Why I Loved Studying Biomedical Science at York St John University

I studied my undergraduate in Biomedical Science at York St John. The thing I enjoyed most from my undergraduate course was how much of the course was practical-based, and the practicals really backed up the content from the lectures and workshops. Personally, I found the haematology, immunology and transfusion sciences module from second year and the research project module from third year the most engaging. It’s not surprising that for my postgraduate course at YSJ I’m doing a Master’s by research in biomedical science specifically focusing on immunology.  

My reasons for choosing YSJ

I chose to study at York St John for a few different reasons; the biomedical science course at YSJ is accredited by both the IBMS and the RBS, YSJ is a quite a small university and the biomedical science course has very small cohort sizes, and we are on a first-name basis with all lecturers, which creates an incredibly friendly atmosphere. My older brother also attended YSJ, studying accountancy and finance, and he really enjoyed his time at YSJ, which also swayed my decision to come to YSJ. 

I chose to study biomedical science while I was at sixth form, and I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to study chemistry or biology at university after my A levels. After looking around, I found that the biomedical science course, specifically at York St John let me have the best of both worlds, where I could study both biology and chemistry.  

Placements

During my undergraduate I did not do a placement. That was because I already knew that I wanted to do postgraduate study so for me I didn’t feel the need to do a placement, however YSJ does really encourage its biomedical science students to pursue placements. The third-year research project gives students the opportunity to conduct their own research and give them the opportunity to work for five weeks in the labs at YSJ. This gives them some experience in an active research lab.  

My Advice for Future Biomedical Science Students

I would say to students wanting to study Biomedical science at York St John that it is a very interesting and engaging course. It can be tough at times, and there will be modules that you will find suit you better than others but there is such a range of modules that there will be something that you will enjoy at some point during the degree. If you enjoy practicals and being in the lab YSJ’s biomedical science course has plenty of practical sessions which do a very good job of validating the content from workshops and lectures and expanding upon student’s lab skills, so it doesn’t matter if when you start at YSJ you’ve not spent much time in a lab and not done many practicals your lab skills and techniques will be improved upon throughout the degree.   

Find out more about studying Biomedical Science at York St John