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Hello, I’m currently considering applying to study biomedical science for 2021 entry. I’m particularly interested in this field of study and have some somewhat relevant experience(ie experience in a veterinary pathology lab, hospital experience in a lab) but I’m a little concerned about the future job prospects. At the moment I’m not completely sure what I’d like to do long term but it seemed biomed kept the door open to things like GEM and further potential study. However, there seems to be a lot of disconcerting posts on TSR saying biomed is a waste of time and offers poor employability at the end of it?! I don’t have much interest in an IBMS accredited degree as the NHS biomedical science route seems a little too rigid for me so I’d be more likely looking at a RG uni without this accreditation. Given this does biomed offer any end job prospects in any relevant field? Thanks
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#2
(Original post by anaindiemood)
Hello, I’m currently considering applying to study biomedical science for 2021 entry. I’m particularly interested in this field of study and have some somewhat relevant experience(ie experience in a veterinary pathology lab, hospital experience in a lab) but I’m a little concerned about the future job prospects. At the moment I’m not completely sure what I’d like to do long term but it seemed biomed kept the door open to things like GEM and further potential study. However, there seems to be a lot of disconcerting posts on TSR saying biomed is a waste of time and offers poor employability at the end of it?! I don’t have much interest in an IBMS accredited degree as the NHS biomedical science route seems a little too rigid for me so I’d be more likely looking at a RG uni without this accreditation. Given this does biomed offer any end job prospects in any relevant field? Thanks
Hello, I’m currently considering applying to study biomedical science for 2021 entry. I’m particularly interested in this field of study and have some somewhat relevant experience(ie experience in a veterinary pathology lab, hospital experience in a lab) but I’m a little concerned about the future job prospects. At the moment I’m not completely sure what I’d like to do long term but it seemed biomed kept the door open to things like GEM and further potential study. However, there seems to be a lot of disconcerting posts on TSR saying biomed is a waste of time and offers poor employability at the end of it?! I don’t have much interest in an IBMS accredited degree as the NHS biomedical science route seems a little too rigid for me so I’d be more likely looking at a RG uni without this accreditation. Given this does biomed offer any end job prospects in any relevant field? Thanks
It's important for you to decide on the end goal before choosing the degree. The career you decide on may need a specific type of science degree with certain modules.
Doing a degree when you don't need to is very costly when you consider the student debt
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#3
(Original post by Dentalmentoruk)
Biomed will keep your options open. You can get into teaching, working in a lab, a graduate scheme, medicine or you can get into dentistry like I did.
It's important for you to decide on the end goal before choosing the degree. The career you decide on may need a specific type of science degree with certain modules.
Doing a degree when you don't need to is very costly when you consider the student debt
Biomed will keep your options open. You can get into teaching, working in a lab, a graduate scheme, medicine or you can get into dentistry like I did.
It's important for you to decide on the end goal before choosing the degree. The career you decide on may need a specific type of science degree with certain modules.
Doing a degree when you don't need to is very costly when you consider the student debt
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#4
(Original post by stephsmhb)
Hi! How did you get into dentistry from biomed. I always assumed you had to do a degree in dentistry
Hi! How did you get into dentistry from biomed. I always assumed you had to do a degree in dentistry
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#5
Biomed is an amazing course!
If you want to work in an NHS lab as a biomedical scientist you need to be on an accredited course, which tend to not have as much choice in modules and have lots of coursework and placement years.
I do a non accredited degree at a Russel group uni and I enjoy it so much. I have so many options in terms of what I study, and had the opportunity to choose either a specialised route, like pharmacology or microbiology, or a broader one with lots of different modules.
In terms of jobs, there's so many options. I am personally really into healthcare so I'm interested in NHS graduate schemes for both management and scientist training.
But STEM graduates are so sought after, you can more or less get into any career with a bit of luck and hard work!
If you want to work in an NHS lab as a biomedical scientist you need to be on an accredited course, which tend to not have as much choice in modules and have lots of coursework and placement years.
I do a non accredited degree at a Russel group uni and I enjoy it so much. I have so many options in terms of what I study, and had the opportunity to choose either a specialised route, like pharmacology or microbiology, or a broader one with lots of different modules.
In terms of jobs, there's so many options. I am personally really into healthcare so I'm interested in NHS graduate schemes for both management and scientist training.
But STEM graduates are so sought after, you can more or less get into any career with a bit of luck and hard work!
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#6
You can go into GEM with any degree potentially, and certainly any STEM degree or bioscience degree will open the vast majority of options (or indeed all of them for a general bioscience degree). Also if your aim is to work in medicine then your better bet is to do what you can to apply to standard entry medicine in the first place, as GEM is much more competitive than standard entry medicine, and there are a lot of financial implications of going to study medicine as a graduate (either through GEM or on a standard entry course as a grad).
If you do not pursue an IBMS accredited degree then you can more or less write off working in the NHS as a biomedical scientist full stop. They will only accredit your degree after the fact if it conforms to the IBMS accredited content anyway, and if you are missing any content you need to take expensive top up modules with the IBMS to bridge that gap. There is also the risk they will simply turn around and say your degree is too different and you need to get a new degree.
Beyond that, to work as a BMS in the NHS you need to be registered with the HCPC, which requires the completion of a professional portfolio completed in an approved NHS pathology lab. The only degrees which guarantee placements which allow you to complete this portfolio before graduating are the Healthcare Sciences (Life Sciences) degrees that are part of the NHS Practitioner Training Programme. However many of these are no longer recruiting as the shift has been to offering degree apprenticeships to existing NHS staff in these labs instead.
The alternatives are to do a sandwich placement in such a lab, however these are very competitive and only offered by some IBMS accredited courses (and you still need to apply in open competition for these placements), or if you have an IBMS degree, working as an MLA (starting at Band 2 if you do not have any prior NHS experience) in an approved lab and then being granted permission to work on the professional portfolio for HCPC registration alongside your job.
For "further study" generally (i.e. not medicine) most bioscience degrees that could be categorized as "biomolecular" will let you pursue masters or PhD projects in aspects of biomedical research/science. So BMS is no better or worse than e.g. genetics, physiology, anatomy, biochemistry, pharmacology, etc.
If you do not pursue an IBMS accredited degree then you can more or less write off working in the NHS as a biomedical scientist full stop. They will only accredit your degree after the fact if it conforms to the IBMS accredited content anyway, and if you are missing any content you need to take expensive top up modules with the IBMS to bridge that gap. There is also the risk they will simply turn around and say your degree is too different and you need to get a new degree.
Beyond that, to work as a BMS in the NHS you need to be registered with the HCPC, which requires the completion of a professional portfolio completed in an approved NHS pathology lab. The only degrees which guarantee placements which allow you to complete this portfolio before graduating are the Healthcare Sciences (Life Sciences) degrees that are part of the NHS Practitioner Training Programme. However many of these are no longer recruiting as the shift has been to offering degree apprenticeships to existing NHS staff in these labs instead.
The alternatives are to do a sandwich placement in such a lab, however these are very competitive and only offered by some IBMS accredited courses (and you still need to apply in open competition for these placements), or if you have an IBMS degree, working as an MLA (starting at Band 2 if you do not have any prior NHS experience) in an approved lab and then being granted permission to work on the professional portfolio for HCPC registration alongside your job.
For "further study" generally (i.e. not medicine) most bioscience degrees that could be categorized as "biomolecular" will let you pursue masters or PhD projects in aspects of biomedical research/science. So BMS is no better or worse than e.g. genetics, physiology, anatomy, biochemistry, pharmacology, etc.
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#7
(Original post by artful_lounger)
You can go into GEM with any degree potentially, and certainly any STEM degree or bioscience degree will open the vast majority of options (or indeed all of them for a general bioscience degree). Also if your aim is to work in medicine then your better bet is to do what you can to apply to standard entry medicine in the first place, as GEM is much more competitive than standard entry medicine, and there are a lot of financial implications of going to study medicine as a graduate (either through GEM or on a standard entry course as a grad).
If you do not pursue an IBMS accredited degree then you can more or less write off working in the NHS as a biomedical scientist full stop. They will only accredit your degree after the fact if it conforms to the IBMS accredited content anyway, and if you are missing any content you need to take expensive top up modules with the IBMS to bridge that gap. There is also the risk they will simply turn around and say your degree is too different and you need to get a new degree.
Beyond that, to work as a BMS in the NHS you need to be registered with the HCPC, which requires the completion of a professional portfolio completed in an approved NHS pathology lab. The only degrees which guarantee placements which allow you to complete this portfolio before graduating are the Healthcare Sciences (Life Sciences) degrees that are part of the NHS Practitioner Training Programme. However many of these are no longer recruiting as the shift has been to offering degree apprenticeships to existing NHS staff in these labs instead.
The alternatives are to do a sandwich placement in such a lab, however these are very competitive and only offered by some IBMS accredited courses (and you still need to apply in open competition for these placements), or if you have an IBMS degree, working as an MLA (starting at Band 2 if you do not have any prior NHS experience) in an approved lab and then being granted permission to work on the professional portfolio for HCPC registration alongside your job.
For "further study" generally (i.e. not medicine) most bioscience degrees that could be categorized as "biomolecular" will let you pursue masters or PhD projects in aspects of biomedical research/science. So BMS is no better or worse than e.g. genetics, physiology, anatomy, biochemistry, pharmacology, etc.
You can go into GEM with any degree potentially, and certainly any STEM degree or bioscience degree will open the vast majority of options (or indeed all of them for a general bioscience degree). Also if your aim is to work in medicine then your better bet is to do what you can to apply to standard entry medicine in the first place, as GEM is much more competitive than standard entry medicine, and there are a lot of financial implications of going to study medicine as a graduate (either through GEM or on a standard entry course as a grad).
If you do not pursue an IBMS accredited degree then you can more or less write off working in the NHS as a biomedical scientist full stop. They will only accredit your degree after the fact if it conforms to the IBMS accredited content anyway, and if you are missing any content you need to take expensive top up modules with the IBMS to bridge that gap. There is also the risk they will simply turn around and say your degree is too different and you need to get a new degree.
Beyond that, to work as a BMS in the NHS you need to be registered with the HCPC, which requires the completion of a professional portfolio completed in an approved NHS pathology lab. The only degrees which guarantee placements which allow you to complete this portfolio before graduating are the Healthcare Sciences (Life Sciences) degrees that are part of the NHS Practitioner Training Programme. However many of these are no longer recruiting as the shift has been to offering degree apprenticeships to existing NHS staff in these labs instead.
The alternatives are to do a sandwich placement in such a lab, however these are very competitive and only offered by some IBMS accredited courses (and you still need to apply in open competition for these placements), or if you have an IBMS degree, working as an MLA (starting at Band 2 if you do not have any prior NHS experience) in an approved lab and then being granted permission to work on the professional portfolio for HCPC registration alongside your job.
For "further study" generally (i.e. not medicine) most bioscience degrees that could be categorized as "biomolecular" will let you pursue masters or PhD projects in aspects of biomedical research/science. So BMS is no better or worse than e.g. genetics, physiology, anatomy, biochemistry, pharmacology, etc.
There are a few that no longer offer it but I there was always some stopping, usually replaced by some new ones. It seems some providers are taking a different angle on offering it. https://www.sunderland.ac.uk/help/st...care-sciences/
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#8
(Original post by RegisteredBMS)
When I graduated and became a BMS they had been pushing Healthcare Science (Life Science) part-time for 2 years, which is the apprenticeship style program. There was no intention to wind down the full-time version as far as I was aware, and that bit of information is something of a surprise to me. I'm just having a look and I can see the below Universities are still offering it full-time (there was never loads).
There are a few that no longer offer it but I there was always some stopping, usually replaced by some new ones. It seems some providers are taking a different angle on offering it. https://www.sunderland.ac.uk/help/st...care-sciences/
When I graduated and became a BMS they had been pushing Healthcare Science (Life Science) part-time for 2 years, which is the apprenticeship style program. There was no intention to wind down the full-time version as far as I was aware, and that bit of information is something of a surprise to me. I'm just having a look and I can see the below Universities are still offering it full-time (there was never loads).
There are a few that no longer offer it but I there was always some stopping, usually replaced by some new ones. It seems some providers are taking a different angle on offering it. https://www.sunderland.ac.uk/help/st...care-sciences/
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#9
(Original post by artful_lounger)
Perhaps it was simply there were never that many; a lot of the ones I checked up on from the PTP website were no longer accepting applicants and had transformed their programmes into either degree apprenticeships for those already employed in the NHS, or "tracks" within an existing non HCPC registering course, where those with good grades could apply competitively to swap to the course with a sandwich placement in an appropriate lab which would give them HCPC registration.
Perhaps it was simply there were never that many; a lot of the ones I checked up on from the PTP website were no longer accepting applicants and had transformed their programmes into either degree apprenticeships for those already employed in the NHS, or "tracks" within an existing non HCPC registering course, where those with good grades could apply competitively to swap to the course with a sandwich placement in an appropriate lab which would give them HCPC registration.
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#10
I am an international student from Hong Kong and I really want to be a biomedical scientist in hospital. I found it is very frustrating that UK has so many biomedical science programmes (both IBMs accredited and non accredited) but no one will lead to professional registration directly. If I choose biomedical science, I would need to do a one year placement which make it four years to get registered. If I can't complete the portfolio, then I will end up to a more competitive path which is looking for a trainee position.I personally much prefer healthcare science because it is career oriented and integrated with placement. It's mean I could be become BMS in three years. But the problem is only UCLan and Sunderland accept international student and I need to apply for biomedical science first and then compete for the healthcare science path. My concern is if I am unfortunately not selected into the healthcare science path, then I would end up to the biomedical science path above. And the worst scenario is go for MLA and wait for trainee opportunity. However, I think both universities mentioned are not in good ranking and I afraid that I might be rejected right after CV scanning given that there are so many candidates graduated from many relatively reputable universities.
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#11
Tbh I started one and didn't like it and quit. If you like biology by all means go for it. But it's just like any degree as long as you get experience it's good.
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