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Four programs, one shared core

Everyone takes the same first term. Specialization begins in term two, and transfers are permitted up to that point without losing credit for anything already completed.

Shared Core

Term one, taken by everyone

Four modules that all later work assumes. Students who arrive with strong biology find them quick; students who arrive without find them essential.

Cell & Molecule

Organelles, membranes, the central dogma, and reading a codon table without hesitating.

Inheritance

Mendelian ratios, Punnett squares, linkage, and where the simple model stops working.

Microscopy

Light and phase contrast, magnification arithmetic, sample preparation and honest interpretation.

Sampling & Statistics

Quadrats, transects, replication, error and significance — taught at Hollowmere, in the rain.

Program 01

Molecular Genetics

How information is stored, copied, read and occasionally corrupted. The program runs from the structure of the molecule through transcription and translation to the sequencing techniques used to read a genome, and it deliberately keeps returning to what any of it means at the level of a whole organism.

Students spend a week each year in the field. Molecular geneticists tend to resent this in year one and cite it in job interviews by year three.

You will learn to

Translate a sequence in either direction and identify reading frames and stop signals.
Predict inheritance patterns for linked and unlinked loci and test them against real counts.
Extract, amplify and sequence nucleic acid from a prepared sample.
Interpret a sequence trace critically, including where the base call is unreliable.
Connect a molecular mechanism to a phenotype without overstating the link.

Molecular Genetics · 14 weeks
Wk	Module	Assessment
1–3	Nucleic acid structure Replication and repair	Bench test
4–6	Transcription & translation Codon usage, regulation	Report
7–9	Inheritance in depth Linkage, mapping, populations	Problem set
10–12	Sequencing Extraction, amplification, analysis	Report
13	Field week Population sampling	Field notebook
14	Independent project	Final

Entry

Shared core required. Comfort with ratios and proportion assumed; the statistics is taught from scratch.

Program 02

Cell Biology

The most microscope-heavy of the four. Students spend more hours at an eyepiece than anywhere else in the Institute, on the principle that interpreting what you are looking at is a skill nobody acquires from a textbook plate.

Membrane transport and enzyme kinetics are taught in the physiology laboratory alongside the structural work, so that a student meeting active transport has already watched something fail to cross a membrane.

You will learn to

Prepare, stain and mount a specimen well enough that the structure is actually visible.
Calculate actual size from image size and magnification without fumbling the units.
Identify organelles from function as readily as from appearance.
Design and run a transport or kinetics experiment with adequate controls.
Distinguish a genuine structure from a preparation artefact, and say how you know.

Cell Biology · 12 weeks
Wk	Module	Assessment
1–3	Microscopy in practice Preparation, staining, artefact	Bench test
4–6	Organelles & function Structure to role	Report
7–9	Membranes & transport Diffusion, active transport	Report
10–11	Enzyme kinetics Rate, inhibition, controls	Problem set
12	Independent project	Final

Entry

Shared core required. Students with a declared visual impairment should contact the program office before term; adapted apparatus is available.

Program 03

Field Ecology

Survey design, population estimation and the long game of monitoring. The program is built around the Hollowmere transect, which has been walked annually since 1978, and around the uncomfortable fact that most ecological questions cannot be answered inside a single term.

Students contribute to a live dataset. Their counts are checked, entered and kept, which concentrates the mind in a way that a disposable practical does not.

You will learn to

Design a sampling scheme appropriate to the organism, the terrain and the question.
Estimate population size by mark-release-recapture and state the assumptions it rests on.
Run a transect and a quadrat survey to a standard that lets your data join a long series.
Test a difference between sites for significance, and recognize when the test is inappropriate.
Keep a field notebook a stranger could audit.

Field Ecology · 10 weeks
Wk	Module	Assessment
1–2	Survey design Sampling, bias, replication	Problem set
3–5	Population estimation Mark-release-recapture	Field notebook
6–7	Residential field week Hollowmere transect	Report
8–9	Community & succession Diversity indices, change over time	Report
10	Independent survey	Final

Field week

Residential, costs covered by tuition including transport and accommodation. Alternative dates are arranged for students who cannot attend the scheduled week.

Program 04

Research Placement

Compulsory on every route, and the only assessment where the deciding judgement is not ours. Placements run in partner laboratories, field stations, conservation bodies and diagnostic services.

Matching

Three preferences and a short statement. The placement office matches on interest and circumstance, taking travel and caring responsibilities into account.

Induction and licensing

A week covering the host's safety procedure, sample handling and, where fieldwork is involved, the licenses under which the site operates.

Supervised project

Eight to twelve weeks of defined work under a named host supervisor, with a countersigned notebook kept throughout.

Report and viva

Assessed by the host supervisor and an Institute examiner independently. Both marks must pass on their own.

Assessment

How work is marked

Weighting by program
Program	Practical reports	Field notebook	Written papers	Final project
Molecular Genetics	40%	10%	25%	25%
Cell Biology	45%	—	25%	30%
Field Ecology	25%	30%	15%	30%
Research Placement	—	—	—	100%

Conscience clause. Any student may decline a specific practical on ethical grounds and take an alternative of equivalent weight. The request is granted as a matter of regulation, not discretion, and is not recorded against the student.

Next step

Transfers are open until the end of term one

The shared core means a change of program costs you nothing. Speak to your tutor before deciding.

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