MSc in Biomedical Science (Medical Microbiology)

Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, has a long history of providing high quality postgraduate education for clinicians and scientists working in the National Health Service (NHS), Public Health England (PHE), and industry. The aim of this programme is to prepare you for the next stage of your career, whether pursuing further research or professional study, or entering employment in the field of Biomedical Science. The course can also enhance the career prospects of those aspiring to middle and senior management positions within the NHS Pathology Service and commercial sector. 

The course is accredited by the Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS). Please note accreditation of a postgraduate degree course by the IBMS is not the same as accreditation of an undergraduate degree for HCPC State Registration. Completion of this postgraduate degree will not fulfil the education criteria for State Registration as a Biomedical Scientist with the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC). Please check with the appropriate bodies that the course you plan to follow will be suitable for any professional accreditation you may require. 

Students on this course will share many of the formal teaching and practical sessions with students on the MSc Clinical Microbiology and MSc Clinical Science (Infection Science) courses, allowing inter-professional learning, but each course has its' own unique additional teaching, electronic learning resources and assessments. 

The course aims to promote teaching and learning enriched by original scholarship and scientific research; encouraging students to become independent learners. Formal teaching comprises lectures, workshops, practical classes and demonstrations. Many of the lecturers are specialists in their field and are invited from many institutions within the UK. 

The practical classes are an important component of the course and are designed to give the students hands-on experience, particularly in basic clinical microbiology. Students are encouraged to relate current practices in their workplace to their studies, to discuss and critically evaluate these techniques with their colleagues in light of their formal teaching. The practical classes are taught in the purpose built teaching laboratory, which is well equipped with all necessary materials and is based on a routine clinical microbiology laboratory. 

In addition to the formal face to face teaching, students use online learning materials in the University's electronic learning environment (QMplus). Self-directed learning, by reading and reviewing literature to supplement the lectures, is essential and students are encouraged to use the library (both electronic and onsite) and computer facilities within the University. All students have off site access to the library and the electronic learning environment. 

This programme will provide: 

• a systematic understanding of knowledge, and a critical awareness of current problems and / or new insights, much of which is at, or informed by, the forefront of medical microbiology and professional practice,
• a comprehensive understanding of techniques applicable to their own research or advanced scholarship,
• the opportunity to demonstrate originality in the application of knowledge, together with a practical understanding of how established techniques of research and enquiry are used to create and interpret knowledge in medical microbiology,
• a conceptual understanding that enables the student to evaluate critically current research and advanced scholarship in medical microbiology,
• the ability to evaluate methodologies and develop critiques of them and, where appropriate, to propose new hypotheses.