Zoology with Placement Year

Study animals and biodiversity at every scale. You'll learn how animals function, how to conserve biodiversity, and how evolution works. 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 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.

- Build connections and a career: Our students secure placements with organisations including GSK, Atkins Environmental Consulting, Wildlife Trusts, Newquay Zoo and the government.

Our four-year BSc Zoology with Placement Year course is about animals, their evolution, and their interactions with each other, the environment and biodiversity conservation.

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. 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 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.

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, Wildlife Trusts, the Field Studies Council and the Environment Agency. 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, field-based, focus on computer modelling, or even science communication.