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Biology (Integrative Bioscience) – (M.Sc.)
University of Oxford
Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences
| Application Deadline: | 3 March | ||
| Annual Tuition Fee: | ≈ € 3,860 - ≈ € 15,440 (non-EEA) | ||
| Location: | Oxford / United Kingdom / View location on map ▾ Hide location on map ▴ | ||
| Duration: | 12 months | Start Date: | October |
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| Languages: | English | ||
Location of University of Oxford
The M.Sc. in Biology (Integrative Bioscience) provides an advanced education and broad experience in biological research. The one-year candidature is structured around a number of taught courses that provide intensive exposure to research in the biosciences, training in core skills and guided professional development. Conducting and reporting on two independent research projects is also an integral requirement.
The degree involves a small class of students of high academic quality, providing the opportunity for intimate personal tuition by leading academics. If you are accepted for the degree, you will undertake two individual research projects in dissimilar areas of biology, and will take six academic taught courses. These contain substantial practical components and cover a wide range of biological fields, designed to stretch your understanding and competence beyond their present limits. In addition, the Professional Development Programme and the formal Core Skills Training will give you a head start by imparting skills and competence that most graduate students are only able to acquire the hard way, by trial and error over several years.
Together, these components of the M.Sc. in Biology at the University of Oxford make it an ideal foundation for a future career in biological research, either academic or industrial. A majority of the students who have taken the degree (which started in 1995) have gone on to do doctorates, several of them in Oxford with supervisors that they got to know during their M.Sc. course, while others have gone straight into jobs in biological research, scientific journalism, science teaching, and intellectual property rights law.
Contents
The MSc in Biology (Integrative Bioscience) course provides an advanced education and broad experience in biological research. The one-year candidature is structured around a number of taught courses that provide intensive exposure to research in the biosciences, training in core skills and guided professional development. Conducting and reporting on two independent research projects is also an integral requirement.
The syllabus for study includes five principal components:
* Research in the Biosciences
* Core Research Skills: * Techniques in Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics
* The Acquisition, Handling and Analysis of Bioscience Information
* Professional Development Programme for Bioscientists
* Research Projects
Research in the BiosciencesThe main academic teaching of the degree is delivered in taught courses of lectures with associated practicals, demonstrations and seminars, detailing research approaches, methodologies and results in specific subject areas of the biosciences. The subject areas for each coming year are approved annually each spring by the organising committee. Students are required to take five courses, for each of which they must submit practical notebooks. In addition, they must show advanced knowledge of three of these subject areas by submitting extended essays on topics relating to them.
* For the academic year 2010/11, these courses are:
* Research in Animal Behaviour
* Research in Cell and Developmental Biology
* Research in Mathematical and Computational Biology
* Research in Ornithology
* Research in Ecology and Conservation of Biodiversity
Alternative or additional courses may be offered in future years. Core Research Skills
* Techniques in Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics
Molecular biology techniques play an ever-increasing role in almost every biological research area, from cell biology to field ornithology. Because of this, we provide a course introducing you to these fundamental techniques at the very beginning of the degree. This required course will consist of informal lectures with associated practicals, demonstrations and seminars, detailing the principal research approaches and methodologies in molecular biology. Students are required to submit a practical notebooks for this course, and to show advanced knowledge of this subject by submitting an extended essay on a topic relating to it.
* The Acquisition, Handling and Analysis of Bioscience Information
These integrated lectures and classes provide training in transferable core research skills in the following areas:
* Statistics for biologists
* Experimental design
* Data handling and manipulation
* Safety and good research practice
* Research techniques
* Computing and information technology
* Libraries and databases
Professional Development Programme for BioscientistsTo provide transferable personal skills for a career in scientific research, this programme involves taught classes with interactive discussions and practical assignments in the following areas: * Creativity, teamwork and leadership
* Time management and learning skills
* Communication and presentation skills, verbal and written
* Career planning, assessing personal skills and values, CVs and interview techniques
* Exploitation of science: getting ideas to the marketplace, patents and intellectual property rights
* The relationship between academic and industrial research
* Government science policy and research funding
* Ethics in scientific research
Research projects
Running partially in parallel with the taught courses, each student will undertake two research projects in dissimilar areas of bioscience, the first in the winter/spring and the second in the summer. These are normally conducted in the University of Oxford biomedical departments, but one may be undertaken at an approved external organisation, for example the Medical Research Council labs at Harwell, or pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. Each involves a 3 month period of intensive supervised original laboratory, museum or field research under a research supervisor, on a subject selected by the student in consultation with the Degree Co-ordinator.
Assessment involves written essays, practical notebooks, research reports, seminars and a viva voce examination. The course is limited to twenty students. Seven BBSRC scholarships are available.
IELTS
You are normally required to take an English Proficiency Test.
Most European Universities recognise the IELTS test.
Take testRequirements
Good undergraduate honours degree (minimum of upper second-class or equivalent) in Physical Sciences (e.g. Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Physics), or the Life Sciences (e.g. Biology, Biochemistry)
English Language Requirements * IELTS: an overall score of 7.5
* TOEFL: an overall score of 630
* Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE) Grade B.
Language Proficiency
| Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE): | Grade A (Score: 80) |
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