Optional Courses

Degree Programme Tables (DPTs) (linked below) set out the typical study path for your chosen degree, detailing core, compulsory and option courses available. You should refer to the information provided in the DPT for your chosen programme to help inform your option course choices. 

Click on the course links to explore detailed information about the topics covered and how they are assessed. 

Important points to note

• You are automatically enrolled onto the compulsory courses for your programme, you do not need to select these. 
• Courses are worth 10 or 20 credits, the number of credits can be viewed in the DPT. The DPT shows how many optional courses you will need to take in Semester 1 and Semester 2 to make a total of 60 credits each semester. 
• We will ask you to select more courses than you need, and will do our best and allocate courses as fairly as we can, however, where demand exceeds the spaces available, you might not get your top choices.
• Individual course timetables can be viewed by selecting the 'Timetable' link in the course descriptions available from the DPT. 
• Please use the provisional draft MSc timetable available below to check which courses have timetable clashes. You will not be allocated to courses that have a timetable clash.  
• You may contact the Course Organiser for more information about a particular course before making your selections. 
• If you are allocated a course that you find is unsuitable, you may be able to change this up until the end of Week 2 in either semester, please contact your Student Adviser to do this. 

MSc timetable

Timetable 2024-25 (Biological Sciences MSc) (384.49 KB PDF)

Programme specific course information 

Animal Breeding and Genetics

Biochemistry

Bioinformatics

Biotechnology

Data Science for Biology

Drug Discovery and Translational Biology

Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity

Evolutionary Genetics

Human Complex Trait Genetics

Quantitative Genetics and Genome Analysis

Synthetic Biology and Biotechnology

All choices must be made by the deadline given in the email asking you to select your optional courses. 

• You can submit your course choices multiple times up until the deadline, your final submission will be the one that is used.
• Any students who have not registered their choices by the deadline will make their selections during Welcome Week, although it is likely that choices will be limited at this time. 

In the week before Welcome Week you will be enrolled on your option courses and you will be able to see them on MyEd and Learn Ultra. 

To request changes to your option courses, please contact your assigned Student Advisor in the first instance, noting that a strict deadline is in place to make changes. 

MyEd

You will meet your Student Adviser and Programme Director at various times during Welcome Week. 

Find out about Welcome Week