Zoology

Study animals and biodiversity at every scale. You'll learn how animals function, how to conserve biodiversity, and how evolution works. If you're thinking about a career in industrial or academic research, this course involves a major research project of your choice in your fourth year.

Why study this course?
- Top 10 in the UK for zoology (Guardian University Guide 2025)

- Get out of the classroom: You'll be learning in the lab, the Peak District, zoos, aquariums and embark on a once-in-a-lifetime field course in the UK or abroad.

- Four-year course: Graduate with a masters degree and spend your fourth year focussed on a major research project of your choice.

Our four-year MBiolSci Zoology course is perfect if you're thinking about a research career.

It’s all about animals, their evolution, and their interactions with each other, the environment and biodiversity conservation. You’ll then complete a major research project in your fourth year (known as an integrated masters).

You'll study microbes, invertebrates, birds, fish, mammals, and humans and learn how they evolved, how their physiology works, how they behave, and how they respond to global change. You’ll even discover how their biodiversity is maintained and lost, and use this knowledge to help us address important issues such as tropical wildlife conservation, disease outbreaks, and maintaining functioning ecosystems.

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 animal anatomy and physiology in our Alfred Denny Museum of Zoology. You'll learn off campus too, carrying out fieldwork in the Peak District, visiting zoos, aquariums, and other scientific spots around the country, and embarking on a once-in-a-lifetime field course in the UK or abroad.

As you progress through your degree you’ll have the option to specialise in key areas such as biodiversity conservation, evolutionary biology, genetics or ecological modelling.

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

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

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