Photo credits :Isabel Frost, Tom Hart, Niloufer Irani, Wook Kim, Owen Lewis, Martin Speight, Borbala Vito

www.biology.ox.ac.uk

Biological Sciences at Oxford is fundamentally linked to our terrestrial and aquatic research. We study all aspects of life on earth, from cellular and molecular topics, through pure sciences such as ecology, genetics and animal & plant biology, to the applications of disease biology and conservation.

BA in BIO

LOG

ICAL SCIEN

CES (C100)

BA in BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Get in touch...The degree course’s website provides more information on the course and advice on applying, as well as information about the departments themselves and their excellent and award winning research.

If you have any further questions regarding studying Biological Sciences at Oxford, please do email: undergraduate.enquiries@biology.ox.ac.uk

or write to :Undergraduate Teaching Co-ordinator,Department of ZoologySouth Parks RoadOxfordOX1 3PS, UKTelephone +44 (0)1865 281214

What’s next?

Is this course for me?The University of Oxford offers an unrivalled environment in which to study. The course will introduce topics that may be completely new to you but is sufficiently flexible so that you do not need to decide immediately the areas in which you will ultimately specialise.

❖ Candidates are expected to have Biology (or Human Biology) to A-level, Advanced Higher, or Higher Level in the IB, or another equivalent. We will also accept most other A-level topics including Geography, History, English or languages.

What qualifications will I need?For A-level candidates, you will need to achieve AAA* at A2. One of the A or A* must be in Biology, but the A* could be another science or maths (see http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses-listing/biological-sciences/biological-sciences-acceptable-subjects for a full list). IB candidates need at least 39 points, including core points, with 7 in Biology (preferably) or another science or maths; for all other equivalent qualifications see http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate_courses/international_applicants/international_qualifications/.

What is the role of the college?All students who come to Oxford University are associated with an Oxford college. Each college has its own particular history, ethos and architecture but the quality of teaching you receive is identical. Colleges normally provide students with affordable accommodation for at least two (the first and last), if not all, years of the course and act as a social hub. In Biological Sciences, all your lectures, practicals, field courses and indeed exams will be organised by and based in the Departments of Plant

Sciences and Zoology. The opportunities within colleges are almost limitless and whatever your interests – music, drama, sports, politics – there will be a society for you in Oxford.Check which colleges offer the Biological Sciences course by visiting our website www.biology.ox.ac.uk. You can name a college at the application stage (your “first choice” college), but it is not essential to do this. Around 20% of students happily end up at a college different to the one they originally applied to.

What are the tutors looking for?Our tutors will be looking for the following qualities at interview:

❖ Clarity of analysis and presentation of ideas

❖ Ability to generate own ideas and proposals

❖ Ability to listen and respond to ideas put forward during discussion, and to draw inferences from them

❖ Ability to put forward coherent and well thought out proposals and responses

❖ A genuine and deep enthusiasm and passion for biology in all its many forms and topics

❖ A knowledge of and opinions concerning current affairs and events of a biological context

Will I get an interview?Given the very strong competition for places, we are only able to interview around 70% of applicants in December. You are not asked to sit a test beforehand however, nor do we need you to send written work to us. Instead, a panel of Biology Admissions Tutors looks carefully at every single application and uses every bit of information provided to us by UCAS to make recommendations to first choice colleges about who we think should be interviewed. It is then up to the first choice college to make a final decision. If you get one interview, you will automatically get two, the second being in another college allocated by Oxford University.

Some of our students go on to do a postgraduate masters or doctorate either here at Oxford, or at other institutions within United Kingdom or overseas, but our degree will also enable you to enter a wide range of careers. In fact, Biological Sciences is considered a highly suitable foundation for all sorts of professions which ask for observation, communication, critical thinking and general intellectual skills. Our graduates go on to become doctors, vets, bankers, lawyers, journalists, film makers, accountants, and teachers, all of which require postgraduate training.

For more information on applying to Oxford, please visit www.admissions.ox.ac.uk. The University’s Admissions Information Centre (admissions i) at 55 Little Clarendon Street can help answer questions about applying to undergraduate degrees offered by Oxford. Please contact: +44 (0) 1865 288000 or http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate

Open DaysThere’s no better way to find out what Oxford is really like than to visit us. Many colleges and departments welcome arranged visits throughout the year but our University Open Days remain the most popular time to visit. Explore colleges and departments and talk directly to tutors and students to help you make your decisions. For details, please see: http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/open-days-outreach/open-events-and-visiting

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HeLa cancer cells showing cytoplasm (green), nuclei (blue) and inserted conserved protein (red)

How is the course structured?

False-coloured height-coded image of microtubules in leaf epidermal cells, acquired with a Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope

Bacteria exhibit social phenotypes. In this experiment, antibiotic resistant cells (red) protect susceptible cells (yellow), maintaining the latter and slowing resistance increase

Biological Sciences at Oxford

❖ Biological Sciences is a single honours degree course taught jointly by the Departments of Plant Sciences and Zoology.

❖ All topics in the first year of the course are compulsory, to provide you with a broad and solid background for further specialised study. As well as lab practicals, everyone attends a week-long residential field course in Wales in May.

❖ In the second year the depth of material covered increases. Here you will be able to specialise, pursuing the latest research, both pure and applied, in those subjects that interest you most. Skills-based practical courses provide training in all aspects of modern biology.

❖ The third year (starting after Easter in the second year) contains your research project which can be on virtually any aspect of biology, lab or field, home or overseas.

❖ Two course assignments are prepared, a piece of scientific written work, and a 15-minute Powerpoint presentation, both on current topics in biology chosen by you.

❖ Twenty or more specialist options are provided, usually 16-lecture blocks or field courses overseas. It is recommended that students take six to eight of these options, and any combination of courses can be chosen to provide a wide coverage of biology, or alternatively to focus down on certain linked topics.

Teaching at Oxford University

Biological Sciences is taught using a mixture of lectures, practicals (including field courses), classes and tutorials. The lectures lay down the syllabus of each core course, module or option, and the practicals provide skills and techniques essential for any modern biologist. Our lectures are designed to tell you about the important issues, theories and empirical research in biology, and stimulate further thought and discussion about each research area with further exploration taking place in tutorials and practicals. Classes are small group teaching, and they are where, for example, experimental design and quantitative data analysis are taught, which are core to all our courses. Copious extra reading is expected, especially as the years progress from the first to the third (final) year.Oxford University’s greatest asset is the tutorial system. This system means that you are likely to receive much more personal tuition and greater pastoral support than other universities can offer. The tutorial consists of a one hour meeting, once a week, between the tutor and two or three students. Before the tutorial, your tutor will set you an essay to write and provide you with a reading list. You hand in the essay before the tutorial, which is read and commented on by your tutor, and handed back at the start of the tutorial. The discussion during the “tute” goes beyond the original topic, giving you a chance to talk about your own ideas and opinions in the context of published work in modern biology. Tutorials are usually in blocks of two or more, so that you can cover a topic in depth, and your tutor can get to know you personally. He or she is asked to comment on your performance in tutorials, and these comments are sent to your college at the end of each term.

Practicals You will be required to perform all sorts of lab and field-based practical investigations in the first two years of the biology course. These practical classes prepare you for your own piece of research in your final year, giving you general practical skills and knowledge which only hands-on experience can provide. Students work on a wide range of topics, which in the first year will include dissections as part of the Organisms module. The practical component of the first year Ecology module consists of a week-long residential field course in West Wales. Computer-based material plays an important part in many of the practicals. The Department of Zoology has a very well-equipped computing suite, and everyone has remote access to the main teaching servers so you can continue the practical exercises from home or college.

Research ProjectEveryone does a research project during the summer of their second year. There is a lighter teaching load in the third term of the second year so that students can undertake lab and field project work in or around Oxford, though some students choose to go overseas in the summer vacation to do their investigations. The choice of subject is enormous, but the popular topics get snapped up quickly.

The degree at Oxford is officially called BA in Biological Sciences, but it is frequently abbreviated to “Biology”. Many UK universities offer excellent Biology courses. We at Oxford firmly believe that we are one of the best, and that we also have many features that combine to produce a “value added factor” which is hard to beat. The fact that Oxford is the oldest university in the country may not be so important, but the sheer quantity and quality of libraries, museums, reference collections, societies (scientific, sporting or just odd), and so on is arguably unsurpassed elsewhere. The

collegiate system provides an immense amount of care, support, encouragement and sense of belonging, and the joint college/departmental tutorial teaching process means that Oxford graduates are extremely well prepared for life after university.In Oxford, the emphasis is on your developing your own ideas by reading the research literature as well as text books, and as you progress to the second and third years, your abilities to critically review and comment on both scientific literature and more controversial current affairs is finely honed.

Biological Sciences is an exciting and rapidly developing subject area, with many applications in fields as diverse as conservation biology andmolecular genetics. The study of living things has undergone tremendous expansion in recent years, and topics such as cellular and molecular biology, evolutionary biology and ecology are advancing rapidly. These developments will have a very significant impact on society, in areas such as medicine, the environment and agriculture. The rapid expansion has been accompanied by a blurring of the distinctions between disciplines: a biologist with an interest in tropical plants may well use many of the tools and techniques required by a molecular geneticist.

Why study Biological Sciences at Oxford?

“I’ve been able to stretch and improve my intellectual abilities well beyond the A-level syllabus. The work is intensive, testing and sometimes seemsimpossible, but I still find a surprising amount of free time. The facilities here, both educational and recreational, are amazing: extensively equippedlaboratories and lecture theatres and opportunities for almost any extracurricular activity you could think of. Despite my continuing love for sharks and rays, Oxford has widened my interests to a large array of other areas in biology. Applying is one of the best decisions I have ever made and the range of opportunities is vast”

First year biology student

TERM 1

TERM 3

TERM 2

TERM 7

TERM 9

TERM 8

TERM 4

TERM 6

TERM 5

OrganismsCells & GenesEcologyQuantitative Methods (a two-year course, assessed duringthe second-year University exams)

Evolution (Compulsory)Quantitative Methods (Compulsory)

Adaptations to the Environment Animal Behaviour Cell & Developmental Biology Disease Ecology Plants & People

Two course assignments (one piece of written work and one 15-minute presentation) (15% of final degree)

One Research Project (maximum 7000 words) (15% of final degree)

20+ Specialist options (choose 6 to 8)Specialist options include two overseas field courses to Tenerife (plant diversity) and Borneo (rainforest ecology)

FOUR FINAL EXAMINATIONS (3-hour papers; 40% of final degree)

INTRODUCTORY COURSES(PRELIMS)

CORE MODULES COURSES

2 COMPULSORY MODULES6 LECTURE COURSES

(ATTEND 80%+)(+6 PRACTICAL COURSES)

(ATTEND 50%+)

SPECIALIST OPTIONSPROJECT &

ASSIGNMENTS

THIR

D Y

EAR

FIRS

T YE

AR

SECO

ND

YEA

R

THREE EXAMINATIONS (3-hour papers; 30% of final degree)

THREE PRELIMINARY EXAMINATIONS (Not Quantitative Methods)

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