Lancaster University

An additional aim for the exchange students is for them to acquire the ability to study in, and learn about a different society, culture and higher-education system. They will study a comparable range of courses and develop the same skills, and probably with a quicker development of themselves as autonomous learners. They acquire a formal and informal appreciation of the United States, Canada or Australia from their year in that country which they could not have obtained with such personal impact from courses here in Lancaster.

Biological Sciences

• To provide a flexible but structured, progressive and thematic training in Biological Sciences which will provide students with a knowledge and understanding appropriate for subject-specific graduate employment.
• To develop key transferable skills to prepare students for more general graduate employment.
• To develop the intellectual and practical skills necessary for progression to postgraduate research and training.
• To offer selected students the opportunity of spending a year at an approved university in North America or Australasia
• To encourage academic curiosity which will prepare students for lifelong learning
• To offer a broad range of modules within which students can select a specialised route
• To offer all students the opportunity to conduct a substantial research project

The same learning outcomes are aimed for. The learning and teaching methods in the exchange University will differ from those used in Lancaster but not in any systematic way, and the larger classes will instil a greater sense of independence and self-reliance among the exchange students. Methods of assessment in these Universities tend to favour projects, term papers and tests (including multiple-choice tests) more than in Lancaster.

Biological Sciences

Knowledge and Understanding (depending on the choice of modules) of four of:

• Genetics and Biotechnology
• Animal Sciences
• Microbiology
• Biochemistry
• Plant Sciences
• Environmental Biology
• Cell Biology
• Biomedicine

Skills

Intellectual skills able to:

• Plan, conduct and report a substantial individual investigation
• Synthesise and critically evaluate information from a variety of sources
• Formulate and test concepts and hypotheses
• Reason critically
• Interpret numerical data

Practical skills able to:

• Use appropriate equipment effectively
• Prepare accurately solutions of a given concentration
• Carry out risk assessments and list appropriate safety precautions associated with practical or project work
• Collect and present experimental data

Transferable skills able to

• Work independently or as part of a team
• Use relevant Information Technology
• Demonstrate effective written and oral communication skills
• Design and prepare project proposals

Specific to the exchange programme:

A greater sense of independence and self-reliance