Healthcare Science

A three-year degree qualification typically comprises 360 credits and each 20 credit (a standard module) equates to 200 hours of study, which comprises of a mixture of lectures, seminars, tutorials, practical sessions and independent study.

Independent study is an important aspect of your degree course. The exact combination of study time will be detailed within your module descriptors, and will depend on your option choices.

Teaching on the course involves a diverse range of methods and styles including lectures, tutorials, seminars, computer-based learning, case studies and laboratory practicals. As well as the traditional methods of teaching, e-learning (based around a virtual learning environment) and problem-based learning techniques will be used. Years 2 and 3 of the course will involve a work-based learning element based in an NHS pathology laboratory.

Assessments are by a combination of examinations, essays, data handling and interpretation, lab books, portfolios, practical reports, project reports, poster and oral presentations, all allowing a full range of information handling and presentation skills to be developed.

Our placement providers include hospitals from Barrow, Lancaster, Preston, Blackpool, Blackburn, Liverpool, Wirral, Manchester and Leeds.

The first year of the course provides a broad-based understanding of the key scientific concepts that will be developed and explored in greater depth in Years 2 and 3 of undergraduate study. You will cover cell biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, physiology and pharmacology. These areas will be supported by skills and professional practice modules that together form a sound starting point for a career in the NHS.

The material that is covered forms part of a common mode of study for all students on our biosciences routes and, in this way, provides the opportunity for you to transfer into and out of the course on a seamless basis. You will study a number of modules that explores how the human body functions on a variety of levels.

Allied to this will be periods of laboratory training and research skills as well as an introduction to the working of the NHS. Importantly there will be a 10-week placement period in the second year of the course where you will be located in a pathology laboratory, seeing processes and procedures at first hand.

This will allow you to begin to amass portfolio-type evidence that will form part of the professional registration process. The third year of the course involves a further level of specialisation in a single discipline consolidated by a 40-week placement that will give you a unique insight into how this area of pathology operation functions in a busy NHS setting. This will extend and build upon the Year 2 placement experience. 

In addition to the placement period, you will also expand your academic studies to cover areas such as how disease processes originate, how a variety of techniques can be brought to bear on identifying and treating a range of disease states, and an in-depth appreciation of how the NHS functions to provide patient care. You will also refine your skills at data and information handling - an essential step in preparing you for the final year of your course which involves a research project in one area of healthcare specialism. See the APEL Student Guidance document for further information