University of Bath teaching

Can any current students give a breakdown of first year teaching( ideally for biology, chemistry and pharmacology).
How many contact hrs roughly do/did you have, how common are tutorials and practicals and are the lectures recorded?

Hi there,

I am a current Natural Sciences (biology major, pharmacology minor plus chemistry), so hopefully I can help.
Biology
Biology is mostly lectures, along with some seminars, workshops and tutorials. There aren't a huge amount of labs in biology, but enough. If you look at the unit catalogue for Biology here, you can click on each module and it will show you the exact percentage of coursework, labs, exams etc and an outline of how you are taught. There is also some more info on how you are taught midway down this page.
Chemistry
Chemistry is a fair amount of lectures, with workshops built into these lecture sessions. You'll also have weekly tutorials (at least, that's how it is currently but this may change by year). On top of that, there's lab sessions usually around 3-6 hours either all in one day, or split over 2 days. If you finish early, you can leave earlier than the timetabled finishing time. Chemistry students also have computational chemistry labs in 2nd year onwards. Likewise, you can find more detailed information about the teaching split in the unit catalogue here, and here on the course webpage.
Pharmacology
Pharmacology is pretty similar to biology in that it is mostly lectures and the occasional workshop, seminar and tutorial. There are more labs in pharmacology than biology, but not as much as chemistry. Again, you can see detailed information in the unit catalogue and on the course webpage.

Biology and pharmacology don't have a huge amount of labs in first year, but you do more labs and practical work in 2nd year upwards. You also tend to be examined mostly by exams in 1st year (but, your first year grades don't count towards your final degree grade), but this shift to be spread more between exams, coursework, presentations and group projects in 2nd year onwards.

All in all, the unit catalogues are the best place to look to get an idea of how you are taught and examined

I hope this has helped,
Jessica, a third year NatSci student

How big are the tutorials in terms of people to tutor?