What can our Biology with a Year Abroad course do for you?
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Studying Biology 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.
Taking the Year Abroad degree gives you the chance see biology from a different perspective, by spending your second year studying the subject at a university in Australia, Canada, New Zealand or the USA. It is ideal if you are interested in a career that looks at science on a global level. Sheffield is one of the few universities in the UK to offer this option without adding an extra year to your course, and you will also pay significantly reduced fees during your year abroad.
Study Abroad programme costs
The course and its core modules therefore give you a fantastic 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.
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
If you choose the four year MBiolSci course, you can spend an additional year conducting your own piece of advanced research, which will prepare you well for a professional career in science.
Undergraduate Masters
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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 our undergraduates 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.
Your year abroad will be spent in an equally respected institution, where you will have the chance learn about different approaches to science internationally, studying organisms, ecosystems and environments unavailable in the UK – coral reefs, rainforests, mountains and deserts, for example. Click on the Year abroad tab for links to the universities you could go to.
When you return, you'll be ready to start thinking about making your own scientific discoveries. A lot of our students' own research is done on the 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.
Typically, you will take between three and five modules each semester you spend in Sheffield, so that in your first year you will spend around fifteen hours in labs and lectures each week, with small group tutorials every fortnight. The practical classes and tutorials are replaced in the third year 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.
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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 Biomedical Science, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, or elsewhere in the University
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Second year
This year is spent studying biology at a university in Canada, the USA, or Australia. Click the Year abroad tab for links to the universities you can go to.
Third 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 Biomedical Science or Molecular Biology and Biotechnology
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Below is a list of our partner institutions, where you could spend your year abroad:
Australia
Canada
New Zealand
USA
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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