Bioscience

What do you come out with? BSc.

Why do it? Because you like biology and were good at it at school. Because you're interested in genetics and its role in 21st century medicine. And because you fancy pushing back the frontiers of knowledge in a rapidly expanding area of science.

What's it about? At the University of East Anglia (UEA) you cover everything from conservation biology to molecular biology and the structure of proteins. At York, you take a common first-year course in biochemistry, genetics, plant and animal biology, after which you specialise. At Warwick you get heavy doses of molecular biology. In the first year, you study proteins and genes, plus ecology and animal biology, and learn as much computational biology as you can stomach.

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How long is a degree? Three years. Four years if you spend a year in industry or if you're in Scotland.

What are the students like? Career-minded.

How is it packaged? At Warwick, roughly 60 per cent of the course is assessed and 40 per cent is examined. York operates a policy of continuous assessment.

What A-levels do you need? Biology at A-level, and usually Chemistry to at least AS-level. For Biochemistry courses you will need A-levels in both Biology and Chemistry. Other science subjects (including Maths) can be an advantage.

What grades? ABB at York. BBB at Bath, Warwick and Edinburgh. At UEA the entry requirements vary significantly between courses – from AAA to BBB.

Will it keep you off the dole? Should do. Employers love scientists and Bioscience graduates often find jobs in the financial services sector; others go to work in laboratories or the pharmaceutical or biotech industries. Some go on to further training or PhDs.

Will you be interviewed? No, at York. Sometimes at UEA. At Warwick you'll be interviewed on an open day.

What do students say? Vicki Christian, 22, who studied at Liverpool: "I chose to spend my final year in the school of tropical medicine, where I was able to study in detail subjects such as neglected diseases, snake venoms and humanitarian studies, which had always fascinated me. In the final year we were given lectures in computing, statistics and key skills alongside biology.”

Where's best for teaching? Cambridge, Oxford, York, Sheffield and Leicester all scored highly for student satisfaction in the 2008 National Student Survey.

Where's best for research? According to the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, Oxford, Sheffield, Manchester, Ulster, Royal Holloway, Lancaster and Dundee are the top-rated institutions.

Where's the cutting edge? DNA - what you can do with it and what you can learn from it.

Who are the stars? Professor Diana Bowles, at York, for plant molecular biology; Professor Jonathan Slack, developmental biologist at Bath; Professor Howard Dalton FRS, Warwick University, known for methane-related proteins; and Professor Gillian Murphy, for arthritis research, and Professor Bill Sutherland, for animal behaviour, both at UEA.

Related courses: Molecular and cellular biology at Bath; computational biology, and microbiology and virology at Warwick; and biology with management at UEA.

Added value: At UEA you can spend a year in Europe and a year in America. York emphasises small group teaching - tutorials of four students. Warwick emphasises technical skills - the sort of thing you learn in the lab – which helps students get jobs.