Our Biochemistry degree with Preliminary Year is a four-year course. The Preliminary Year covers key topics in Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics and leads to a BSc in any of the subjects offered by the School of Biosciences. The purpose of the Preliminary Year is to provide students who don’t have a sufficient background in science with the basis of scientific knowledge to enable them to thrive in the year one curriculum and beyond.

Biochemistry is the study of biological systems at the molecular level and it has a rich history of scientific discoveries, from enzymology and metabolic pathways to the discovery of genes and the structure of DNA. Today the subject embraces important new areas, such as genomics, systems and synthetic biology.

During your degree, you will learn the key role that biochemistry contributes to advances in all biological disciplines, including medicine and biotechnology. You will receive extensive hands-on training in laboratory and (depending on module selection and availability) field research techniques, and develop widely transferable skills in computing, statistics, data analysis and presentation.

Although you may join the School on the BSc Biochemistry programme, your degree title remains flexible up until the final year.  You can choose to stick with your original degree registration, or switch to another of our bioscience courses.  You can also choose to graduate with a more specialist degree title, such as BSc Biological Sciences (Genetics) or BSc Biomedical Sciences (Physiology).

Your final degree title will depend on module selection in years two and three, and your Personal Tutor will guide you through the options available to you.  You may also have the option of switching to the MBiochem integrated Master's degree (subject to academic progress and space availability).

This course will enable you to increase your scientific understanding, as well as developing both your academic skills (critical appraisal, evaluation and analysis of data) and practical, presentation and written skills.  Ultimately, we aim to produce graduates who are employable, well-informed, versatile and enthusiastic ambassadors for science.

The knowledge and skills developed during your Biochemistry degree will make you employable in a broad range of careers within all areas of biological and molecular sciences, including pharmaceutical industries, research, publishing and teaching. The skills acquired on the course are also an excellent grounding for many other career paths outside of science. Alternatively you may wish to further your studies by pursuing a Master's degree or PhD.

Distinctive features

Our degrees are closely linked to the research interests of our staff, allowing you to experience the excitement of learning in an active research environment. We attract substantial external research funding and this will enable you to make use of the latest equipment, techniques and facilities in your project work. The School also houses a permanently staffed Field Station in Borneo, as well as leading the European Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute, allowing access to a wide range of exciting training opportunities.

This programme offers a high degree of flexibility giving you the freedom to shape your academic experience. You can choose to specialise in a particular area or to maintain a wide breadth of learning and explore the interdisciplinary research that underpins much of the School’s success. 

"One of the benefits of being a student at Cardiff School of Biosciences is having access to very high-quality, research-driven teaching.  All of the lecturers that we have here are researchers right at the edge of their fields, working on really frontier stuff.  It's really interesting and really captures your imagination." Robert Maddison - Undergraduate student