Biomedical Science with an Industrial Placement Year

Contribute to our understanding of the human body and our ability to control it during health and disease. Then spend a year on a work placement as part of your degree, putting what you've learnt into practice, and testing out a career you're considering.

Why study this course?
- Top 10 in the UK for biomedical sciences (Complete University Guide 2025)

- Human anatomy teaching: We train our biomedical science students the same way we train our medics in our newly refurbished Medical Teaching Unit.

- Build connections and a career: Our students secure placements with organisations including GSK, Cancer Research Technology, Roche, Abbott Diabetes Care, Pfizer and the National Grid.

Our four-year BSc Biomedical Science with an Industrial Placement Year course is about the human body and our ability to control it during health and disease, from genes to whole-body systems.

You'll study human physiology, pharmacology and molecular and cell biology before applying this knowledge to important issues in clinical medicine. You'll discover the basis of genetic diseases, the physiology of ageing, and take on challenges like how to tackle antimicrobial resistance. You'll then apply what you've learnt and gain real-world experience during a year-long placement as a recognised part of your degree.

At Sheffield, you’ll be encouraged to be creative, think independently and express your ideas. You'll be in the lab completing in-depth practicals and studying human anatomy alongside our medics in our newly refurbished Medical Teaching Unit. You could be spending time interacting directly with patients, or developing IT solutions to handle clinical data. You'll even have opportunities to work with scientists from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to diagnose cancer samples.

As you progress through your degree, you'll have the option to specialise in key areas such as stem cells and cancer, neuroscience, physiology and pharmacology, and developmental and cell biology.

No matter what areas of biomedical science you choose to study at Sheffield, you'll develop practical laboratory and transferable skills - such as project management, problem-solving, communication skills and data analysis - that make our graduates attractive to employers.

Your placement year will give you the chance to test out a career path that you're considering. This will take place in year three. Our students have found placements in science and non-science-based roles with a range of organisations including GSK, Cancer Research Technology, Pfizer and the National Grid. Some students have even been offered graduate-level jobs at the end of their placement.

All this experience will prepare you for your final-year research project where you could be laboratory-based, focus on computer modelling, science education, or even science communication.