Overview

At the beginning of the final year, you will become active members of one of the research groups in the school for about sixteen weeks.  You will be based in a newly built and professionally equipped lab which is dedicated for year 3 students to undertake their projects, working as part of a small group of students.

During the project, you will work on an aspect of ongoing research and will contribute to the solving of important problems in contemporary medical research. You will work alongside, and receive training and support from, our academic staff as well as their post-doctoral staff, technicians and PhD students.

The project

Taken as part of the Research Skills unit, students can choose an experimental or non-experimental project:

• Experimental projects involve a combination of state-of-the-art data analysis/interpretation combined with lab work.
• Non-experimental projects involve either data-based projects for students to gain experience in analysing the large bodies of biomedical data being generated by high-throughput methods or the option to do a 'grant proposal' project.

Helping your career

To work on ground-breaking, new research as an undergraduate provides a great experience. As a result, our students have an advantage when applying for PhD and other postgraduate research opportunities because they will have real experience necessary for a career in research.

Student feedback

Comments on the final-year project from our alumni:

• "I really enjoyed the project element - a great way to get an idea of what happens in academic research"
• "I thoroughly enjoyed carrying out my project even though it was a lot of work"
• "The project was really enjoyable, even writing it up. It was great to be able to be investigating something that had previously never been studied. As with the lectures, people in the lab were very helpful and you never felt as though you were just the undergrad getting in the way"
• "This is definitely the most enjoyable part of the course with a very positive impact on the preparation of each student for future life"
• "I really enjoyed doing the project and felt that I was fully supported whilst being encouraged to push myself"