Biological Sciences with Placement Year

Choose what you study from a range of bioscience topics to build a degree that matches your interests. Then spend a year on a work placement, putting what you've learnt into practice, and testing out a career you're considering.

Why study this course?

• Top 100 in the world for life sciences (THE World University Rankings by Subject 2025)

• Close links with the NHS: Complete research on cancer and ageing in partnership with the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals.

• Build connections and a career: Our students secure placements with organisations including GSK, P&G, Middlemarch Environmental, Paraxel Statistical Programming, Kew Gardens and Sydney Environmental Group.

Our four-year BSc Biological Sciences with Placement Year course offers you the flexibility to discover what kind of biologist you want to be. You'll then apply what you've learnt and gain real-world experience during a year-long placement as a recognised part of your degree.

You'll start by studying a broad foundation in biological science. This will allow you to explore the subject and discover what excites you most. You can then choose to focus on areas including biodiversity and conservation, the anatomy or biochemistry of plants and animals, or the molecular basis of human health.

At Sheffield, you’ll be encouraged to be creative, think independently and express your ideas. Depending on what modules you choose, you could be carrying out fieldwork in the Peak District, studying life at the atomic level, modelling the gene networks that resulted in speciation, or even working with scientists from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to diagnose cancer samples.

No matter what areas of biological science you choose to study at Sheffield, you'll develop practical laboratory and transferable skills - such as project management, problem-solving, communication skills and data analysis - that make our graduates attractive to employers.

Your placement year will give you the chance to test out a career path that you're considering. This will take place in year three. Our students have found placements in science and non-science-based roles with a range of organisations including GSK, P&G, Kew Gardens and Sydney Environmental Group. Some students have even been offered graduate-level jobs at the end of their placement.

All this experience will prepare you for your final-year research project where you could be laboratory-based, field-based, focus on computer modelling, or even science communication.