Healthcare Science (Life Sciences) at Plymouth University

Hi everyone,

I am a third year Life Sciences students at Plymouth University. If you have any questions about the course (or uni life in general), please feel free to ask on this thread!

Tara x

Reply 1

lol0711

Heyyy, I'm going to Plymouth very soon... how are the school and accommodation? and what activities or club should i join?

Thanks :wink:

University of Plymouth

Plymouth

Visit website

Reply 2

Tara Edwards

Original post by lol0711

Heyyy, I'm going to Plymouth very soon... how are the school and accommodation? and what activities or club should i join?

Thanks :wink:

Hey!

The uni is fantastic - are you going to be studying life sciences? The accommodation is great as most are located very close to the university. Will you be staying in halls of residence? If you haven't booked yours yet, this link from the Plymouth University website may be helpful for you... https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/student-life/services/accommodation/halls .

During freshers week you'll have the chance to find out about all the societies or sports clubs you can join - join whichever ones interest you the most! I would recommend joining one or two. There's a list of the different groups on the Plymouth university freshers week website :smile:

Reply 3

lol0711

Thanks a lot!! I have already booked the accommodation!!
But what can I do if I can't attend the freshers week? cause I am an oversea student and I have trouble on making a visa.... :frown:

And what will the first week be like?

Reply 4

Tara Edwards

Original post by lol0711

Thanks a lot!! I have already booked the accommodation!!
But what can I do if I can't attend the freshers week? cause I am an oversea student and I have trouble on making a visa.... :frown:

And what will the first week be like?

Don't worry if you can't attend freshers week - you can sign up to societies later on! The university website has a societies section which have the email addresses of people you can email if you want to join one of the clubs :bigsmile:

The first week of lectures is exciting - you meet your course mates and lecturers and you will be told about what to expect in your classes. You will probably have a library tour and shown the different facilities you can use on campus.

Reply 5

jamiejay

Hey Tara, I should be starting Life Sciences this year.
How demanding did you find the course, in regards to placements on top of uni work?
What pathway did you specialise in? And also, have you managed to secure a job at the hospital you did your placements?
Thanks.

Reply 6

Tara Edwards

Original post by jamiejay

Hey!
Yay so glad to hear from a new Life Sciences student!
The course is quite demanding - especially compared to a lot of other courses - you will probably have lectures most days but I had plenty of free periods/random afternoons off here and there when I was in first year to get on with uni work/have some free time. I have managed to keep on top of my uni work over the last 2 years even with a part time job and being a student ambassador so, although the course is demanding, you are still able to get on with other things (obviously it depends on a person's time management skills).

With regards to placement, in years 1 & 2 placement is over the summer holidays but you will need to complete a portfolio during this time (don't worry about that yet - you're personal tutor will go through this with you). Your lecturers won't give you any additional uni work over placement so you can focus on the portfolio.

I'm specialising in Blood Sciences! You won't be guaranteed a job in the hospital trust you complete placement with unfortunately, but I do know of a few students who were offered a job as they were finishing their third year. It just depends whether there are any jobs going in the department at the time.

Hope you are enjoying freshers week (I recommend joining the Biomed society)! Hopefully this has helped you and if you have any further questions please feel free to ask!

See you in Uni,

Tara

Reply 7

anonygirl102

Original post by Tara Edwards

Hi everyone,

I am a third year Life Sciences students at Plymouth University. If you have any questions about the course (or uni life in general), please feel free to ask on this thread!

Tara x

Hi,

I am looking into studying Healthcare Science (Life Sciences) next year, and am considering Plymouth Uni as an option.

What would you say the course is like, is it well structured, is there a lot of hours in Uni per week, what's the balance between practical lab work and lectures? Did you have an interview for your course, and if so, what did it entail?

Is it a nice place to live?

I'm not really sure what else to ask other than what's the nature of the course like, if this makes sense?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Reply 8

Georgia_6595

Original post by anonygirl102

Hi,

I don't study life sciences (I study physiological sciences), so I may not be able to help answer all of your questions regarding the course structure unfortunately. However, I can say that living in Plymouth and general uni life here is great. There are tonnes of societies and clubs to chose from and when you want to take a break from studying you can wander on down to the hoe or barbican and chill by the water.

The course structure generally for Healthcare Sciences is that you have your more academic learning at uni, then go out onto Placement. So in first year, the course content will be quite broad (I think you do the same modules as biomed), then you go out onto a 10 week placement in the hospital labs once your exams are finished. Which means in the first year you start your placement beginning of June and finish placement around mid August time, so you do still get a summer.

From my personal experience I would say that placement is the more enjoyable aspect of the year as everything you learnt throughout the year starts to click and is put into action; you get to see what career pathways/ jobs you can go onto to when you graduate, which is quite nice.

I hope I have been of some help. If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask. :smile:

Best wishes,

G

Reply 9

Tara Edwards

Original post by anonygirl102

Hi!

The course is well structured - it is quite intense with the integrated placements (definitely worth it though), so you need to be able to balance your time well. You'll be in uni quite a lot - it's definitely not one of those one-day-a-week courses, however there is still opportunity in the week for you to get on with assessed work/further reading/revision/FREE TIME so don't worry about that.

The balance of lectures and lab work is really good - even some of your assessments are based on lab work. At the start of the year the lecturers were really good at making sure everybody's lab skills/knowledge was up to the same level which was really nice. Also with the total of 50 weeks placement in clinical laboratories you gain amazing experience and this really pays off when you are doing lab work at uni.

Below I've written a brief outline of the course so you can have an idea of the volume of work you will need to do.

First year - Consists of 7 modules, one of them being your professional/placement module. The modules cover a wide range of topics including immunology, metabolism, disease etc (these will give you an introduction and basic knowledge of science underpinning disease diagnostics, evaluation and treatment). You'll also be introduced to the healthcare science profession.
You'll be assessed via examinations, course work and laboratory work.
Your first year placement is 10 weeks long in a clinical laboratory in one of the chosen trusts in Devon/Cornwall. During placement you'll rotate around the blood lab, cell path lab and microbiology lab to get a flavour for the different disciplines and you will have to complete some key learning outcomes from your portfolio. Your placement usually ends around mid August but dates will be confirmed.

Year 2 - By the start of year 2 you will need to confirm which discipline you would like to specialise in (blood, cell path, microbiology). This specialism will determine which optional module you undertake and the lab in which you will complete your second year placement. It's quite exciting because you start developing the specialist skills you need for your future career!
Second year consists of 6 modules. These modules will be more in depth, as expected in second year.
Placement is 15 weeks in your chosen discipline and you will have to complete more of your portfolio and write/present a case based discussion to your placement mentor (it sounds scary but please don't worry about this!). Again, placement is over the summer holiday and finishes around mid-September.

Third Year - The majority of third year is on placement which is fantastic for professional experience! It's 25 weeks long starting from January. During this time you will carry out your research project (dissertation) and complete the rest of your portfolio, complete a second portfolio and carry out an assessed lab tour. During term 1 you will have four 30 credit modules to complete.

I know there is a lot of information to digest there so if you have any further questions about the course structure please feel free to ask!
This link takes you to the uni website where there is more information on the course structure, entry requirements etc etc -
https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/bsc-healthcare-science-life-sciences

I did have an interview for the course - as I went through clearing it was done over the phone and was probably structured slightly differently, but I'm sure the 'normal' interviews are similar. I can't fully remember what was asked but it included questions like; why do you want to do the course? Are you aware of the course structure? What are your future career plans? Are you okay with completing placement over summer? They also asked me questions about my personal statement - they asked me to talk a lot about my work/scientific experience etc.

I hope this has been helpful! If you have any more questions or if I've left anything out then please message me back!

Good luck with your uni applications and with your current studies!

Tara :smile:

Reply 10