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. Combining a placement year with our MBiomedSci course allows you to gain work experience in industry, before adding an extra year of research training back in the lab in your final year.

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.

- Five-year course: The ultimate kick-start to your career. Gain real-word experience with a placement year, and graduate with a masters degree.

Our five-year MBiomedSci is about the human body and our ability to control it during health and disease. Kick-start your career by spending a year on placement, and then complete a major research project in your final year (known as an integrated masters).

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.

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 research project in year four where you could be laboratory-based, focus on computer modelling, science education, or even science communication.

Your final year is designed to equip you with advanced laboratory skills, ready for a rewarding career in science. You'll spend the bulk of this year focused on a major research project in an area of biomedical science of your choice, and graduate with a masters degree.