Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Biological Sciences

at University of Westminster - Cavendish Campus United Kingdom

Our Psychology and Counselling BSc Honours is accredited by the British Psychological Society. It provides you with a broad contemporary education in psychology and counselling within a vibrant, global learning environment situated in the heart of London.

Our course team includes qualified and practising counsellors and psychotherapists who are passionate about sharing their experience, knowledge and skills of therapy.

Our programme of study has been designed to meet the requirements for the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC) of the British Psychological Society. This aspect will prepare you for postgraduate training on the path to becoming a Chartered Psychologist.

In addition to psychology, you’ll study counselling and psychotherapeutic theories and approaches, and you’ll have the opportunity to develop practical skills such as active listening and effective questioning. Our course is also designed to help you to think creatively and critically, developing the problem-solving skills that will enable you to apply psychology and counselling to address a wide range of personal, professional and societal needs.

Top reasons to study with us

• Development of practical skills and reflective practice – you’ll be able to practise skills such as active listening, reflecting, paraphrasing, and summarising
• Professionally trained course team – you’ll be taught by staff who are qualified and practising psychologists, psychotherapists and counsellors
• Work experience opportunities – you’ll be able to choose work experience from a wide range of settings, and you have the option to undertake a professional work placement year

Improved global life expectancy has resulted in a cancer epidemic. It is well recognised that accurate early diagnosis is an essential aspect of the administration of increasingly expensive and tailored cancer treatment care plans.

The Biomedical Sciences (Cancer Biology) MSc programme has been devised to provide knowledge of key aspects of this increasingly important disease area.

You will become familiar with the genetic and cellular changes occurring in both solid and blood-borne cancers, the current and emerging technological approaches for diagnosis of the disease and the effect on pertinent cellular changes on patient prognosis. Studies on populations and the influence of genotypic variation will ensure that you are qualified to make sense of cancer statistics.

You are able to tailor your programme by selecting from a menu of option modules and pursuing a research project in an area ranging from molecular through to cellular or tissue-based aspects of cancer.

During the course you will join our thriving research environment and will have access to excellent laboratory facilities within the School. On successful completion of the course you will be equipped to take forward your career with an in-depth knowledge of this increasingly common disease area.

This course aims to provide you with the skills and knowledge of theory and practice that will enable you to work as a professional capable of making important contributions in the field of clinical biochemistry. The course aims to further enhance your knowledge of clinical biochemistry, to engage you with contemporary issues and debates within the discipline, and to develop your critical and analytical skills.

The taught programme contains specific modules in clinical biochemistry, such as endocrinology and metabolism and diagnostic clinical biochemistry, which you can apply to diagnostic biomedicine, as well as offering you a choice of modules related to molecular diagnostics or haematology.

Our Computer Science BSc will give you the computing skills and knowledge to help shape the future of businesses and organisations.

A key benefit of our course is its flexibility. You'll be able to build a customised route within computer science, following a pathway in one of several computing areas to suit your interests. You'll develop a wide range of skills and knowledge in areas such as creative computing, information systems, graphics and games development, mobile and web computing, software engineering, design and development, software security, and artificial intelligence.

You'll use industrial tools and techniques throughout our course and graduate well versed in all aspects of the software lifecycle. You'll have the chance to apply your new knowledge and skills to real-world problems, usually in the form of a small-scale project set by an external organisation. As well as the technical skills you'll develop as part of this project, and you'll build vital transferable skills around the areas of commercial awareness, leadership and organisation.

Top reasons to study with us

• Choose your own path – Our flexible course allows you to study the areas of computing you are most interested in, while still getting a broad education in computing
• Get real-life work experience – Increase your employability and put your problem-solving skills into practice by completing a year in industry during your course. Past destinations for our students include: Apple, AppNexus, Bromley Healthcare CIC, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, PGIM, ServiceNow, Sony, SR Group
• Prepare for your career – Career prospects for computer science students are excellent, and our degree will prepare you for graduate roles such as computer programmer, web developer, junior specialist developer, and software developer
• Start your journey as an IT professional – Our course is intended to fulfil the requirements of the British Computer Society (BCS), which means it complies with rigorous academic and professional standards as set out by the BCS. It also allows graduates to gain registration as a Chartered IT Professional (CITP) and partial registration as a Chartered Engineer (CEng)

Recent technological advances decreasing hardware costs and the ‘Internet of things’ has led to a rapid explosion in the amount of data generated in a variety of domains, including data-driven science, telecommunications, social media, large-scale e-commerce, medical records and e-health. Big data refers to the ability of exploiting these massive amounts of extremely heterogeneous in structure and content data that are routinely generated at an unprecedented scale from an ever-expanding variety of data sources. Business and industry used their big data to extract a better understanding of customers’ needs and behaviour, to develop targeted new products and to cut operational costs. The competitive advantages and productivity gains that big data brought led to a great number of a big data projects and a shortage of people with the required skills.

This course is aimed at people who want to move into this rapidly expanding and exciting area; it has a strong vocational flavour as it has been designed to build your knowledge and understanding of big data systems architectures and to equip you with the range of highly marketable, hands-on skills employed by the core technologies utilised in big data projects.

Biomedical science is concerned with the detailed study of the human body, both in health and disease, with emphasis on the diagnosis and understanding of disease states and the mechanisms involved.

In Year 1 you'll study the important fundamental sciences, including biochemistry, cell and molecular biology, and human anatomy and physiology.

In Year 2 you'll develop your understanding of a wide range of disease processes, combined with the principles of laboratory procedures used to aid diagnosis and treatment.

Between Years 2 and 3, the sandwich placement is an excellent opportunity to experience the reality of work, usually in a biomedical diagnostics laboratory, pharmaceutical industry or a research institute. You will put into practice what you have learned at the University, learn new skills and gain hands-on laboratory experience. All placement opportunities are competitive and you will have the support and guidance of your department, the Career Development Centre and the University’s Placement Officer.

As part of the placement year you will undertake an academic module which will contribute to your degree and, where applicable, undertake the Institute of Biomedical Science Certificate of Competence. Sandwich year placements can be in the UK or abroad. 

In Year 3 you'll focus on the study of the complex nature of disease as it affects particular biological systems. You'll also study the laboratory procedures used in haematology, clinical immunology, cellular and molecular pathology, clinical biochemistry and medical microbiology, to diagnose and monitor disease. You'll also undertake a major research project, which will enable you to develop the skills you need for genuine scientific inquiry.

Smart computer system engineering is a growing market in today’s computer industry. Embedded systems have become widespread and can be found in almost all modern consumer devices, from washing machines to cars and robots. Computer system technologies are becoming smart and expanding even further to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet-of-Things (IoT) connectivity. You’ll study all of these topics throughout our course.

Our Smart Computer Systems BEng is designed around three themes: software/hardware programming, wireless networking and smart technologies. You’ll be exposed to many programming opportunities for a multitude of platforms and operating systems, and acquire an excellent knowledge of networking and client/server programming leading to the latest developments of the Internet of Things ecosystems, security and smart technologies such as smart sensors, robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Our course aims to provide an exciting, enjoyable and rewarding learning experience, which will serve as a solid foundation for a successful professional engineering career and meet the current demand from employers.

Top reasons to study with us

• Expert-led workshops will help you develop in-demand skills
• An exciting, enjoyable and rewarding learning experience in the heart of London
• Our course will prepare you to be resilient and adaptable to changes that engineering and technology bring
• You'll qualify for free British Computer Society (BCS) academic membership for the duration of your studies. The BCS supports those working in the IT industry and has a commitment to making IT good for society. The organisation has over 60,000 members in 150 countries, and a wider community of business leaders, educators, practitioners and policy-makers. Membership of the BCS will allow you to continue your professional development and enjoy a range of valuable networking opportunities.

Good health and wellbeing are increasingly becoming a focus for governments, policy makers and researchers, as we face diverse and multifaceted challenges in the 21st century. At the same time, a growth in salutogenic approaches has led to the potential for more integrative, diverse and holistic approaches being adopted. Careers in health and wellbeing are growth areas in our economy.

On our course, you’ll evaluate the modern health and social care challenges through a multidisciplinary lens and explore interdisciplinary, systemic and community-engaged solutions.

It is imperative that health and wellbeing policies and practices, founded on evidence-based research, are developed to grow and support health and wellbeing in ways that are fit for purpose and sustainable. Our course has a strong focus on the application of research and evaluation methods to critique the health and wellbeing practices available for individuals, communities and societies.

You’ll be introduced to a broad and diverse range of concepts, including the impact of social prescribing and wellbeing of individuals and communities, global approaches to health and wellbeing, policy development in health and wellbeing in the UK, and professional relationships and leadership in the sector. You’ll be encouraged to explore and generate transformative solutions to resolve challenges and develop critical responses to existing practice in these areas.

Software engineering is the application of engineering methods, practices and disciplines to the creation and maintenance of software applications and systems. A professional software engineer works with these engineering approaches to develop software in a systematic, quantifiable and disciplined way.

By choosing this course, you’ll get the essential practical experience of programming and applying software engineering to a number of new and important areas of IT and computing. In addition, you’ll develop a strong grasp of the theory that underpins these practical skills.

To ensure that you have the best possible employment prospects at the end of the course, you’ll gain skills that cover a variety of areas: technical skills, such as programming, object-oriented software development, practical experience of software development tools; soft skills, such as analytical and critical thinking, communication, presenting and demonstrating, team working, and peer reviewing; and career skills, such as CV writing, planning, job searching, interview practice.

Pharmacology and physiology are two closely related disciplines. Pharmacology is the study of drug action and how medicines may modify disease states. Physiology is concerned with how the body and its systems are controlled, and in the changes that lead to disease states (pathophysiology).

This course will provide you with a sound understanding of the biological action of drugs and other biomolecules at the whole-body, tissue, cellular and sub-cellular levels, and their uses as medicines for the treatment of disease. It provides an ideal grounding for a career in the pharmaceutical industry or other areas of biomedical research, academia, the Scientific Civil Service and healthcare provision.

Opportunities exist for you to enhance your practical and related transferable skills within our research laboratories. Teaching is informed by high-quality research in relevant cognate areas, within the department.

Top reasons to study with us

• Build a successful career – this course will give you the knowledge and skills for a career in the pharmaceutical industry or other areas of biomedical research
• Make the most of our facilities – develop your skills in our fully equipped laboratories, and benefit from our APOLLO Patient Care Simulator platform
• Learn from our expert teaching staff – teaching is informed by high-quality research, delivering the forefront of current and cutting-edge science to students