Photo credits :John Baker, Sarah Binnie, Kevin Foster, Leigh Marsh (NERC ChEsSo Consortium), Ian Moore, Martin Speight

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.

www.biology.ox.ac.uk

BA/M

Biol in BIOLO

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BIOLOGY

Get in touch...For more information on applying to Oxford, please visit: www.admissions.ox.ac.uk.

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 Biology at Oxford, please do email: undergraduate.enquiries@biology.ox.ac.uk

or write to :Undergraduate Teaching Co-ordinator,Department of Plant Sciences, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3RB, UK

Telephone +44 (0)1865 281214

What qualifications will I need?Candidates are expected to have Biology to A-level, Advanced Higher, or Higher Level in the IB, or another equivalent.

For other subject requirements, specific to the year you apply to start the course, see http://www.ox.ac.uk/ugbiosci.

For A-level candidates, you will need to achieve A*AA 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/ugbiosci 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/intquals.

What’s next?

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) years of the course and act as a social hub. In Biology, 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 Biology 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.Also note that due to large numbers of applicants at certain collges, a limited amount of redistribution may be necessary, whereby applicants are allocated a different first choice to the one they apply to.

What are the tutors looking for?Our selection criteria include : Interest in, and enthusiasm for Biological Sciences • Description/discussion of a biological topic • Problem solving ability • Ability to present a reasoned argument • Demonstration of academic potential. Hence the 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 research 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, Biology 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.

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/open-days

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TERM 10

TERM 12

TERM 11

TERM 1

TERM 3

TERM 2

TERM 7

TERM 9

TERM 8

TERM 4

TERM 6

TERM 5

INTRODUCE THEMES THAT RECUR THROUGH THE COURSE, BEGIN TO TEACH SCIENTIFIC METHOF AND ESSENTIAL PRACTICAL SKILLS. DISCUSS OXFORD’S BIOLOGY RESOURCES.

COURSES ON ‘THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE’, ‘BUILDING A PHENOTYPE: FROM GENES TO INDIVIDUALS’ AND ‘EVOLUTION AND ECOLOGY’

1. GENOMES AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY2. ORGANISMS: BEHAVIOUR AND PHYSIOLOGY3. ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION4. CELL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY

A MIX OF ONE AND TWO WEEK MINI PROJECT COURSES DESIGNED TO ALLOW YOU TO DEVELOPE THE RESEARCH SKILLS YOU HAVE LEARNED. TAUGHT IN OXFORD AND BEYOND.

EIGHT SPECIALIST COURSES OFFERED THAT ALLOW SPECIALISATION AROUND EACH OF THE FOUR COURSES OFFERED IN TERMS 4 AND 5. INCREASED FOCUS ON APPLIED PROBLEMS. TRAINING IN SCIENTIFIC CRITIQUE OF PUBLISHED WORK.

ORIENTATION ‘BECOMING A SCIENTIST’ MONTH +

INTRODUCTORY COURSES

INTRODUCTORY COURSES(PRELIMS)

CORE MODULES COURSES

CHOOSE 3 OUT OF 4 COURSES

MINI PROJECTS AND EXTENSIVE SKILLS TRAINING

SPECIALIST OPTIONS: CHOOSE 4 OR MORE OUT OF 8 SPECIALIST

TWO-TERM COURSES

FINAL EXAMINATIONS (CAN DEPART WITH BA)

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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, which should increase as the course progresses.

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.

PracticalsYou will be required to perform all sorts of lab and field-based practical investigations in the first three 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 & Evolution module consists of a week-long residential field course in West Wales. Computer-based material plays an important part in many of the practicals.

How is the course structured?

Biology at Oxford ❖ Biology students can leave after their third year

with a BA or remain for a fourth year departing with an MBiol. Only those who achieve a First or Upper Second Class BA degree can choose to stay for the 4th year.

❖ The one-month orientation period is designed to help you settle into Oxford, learn the scientific method and its application to biology, to discover Oxford’s unique biological facilities such as the Natural History Museum, the Botanic Gardens, the Arboretum, the Herbarium and Wytham Woods, and to start to learn key research skills.

❖ 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 a separate skills course, 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 start to specialise. Skills-based practical courses provide training in all aspects of modern biology.

❖ At the end of the second-year students do a number of mini-research projects to learn how to conduct independent research and write up scientific reports. Overseas and UK-based field trips are offered.

❖ Eight specialist 32-hour specialist courses are offered. Students must take four of these options, but timetabling allows students to attend more than four in any combination.

❖ Those remaining for a fourth year learn how to write a scientific paper on their research project.

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.

Biology 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 Biology at Oxford?

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AN OPTIONAL 4TH YEAR FOR THOSE STUDENTS WHO ACHIEVE A 2.1 OR ABOVE IN THEIR BA EXAMS. CONDCUT A LONG RESEARCH PROJECT AND LEARN ADVANCED LAB, FIELD OR ANAYLSIS SKILLS.

OPTIONAL MBIOL YEAR, RESEARCH PROJECT. SPEACIALIST

SKILLS TRAINING (UPPER 2ND REQUIRED)

LEAVE OXFORD WITH AN MBIOL

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