What can our Biology with a Modern Language course do for you?
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The Biology course in Sheffield gives you an in-depth understanding of how life works at every level, covering topics such as evolution, biodiversity, ecology, climate change and genetics. Our focus is on whole organisms, from the tiny molecules that make up all plants and animals, to the ecosystems they inhabit and the way the interact with one another on a global level.
The course and its core modules give you a fantastic general overview of this area of science, though you can specialise in the areas that most interest you, picking modules from across APS and the two other biology departments in the University. Click on the Module list tab to see the variety of modules we offer, including modules that give you essential research training and general career skills.
The Modern Language course is particularly relevant to students interested in careers with a global dimension, whether it's overseas research or international conservation. If you take this course, you not only get a good level of scientific knowledge – you develop it by studying biology overseas in your third year, learning to communicate your expertise in French, German, Spanish or Italian. You will also pay significantly reduced fees during your year abroad.
Study Abroad programme costs
Graduates from APS go on to do many different things. Some remain in academia and do PhDs, while others go on to careers in wildlife conservation, ecology and research, working for charities, environmental organisations, government agencies and the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries. The project management, data analysis and communication skills you learn from our degrees are invaluable in all sorts of other areas too, such as teaching, journalism and management.
After your degree
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Inspirational teaching in state-of-the-art facilities
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In APS, we don't just teach science – we are working hard every day to make new discoveries in biology, and you will get first-hand experience of our research, working alongside leading academics. Our staff includes several winners of the University Senate Award for Learning and Teaching, and Professor Tim Birkhead, the UK Bioscience Teacher of the Year. Our courses, meanwhile, don't have many core text books, because we teach you the latest science from cutting edge research papers, which won't be in text books until years from now. Most of your modules will be taken from the standard BSc Biology course, but you will spend a third of your time studying your chosen language in the School of Languages and Cultures, working with a native speaker and learning the cultures and customs of the country you will visit in your third year.
Typically, you will take between three and five modules each semester, so that in your first and second year you will spend around fifteen hours in labs and lectures each week, with small group tutorials every fortnight. When you return from your year abroad, you will go into level three of the BSc Biology course, still studying language modules alongside the science ones. The practical classes and tutorials will be replaced by your own piece of lab- or field-based research in the first semester, and a dissertation in the second semester, which can be done either as individual or group projects.
Your year abroad will be spent studying biology in an equally respected institution overseas, where you will speak your chosen language. This gives you a unique chance learn about approaches to science in another country, while improving your language skills and embracing another culture. Click on the Year abroad tab for links to the universities you could go to.
A lot of your own research is done on the level three field courses we offer in locations including Borneo, Sweden and Portugal, as well as here in the UK. Sheffield, after all, has one of the UK's most spectacular natural locations – the Peak District – on its doorstep for you to study, while on campus we have glasshouses, ponds and artificial streams for experiments, state-of-the-art DNA and molecular analysis equipment, and controlled environment chambers that can replicate any climate on the planet, past, present or future.
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First year
Core modules:
- Practical Skills in Biology
- Comparative Physiology
- Evolution
- Ecosystems and Environmental Change
- Skills for Biologists 1
- Genes, Cells and Populations
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Options include:
- Reproduction, Development and Growth
- Biodiversity
- Population and Community Ecology
- Behaviour of Humans and Other Animals
- Laboratory Skills in Biology 1 and 2
- Ecological Identification Skills
- Modules from the School of Languages and Cultures
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Second year
Core modules:
- Data Analysis
- Animal and Plant Science Tutorials
- Biology Practicals: options – Animal Diversity, Biology Projects, Insect Biology, Environmental Biology, Plant Habitats and Distributions, Ecological Interactions
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Options include:
- Biotechnology and Food Security
- Animal Behaviour
- Insects
- Plant, Cell and Environment
- Evolutionary Biology
- World Ecosystems
- Plant Habitat and Distribution
- Paleobiology
- Conservation Principles
- Animal Diversity
- Population and Community Ecology 2
- The Molecular Revolution in Biology
- Symbiosis
- Modules from the School of Languages and Cultures
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Third year
This year is spent studying biology at an overseas institution that speaks your chosen language. Click the Year abroad tab for links to the universities you can go to.
Fourth year
Core modules:
- Research Project
- Undergraduate Ambassador Scheme or Dissertation
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Options include:
- Environmental Regulation in Plants
- Global Change
- Trends in Biology
- Life in Extreme Environments
- Biology and Ethics
- History and Philosophy of Science
- Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems
- Evolutionary Ecology
- Topics in Evolutionary Genetics
- Sustainable Agro-ecosystems
- Cooperation and Conflict
- The Ecology of Landscapes
- Conservation Issues and Management
- Field course (UK, Borneo, Portugal or Sweden)
- Modules from the School of Languages and Cultures
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Below is a list of our partner institutions, where you could spend your year abroad.
France
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Finland
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Germany
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Netherlands
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Spain
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Switzerland
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Hands-on science, incredible locations
More about field courses
Borneo
The focus of this course is on rainforest ecology, adaptations of rainforest organisms and some of the specific issues resulting from the exploitation of rainforest environments
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Portugal
With access to a range of habitats characteristic of drier southern European climates, the focus of this course is on insect ecology and behaviour
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Sweden
This course considers the ecological processes in sub-arctic environments, looking in particular at the ecology of plants, plant-animal interactions in arctic/sub-arctic environments and some of the particular threats to such environments
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Wales
Providing an opportunity to focus on carrying out investigations in the marine environment, this course is a chance to develop sustained research projects involving experimental manipulations and observations over sequential tidal cycles, with a focus on intertidal marine organisms, their adaptations, ecology and behaviour
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Sheffield – Peak District
We always have one or more field courses running from the department in Sheffield which take advantage of the range of interesting and important habitats on our doorstep, with the current course focussing on insect-plant interactions and insect ecology and behaviour
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Ireland
The focus of this course is on environmental forms and processes, and their effects on the development and functioning of plant and animal communities – primarily for Environmental Science students, but open to other APS undergraduates where there is availability
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