• Question: how long is a course of science in university ?

    Asked by shaunthesheep to David, James, Mike, Suze, Will on 21 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Mike Dodd

      Mike Dodd answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Heya shaunthesheep, it depends on what you would like to study. Most science courses are between 3 and 4 years. I did a 4 year course. This meant that I could go to America for a year and try out other labs. Normally if you do a 4 year course you can do a placement like me, or go and try industry out (like drugs companies). Are you thinking about science at university?

    • Photo: James Marrow

      James Marrow answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Yes, 3 or 4 years (depending on whether you want a bachelors degree or a masters degree. Then another 3 years if you do a PhD. (although it can take longer, depending on how quickly you write your thesis)

    • Photo: Suze Kundu

      Suze Kundu answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      Hi ShaunTheSheep! Lovely to hear from you again 🙂

      My personal courses were 3 years for my BSc, 1 year for my MSc, 3.5 years for my PhD (or at least, that’s what I’m paid for. Hopefully get my thesis done in that time!).

      You can do some combined courses, as Mike said, so it would vary if you were thinking of doing something like that, but generally an undergrad course to get a Batchelors degree is 3 years.

    • Photo: William Eborall

      William Eborall answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      Like Mike said you can sometimes do a 4 year version of a 3 year course with the extra year being spent working in a company. The material you learn at university is the same, but you get an extra year of experience.

    • Photo: David Ingram

      David Ingram answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      In Scotland we normally have an additional “foundation” year so undergraduate BSc and BEng courses are 4 years and MPhys, MChem, MMath, MBio and MEng programmes are 5 years.

      Students with good entry qualifications can take direct entry to the 2nd year and some students take this opportunity and some don’t.

      In the first year our students do 1/3rd of mathematics, 1/3rd of their subject and 1/3rd of anything else [I’ve had a student who did ancient greek history]

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