King's College London

In 2022, a review was undertaken to better align the teaching of bioscience programmes, particularly the BSc Biomedical Science programme, to research within the University’s Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine. As a result of this, from the start of this academic year, students studying BSc Biomedical Science will choose from six new study themes. The new themes, which align with research within the Faculty and beyond, will provide students with a more cohesive programme of study, flexibility with their module choices and enhance research-informed teaching.

The new themes are:

1. Bioscience Beyond the Bench (aligned with the Centre for Education and led by Dr Kosha Mehta). This theme aims to provide skills that are important for researchers to have but are less focused on laboratory research, such as science communication and bioinformatics.
2. Cardiovascular & Metabolic Sciences (aligned with the School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine & Sciences and led by Dr Tim Pullen)
3. Cancer Sciences (aligned with the School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences and led by Dr Gilbert Fruhwirth)
4. Health & Disease in the Life Course (aligned with the School of Life Course & Population Sciences and led by Dr Victor Turcanu)
5. Immunology & Infectious Disease (aligned with the School of Immunology & Microbial Sciences and led by Dr Linda Barber)
6. Neuropharmacology (aligned with the Wolfson Sensory, Pain and Regeneration Centre/Centre for Developmental Neurobiology and led by Dr Anna Andreou)

Each theme is led by an academic from one of the research schools. The Theme Lead will oversee the academic aspect of the theme as well as organise theme-specific events.

“We are extremely excited to launch the new themes for our Biomedical Science students. This will allow our students to have a more coherent programme of studies whilst still maintaining the breadth of choice which is a very attractive feature of the programme. It also allows us to align with the Schools in the Faculty to enhance our research-informed teaching. Obviously this has involved a large number of people - a true collaboration between academics and professional services. I would particularly like to thank Esther Bell for her enthusiasm and perseverance in bringing this to fruition,” said Professor Helen Collins, Dean of Bioscience Education.

Each theme has 45 credits of compulsory, theme-specific modules in years two and three and 45 credits of complementary modules that can be chosen from a limited selection of Bioscience modules. For the remaining 30 credits, students have the freedom to choose from the entire Bioscience cohort of modules or from modules run by other King’s faculties. This flexibility is a key attraction of the programme and means that students can incorporate different disciplines within their degree.

A student who has chosen the Neuropharmaology theme said: “I picked the theme Neuropharmacology because it combines some key themes of my favourite CYO [common year one] modules which were Pharmacology, Cell Biology and Neuroscience and Physiology. I am especially looking forward to exploring the Psychology module in semester B as I believe this will grant me a holistic appreciation of the nature of the brain (and mind) and, paired with my other modules, challenge my critical thinking skills for my future career endeavours.”