Biochemistry (MBio)

University of Warwick

United Kingdom, Coventry

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University of Warwick

United Kingdom , Coventry

Key Facts

Program Level

Bachelor

Study Type

Full Time

Delivery

On Campus

Course Code

C1A2

Campuses

University of Warwick

Program Language

English

Start & Deadlines

Next Intake Deadlines25-Sep-2023

Apply to this program

Go to the official application for the university

Duration 4 year(s)

Tuition Fee

GBP 29,830 / year

Next Intake 25-Sep-2023

Biochemistry (MBio)

About

Course overview

Following an in-depth foundation in biochemistry, this course broadens out to allow a focus on more specialist fields. These include biophysical chemistry, which covers biological macromolecules at the atomic level, and understanding the genome and gene regulation.

Our exceptionally wide range of options allow you to pursue areas that interest you. You will graduate with a sound understanding of the biochemical and structural basis of molecular, cellular and development processes in a variety of organisms.

You will benefit from our tutorial system for academic and pastoral support, alongside high-quality laboratory time.

Our four-year MBio gives you the opportunity to undertake an extended final year in-house research project.

Teaching

Students learn through a combination of tutorials, lectures, laboratory work, and independent and group research.

Purpose-built teaching facilities are fully integrated with research laboratories, meaning you will be learning alongside teaching and research staff who are at the cutting edge of their fields. You will spend one or two days a week undertaking lab work.

This becomes more project-oriented in your second year, culminating in a six-week individual research project in your third year. In their final year, MBio students undertake a further 27-week research project.

Class sizes

In your first year, lecture sizes are typically 370 students. The modules you take in years two and three will vary in class size. The maximum number is typically 100 and the minimum 10 students.

Typical contact hours

12 - 16 hours per week over 25 weeks. In your first year you should expect around 10 lectures a week, a full day in the laboratory and a taught tutorial with your personal tutor and 6-7 of your peers. Independent learning, reading and preparing for lectures and preparing assessments will occupy the rest of your study time.

Requirements

Entry Requirements

Warwick IFPLink opens in a new window: Complete the Certificate of General Secondary Education (Thanawiya) with a final score of 80% overall in the final year

Undergraduate: Warwick IFP required. Alternatively IB, A-Levels, APs/SAT IIs will be considered.

English Program Requirements

If your first language is not English you must obtain or provide evidence of your proficiency in English. This is usually evidenced through one of the following tests:

IELTS (International English Language Testing System) of at least 6.5
TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) of at least 92 (internet-based iBT only)
PTE (Pearson English Academic) of at least 62
CAE (Cambridge Advanced English) with an overall score of at least 60 (or pass at grade C)
CPE (Cambridge Proficiency English) with any Pass grade

These are the minimum overall scores. There are also requirements for each component. Please see the Language Requirements webpage for more details.

PLEASE NOTE: Some departments may ask for higher scores in the above tests if this is important for successful study on the course concerned. Please refer to the English Language Information and Entry Requirements for specific scores (as well as component scores) required for the course you are applying for.

If you do not achieve the required score please send in your certificate anyway. In such cases the University may recommend that you re-take the test or that you attend pre-sessional English courses provided by the University.

Acceptable format of an English language certificate: If you have taken an IELTS or TOEFL test we are able to accept a scanned copy of your Test Report as we can verify your scores online. If you have taken a PTE test then you must ask the test provider to make The University of Warwick a recipient of your test report. This is the only way we can accept your results. You should consider including UK Border Agency as a recipient as well if you will need to apply for a Student Visa. If you have taken a CAE or CPE test, please write your Candidate I.D. Number and Secret Number (both can be obtained from your test provider) on your Test Report and send us a scanned copy of your Test Report to enable us to verify your scores online.

You must have taken any language test within 2 years of the start date of the course for which you are applying or it will not be accepted.

If you have been educated entirely in English for at least one year within the two years immediately preceding the course start date, then you may provide written evidence of this with your application in the place of an English Language certificate. Some departments may still require an English language certificate in addition to this.

If you have already taken one of the tests above but are intending to take another test to improve your score, please mention this in the Test Score obtained field. i.e. 6.5 re-test booked 01/03/12

Career

Your career

Graduates on our courses have gone on to work for employers including:

AstraZeneca
NHS
Civil Service
KPMG
Johnson and Johnson
Tesla
ALS: Sarstedt Ltd
Novartis
Universities and Schools

They have pursued roles such as:

Graduate-entry medicine students
NHS scientists
Biomedical research and development scientists
Scientific publishing professionals
Laboratory technicians
Teachers
Business, marketing and accountancy professionals
Postgraduate student or researcher

Find out more about career opportunities from Life Sciences.Link opens in a new window

Helping you find the right career

Throughout your time in the School of Life Sciences your personal tutor, and careers and placements staff will work in conjunction with Student Opportunity to support you to find the right career. Through our unique taught tutorial system, you put into practice a range of scientific and transferable skills. As a Life Sciences student you will develop the hands-on laboratory, problem solving and research skills desired by employers. Our graduates are highly employable and go on to a range of scientific and non-scientific careers.

Our unique careers and placements service is tailored to your academic subject area. Our team offer a range of activities within the School to help you to consider your career once you graduate. Opportunities include:

One-to-one careers advice appointments within the School
Termly networking events featuring presentations from Life Sciences alumni and employers about a range of careers
The option to undertake a full year industrial placement or study abroad year as part of your degree
A wide range of summer work placement opportunities in industry and the School
Careers talks throughout the degrees to ensure that you are thinking about your next steps throughout the programme
Links with Warwick alumni to present to you the potential pathways of your degree
We run a successful Medical School Application Support Programme (MASP) to prepare those interested in applying for graduate entry medicine. Since the programme started 4 years ago we have achieved remarkable success with 83% of MASP students getting an interview for Medical School and 66% being offered a place.

Find out more about careers support at Warwick.

Fee Information

Tuition Fee

GBP 29,830 / year

How to Apply

How to apply to Warwick

You can apply for undergraduate courses through Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).

Our institution code is W20.

Apply through UCAS now Link opens in a new window

We strongly suggest that you complete your application before the UCAS deadline on 25th January 2023. However, some courses may still consider applications after this date. To find out whether a course is still open for applications you can use the UCAS Search Tool.Link opens in a new window

See key dates for a full timeline.

FAQs about applying

What are you looking for in an application?

Warwick offers intensive, challenging and stimulating undergraduate degrees and our successful applicants will be those who can convince us that their qualifications, motivation and experience will suit them well for such degree courses.

You should be able to demonstrate how your previous study and experiences have given you a keen interest in the subject to which you have applied.

There isn't a right or a wrong way to write your application, but there are a number of things that you should consider to make your application stand out from the crowd. Knowing what the assessors look for is the key to catching their eye.

Selectors will take into account a number of different factors when assessing your application:

Your academic profile (qualifications and predicted A-level grades) and any other entry requirements
Your personal statement
Your academic reference

You can help to make your academic reference relevant by making sure that the person who will be writing your reference knows why you want to study the subject you have chosen to apply for.

You can also make your application stand out from the crowd by paying careful attention to what you put into and how you write your personal statement.

How important is my personal statement?

Our courses are very competitive, with often many more applicants predicted to meet the entry requirements than we are able to offer places to. Where this occurs, the personal statement is important to enable us to select potential students for the course. It is considered very carefully by our staff, and is especially important to us when we are making decisions about who to make offers to.

You should spend some time working on your personal statement before you apply. This is your chance to show why you want to study your chosen course at Warwick, and why you would be a good participant on the course.

How to write a great personal statement

How will you assess my application?

Your application is assessed by academic Admissions Tutors in departments, and professional Admissions Tutors in the Undergraduate Admissions Team.

We ensure that decisions are made as fairly as possible, and we take as much information about you as we can into account, judging it against the course criteria:

Existing academic achievements and the context within which they have been achieved (including any exceptional circumstances)
Predicted grades
Your personal statement
Your academic reference
Finally, we also assess your application in competition with others

Remember that selectors want to hear about you and your interests and potential – there is no one-size-fits-all approach!

As a consequence of the high level of competition for our courses, and because we want to consider your full profile and your potential as an individual rather than simply looking at your actual or predicted grades, it may also take some time to communicate a decision to you.

You can check for updates to your application through UCAS.

You should be aware that decisions are made on a highly competitive basis and therefore we are often unable to make offers to all applicants who meet, or even exceed, the typical entry requirements.

What happens after I have applied?

After you have applied to Warwick

When will I hear back about my application?

See when you will hear back after you have applied to Warwick.

FAQs about choosing a course

Single or joint honours?

You will need to consider whether you wish to study for a single or joint honours degree. Joint honours degrees allow you to broaden your education as well as increasing your skills, showing that you are a flexible thinker and can work across different subject areas. Warwick offers a variety of joint honours degrees from Physics with Business Studies to History and Sociology.

If you want to combine two or more subjects in your degree, you should consider how much of each subject you would like to study. You might choose to study two subjects in equal amounts, or you could study one subject but add a second subject as a smaller element of the course. For example, German and Business Studies would involve roughly equal amounts of study of each subject, while German with Film Studies would see you studying both subjects but spending more time studying German than Film Studies.

Several degrees are interdisciplinary, for example PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) and MORSE (Maths, Operational Research, Statistics and Economics). The strongest applicants for these degrees are able to demonstrate an interest in all aspects of the course, and to appreciate the links between them.

How long will the course last?

You should think about the length of course you would like to study. Many departments at Warwick offer undergraduate Masters degrees (4 year courses) and there is the choice with some degrees of having a year in industry (an intercalated year) or spending a year overseas.

Which course will help you achieve your career goals?

Many professions do not require you to have a degree in a particular subject. However, if you have a particular career goal in mind you should find out whether your chosen course carries professional accreditation. This means that you may be exempt from elements of professional examinations if you choose to pursue a professional qualification as a graduate. For example, students taking our Accounting and Finance degree may choose modules which lead to professional stage exemptions from the examinations of major accountancy bodies.