (45 credits) and a research project (15 credits).

• CV preparation

• Preparation programme

• Completion of mandatory placement weeks

• Employer assessment of workplace assessment

• Interim placement report (2,000 words)

• Final placement report to be submitted at the end (6,000 words)

• Returning to St George’s and engaging with your student community

• Summary report (500 words) of the experience and skills developed

• Preparation of an updated CV to aim further career aspirations

You must provide:

• full details of your Level 2 (GCSE or equivalent) qualifications with grades
• full details of your Level 3 (A Level or equivalent) qualifications with achieved/predicted grades
• a personal statement (more information about this document is available on the UCAS website). 
• an academic reference from your current or most recent institutions with predicted grades.

After submitting your application to UCAS:

• log in to UCAS Track and make sure all your academic details have been included

• if any subjects or predicted results are missing, email the Admissions Officer with your UCAS number and missing subjects and grades.

We will consider applications from applicants who wish to defer entry by a year, provided you plan to use the time constructively. If you are offered a place on the course and subsequently decide to defer, you must inform us by 1 June of the year of application.

Acknowledgement emails and letters are sent out as soon as we receive your application. Please make sure that your email account is able to accept communications from St George’s as we will mainly communicate with you via email.

Decisions from St George’s will be entered onto UCAS Track.

Students with pre-existing illnesses or disabilities, or who are shielding

If you suffer, or have suffered, from a serious illness (physical or psychological) or have a disability, or have been required to shield due to Covid-19, please let us know. St George’s is committed to supporting our students and will explore all reasonable adjustments to support you to thrive on your course.

Please contact our Disability Advisor as soon as possible with details to help us establish whether your health history or disability is likely to affect your ability to study or practise. This will also give us sufficient time to carry out a detailed assessment, obtain reports and organise additional expert assessments if required.

Attendance at site

For the majority of our courses, we will be delivering an element of face to face, hands-on teaching on campus in line with social distancing guidelines which you are required to attend. If you will be unable to attend teaching on-site due to a health reason, you must let us know by the start of the academic year so we can consider alternative arrangements to ensure you progress through the course. Mitigating Circumstances can still be submitted for unforeseen illnesses; however, being unable to attend the site due to shielding or being at heightened risk from a pre-existing illness or disability will not be accepted as grounds for Mitigating Circumstances. Please discuss this with your course team and complete a personal risk assessment so that all reasonable adjustment can be made.

Placements

You will be required to undertake a personal risk assessment before you can attend any placement that is part of your course (or undertake certain other activities, such as those which include the practice of clinical skills or require the use of PPE). Where a health concern arises, every effort will be made to identify alternative placement arrangements, but your health and safety will be the first priority, and alternative arrangements may not be possible. This may have implications for the continuation of your study. If you are clinically vulnerable or have been shielding, we strongly encourage you to contact the Disability Advisor now to undertake an assessment.

Students with pre-existing illnesses or disabilities, or who are shielding

If you're a student with a pre-existing illness or disability, or who is shielding, your course team will contact you to ask if you would like to complete a personal risk assessment before you return to the site. If you suffer from a serious illness which may increase your level of risk, or have been required to shield due to Covid-19, we recommend that you complete a personal risk assessment. St George’s is committed to supporting our students and will explore all reasonable adjustments to support you to thrive on your course. 

Attendance at site

For the majority of our courses, we will be delivering an element of face to face, hands-on teaching on campus in line with social distancing guidelines which you are required to attend. If you will be unable to attend teaching on-site due to a health reason, you must let us know by the start of the academic year so we can consider alternative arrangements to ensure you progress through the course. Mitigating Circumstances can still be submitted for unforeseen illnesses; however, being unable to attend the site due to shielding or being at heightened risk from a pre-existing illness or disability will not be accepted as grounds for Mitigating Circumstances. Please discuss this with your course team and complete a personal risk assessment so that all reasonable adjustment can be made.

Placements 

You will be required to undertake a personal risk assessment before you can attend any placement (or undertake certain other activities, such as those including the practice of clinical skills or requiring the use of PPE) that is part of your course. Where a health concern arises, every effort will be made to identify alternative placements arrangements, but your health and safety will be the first priority, and where alternative arrangements are not possible, there may be implications for your studies. If you are clinically vulnerable or have been shielding, we strongly encourage you to contact your course team now to undertake a personal risk assessment.

We are expecting to deliver the course within the planned timescales, and for successful students graduate at the expected time.

Although some assessments are designed to be taken on-site, we have developed an alternative strategy allowing assessments to be completed remotely without coming on to campus. This includes the majority of lab practical assessments and those previously undertaken on-site in computer rooms.

However, Year 1 does include practical elements that must be delivered in laboratories (semesters 1 and 2) or in our Dissection Room (semester 2), and some computer practicals (semesters 1 and 2). These will run as planned in 2020/21 with appropriate social distancing measures in place. 

There is a possibility that government advice on social distancing may change. If that is the case, we will endeavour to redesign sessions, or delay practical components of the programme to a subsequent semester (or year), to protect the safety of our students.

We are planning to deliver the course within the planned timescales, and for students to progress and graduate without delay. Although some assessments are designed to be taken on-site, we have developed an alternative strategy allowing assessments to be completed remotely without coming on to campus. This includes the majority of lab practical assessments and those previously undertaken on-site in computer rooms. In addition, Anatomy (semester 3), usually delivered in our Dissection Room, has been redesigned to be delivered using online resources, filmed sessions and remote tutorials.

In Year 2, however, the programme does include practical elements where laboratory work is essential, and some computer practicals (both in semesters 3 and 4). These will run as planned in 2020/21 with appropriate social distancing measures in place.  If government advice on social distancing changes, we will endeavour to redesign sessions or delay practical components of the programme to a subsequent semester (or year) to protect the safety of our students.

In Year 3, we will continue to offer final year 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 2020/21. 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.

In Year 3, students on the Anatomy pathway will have weekly onsite sessions in the Dissection Room during the Images of Anatomy module. Students on the Clinical Bioscience pathway will have on-site sessions for their ‘Clinical Anatomy’ and ‘Clinical, Communication and Professional Skills in Healthcare’ modules. These sessions are weekly throughout semesters 5 and 6, and both modules have been scheduled on the same day to minimise students travel time and time-on-site.

We do not expect students to incur any extra costs over and above those that we have advertised on the course page.

As a result of our courses beginning with the majority of teaching online, 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.

We do not expect you to incur any extra costs over and above those previously advertised. Personal protective equipment (PPE), if needed, will be provided for you.

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 and poster presentations. 

In Year 1, all formal written examinations take place at the end of each semester in Feb and June. At this stage, we expect to deliver these assessments as planned.

Although some assessments are designed to be taken on-site, we developed an alternative strategy in 2019/20 to enable students to complete assessments remotely without coming on to campus. For example, formal examinations were taken remotely by students within at a time of their choosing within a window stipulated by us. If the government advice on social distancing changes, we will take this approach again. If this happens, you will have (formative) practice exams, to get familiar with the process and make sure your WiFi, IT and environment are suitable for the final exams.

In-course assessments will be undertaken remotely, with the exception of some lab practicals and computer practicals which require onsite attendance.

In Year 2, all formal written examinations take place at the end of each semester, in February and June. In Year 3 they take place in May. At this stage, we expect to deliver these assessments as planned. 

Although some assessments are designed to be taken on-site, you will be aware that we developed an alternative strategy in 2019/20 to enable you to complete assessments without coming on to campus. If the government advice on social distancing changes, we will take this approach again. If these are remote, you will have (formative) practice exams, to get familiar with the process and make sure your WiFi, IT and environment are suitable for the final exams.

In-course assessments (ICAs) will be taken remotely, with the exception of some lab practicals and computer practicals which require on-site attendance.

In 2019/20, the viva element of the assessment of Year 3 research projects was removed due to restrictions on movements as a result of lockdown. This approach may be taken again in 2020/21 if necessary.

If government advice changes and the campus is closed, we will not be able to deliver these assessments as planned. In that case, it might be possible to delay these assessments to the following academic year to protect student safety. If that happens, graduation for some final year students may be delayed until you are able to complete all assessments, because we have an obligation to our regulators to confirm that our students have met the clinical and practical outcomes for the programme before they graduate.

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 on-site in a manner that is safe for students and staff.

All face-to-face teaching will take place at St George’s, University of London, 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 on-site in a manner that is safe for students and staff.

We are continuing to offer the 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.

The changes that we are making are the consequence of current public health advice, and our capacity to offer alternatives is limited by that advice. If you wish to avoid these changes by deferring your offer please contact admissions@sgul.ac.uk.

The changes that we are making are the consequence of current public health advice, and our capacity to offer alternatives is limited by that advice. You will be required to consent to these changes as part of your re-enrolment. If you 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.