What will you be doing over the Easter break? >>

Honest opinion about BSc Human Neuroscience degree at the University of Birmingham

So I recently graduated with a BSc in Human Neuroscience and wanted to give feedback/advice for anyone considering this degree at the University of Birmingham.
Overall, my time at uni was wonderful! It’s a campus based uni but still not far from the city center (10min by train), it’s a beautiful campus with great facilities: library, plenty of study spaces and nice lecture theatre.
My first year (back in 2019) was good, I had a broad introduction to neuroscience during the first semester and good foundation to molecular biology (genetics) but the second semester was broader less focus on neuroscience, I had to take cognitive psychology and this was challenging since I didn’t take A-level psychology and also I didn’t have much interest in cognitive psych (learning and memory).
Caring on to my second year, the first semester modules further built up my neuroscience knowledge and taught us critical analysis (an important tool for essay writing). During the second semester we were able to pick optional modules. However during my year, we were only able to pick one optional module and I chose: Cell and Developmental biology. I really enjoyed the module as I’m more oriented toward biosciences, we explored subjects such as: stem cells, membrane matrix, cell signalling…
The other compulsory module we had to take was the Neural Basis of vision and Action; a psychology based module focusing on the neural mechanism of vision and the motor system (it gives a good overview on the basal ganglia, cerebellum, occipital lobe and deficits related to those regions).
My 3rd and final year was by far the most challenging. Most modules were form
The school of psychology (so more focus on cognitive neuroscience and bio psychology). The final year project was based at the school of psychology so almost all projects were mainly behavioural and cognitive neuroscience based.
In terms of modules and projects, it is worth choosing your university based on your interests. Because from the BSc Human Neuroscience degree you won’t get much wet lab experience working with biological assays (so this is worth considering). Another thing also worth considering is that this degree is not accredited by the BPS. Obviously it’s not a psych degree so if you want to practice in a psychology related field, I’d recommend studying psychology instead.
A final aspect I’d like to talk about is how isolated the neuroscience cohort is from the rest. Although it is based at the psychology school, not everything applies to us but not belonging to other schools (such as Bioscience..) can also be isolating in terms of school announcements, career events, internship/work placement opportunities. The head of the program doesn’t help either and is hardly responsive so it’ll be a battle of trying to collect information from your tutor, other students and your student rep.

Finally, I want to say that I did truly enjoy my time at UoB despite all the difficulties that we had to go through as a small student cohort and the feeling of isolation from all schools, hopefully they’re working on improving that. I’m happy to answer more questions if anyone has any. Feel free to message as well :smile: