Zoology with Placement Year

Study animals and biodiversity at every scale. Combining a placement year with our MBiolSci course allows you to gain work experience in industry, before adding an extra year of research training back in the lab in your final year.

Why study this course?

• Top 10 in the UK for zoology (Guardian University Guide 2025)

• Get out of the classroom: You'll be learning in the lab, the Peak District, zoos, aquariums and embark on a once-in-a-lifetime field course in the UK or abroad.

• Five-year course: The ultimate kick-start to your career. Gain real-word experience with a placement year, and graduate with a masters degree.

Our five-year MBiolsci Zoology with Placement Year course is about animals, their evolution, and their interactions with each other, the environment and biodiversity conservation.

Kick-start your career by spending a year on placement, and then complete a major research project in your final year (known as an integrated masters).

You'll study microbes, invertebrates, birds, fish, mammals, and humans and learn how they evolved, how their physiology works, how they behave, and how they respond to global change. You’ll even discover how their biodiversity is maintained and lost, and use this knowledge to help us address important issues such as tropical wildlife conservation, disease outbreaks, and maintaining functioning ecosystems.

At Sheffield, you’ll be encouraged to be creative, think independently, and express your ideas. You'll be in the lab completing in-depth practicals, and studying animal anatomy and physiology in our Alfred Denny Museum of Zoology. You'll learn off campus too, carrying out fieldwork in the Peak District, visiting zoos, aquariums, and other scientific spots around the country, and embarking on a once-in-a-lifetime field course in the UK or abroad.

As you progress through your degree you’ll have the option to specialise in key areas such as biodiversity conservation, evolutionary biology, genetics or ecological modelling.

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

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, Wildlife Trusts, the Field Studies Council and the Environment Agency. Some students have even been offered graduate-level jobs at the end of their placement.

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

Your final year is designed to equip you with advanced laboratory or field research skills, ready for a rewarding career in science. You'll spend the bulk of this year focussed on a major research project in an area of zoology of your choice, and graduate with a masters degree.