Unlike traditional MSc courses, the University of East London’s MRes in Bioscience is designed specifically to provide you with the best opportunity to develop and demonstrate key skills for a career in research. A third of the course consists of a Research Skills module and an optional module that you will choose from a long list, which will either develop your research skills further or offer specialisation in a particular element of bioscience. The remaining two-thirds of the course is dedicated to the completion of an individual research project within one of the highly respected research groups in the School of Health, Sport and Bioscience. You will be supervised throughout your project by a highly qualified and experienced director of studies. To complete your MRes you will need to make an oral defence of your submitted project to examiners. We also offer an intermediate qualification of a PG Certificate.

You will work in our newly refurbished laboratories and become familiar with a range of equipment that you will encounter in your later career. The course culminates in an individual research project that will give you the opportunity to develop and demonstrate your individual skills and abilities. UEL will provide you with the best possible setting for your studies. Bioscience contributed to the outstanding results in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, in which 86 per cent of our research submission was rated either ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. It means you will be spending a major part of your time as part of an existing research team that has already made a name for itself in the international field. As an MRes student you will have two to three supervisors, who together have an impressive range of academic and professional experience. One of these will be your director of studies, who is responsible for supervising your work on a regular and frequent basis. You will be allocated your supervisory team as soon as you enrol. Members of our academic team with relevant research experience will guide and support you throughout the course. One member of the team will be allocated as your personal tutor, whom you’ll be able to consult for pastoral as well as academic advice. Throughout your course there will be group meetings and opportunities to share experience with your peers and academic staff.

The groundwork for your project/dissertation will be laid by the taught Research Skills module, which includes generic techniques of data analysis and presentation, literature searching and a study of statistics. When it comes to deciding on your area of speciality within the optional modules, you have a huge choice. We offer a mixture of topics, many of which are designed to enhance your research skills. You can cover specific research techniques such as Designing and Implementing Survey Research, or you may choose to follow areas of specific interest within the bioscience field such as toxicology, medical microbiology and bioinformatics. To gain a Postgraduate Certificate, you will need to complete the Essential Research Skills module and an optional module. The course as a whole will equip you with the knowledge and skills to carry our independent research effectively. You will also learn about the standards and requirements research entails, and how to maximise its impact and effectiveness.

This MRes course will provide you with excellent training for a career in the increasingly competitive environment of scientific research. The flexible course, set in a rich research environment, will give you a real edge as you seek to further your studies through an MPhil or a PhD. The skills you acquire will also equip you for a wide range of careers any career, in fact, that requires motivated individuals with good independent and team-working skills and proven ability in the creation, synthesis, analysis and communication of information and/or data. The design of the course has been informed by the Researcher Development Framework and our aim is to support you as you acquire the knowledge and techniques to carry out research. That knowledge will cover the standards and requirements to conduct a piece of independent research, employing best research practice. You will also become familiar and comfortable with the process of working with others to ensure your research has a wider impact. Your future work will benefit from the enhanced critical judgement that you will develop as a result of studying in this environment. You will also be fully conversant with carrying out effective and critical reviews of literature in a specialised field of research.