Program Overview

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Biology and Chemistry BSc (Hons) 2025 entry

Overview

The Biology and Chemistry BSc (Hons) joint degree programme is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of both biology and chemistry. The programme is tailored to meet the specific needs of students who wish to study both subjects in depth.

Entry Requirements

Standard Entry Grades

• SQA Highers: AAAAB, including A in Chemistry, and an A or B in Biology (or Human Biology). If you have a B in Biology, you will need to have an A in one other subject from the following: Computing Science, Economics, Geography, Mathematics, and Physics.
• GCE A-Levels: AAA, including Biology and A in Chemistry.
• IB points: 38 (HL 6,6,6), including HL6 in Biology and HL6 in Chemistry.

Minimum Entry Grades

• SQA Highers: AABB, including A in Chemistry, and an A or B in Biology (or Human Biology). If you have a B in Biology, you will need to have an A in one other subject from the following: Computing Science, Economics, Geography, Mathematics, and Physics.
• GCE A-Levels: ABB, including Biology and A in Chemistry.
• IB points: 36 (HL 6,5,5), including HL6 in Biology and HL6 in Chemistry.

Gateway Entry Grades

Applicants who have narrowly missed the minimum entry grades, but meet the University's contextual criteria, may be interested in one of the University's Gateway programmes.

General Entry Requirements

All applicants must have attained the following qualifications, or equivalent, in addition to the specific entry requirements for individual programmes.

• SQA qualifications: SQA National 5 (B) in English and one SQA National 5 (B) from the following: Biology, Chemistry, Computing Science, Geography, Applications of Mathematics, Mathematics, Physics, or Psychology.
• GCSE qualifications: GCSE (5) in English language or English literature, and one GCSE (5) from the following: Biology, Chemistry, Computing Science, Geography, Mathematics, Physics, or Psychology.

Do I Need to Have Studied This Subject Before?

Applicants must have studied Biology and Chemistry at SQA Higher, GCE A-Level, or equivalent. Preference may be given to candidates offering strong science qualifications.

International Applicants

If English is not your first language, you will need to provide an English language test score to evidence your English language ability.

Course Details

The University of St Andrews operates on a flexible modular degree system by which degrees are obtained through the accumulation of credits.

Modules

• First year:
  • Biology 1: provides an introduction to molecular and cellular biology.
  • Biology 2: provides an introduction to the diversity of life on Earth and addresses key elements of organismal, behavioural, and ecological aspects of life.
  • Introductory Inorganic and Physical Chemistry: covers origin of the elements and the periodic table, atomic structure, shapes and properties of molecules, chemistry of the elements, properties of solutions, thermochemistry, thermodynamics, and kinetics, and mathematical tools for chemistry.
  • Organic and Biological Chemistry 1: covers the structure and nomenclature of simple organic compounds, basic stereochemistry, fundamental organic reaction mechanisms, organic functional groups and their reactions, introductory bioorganic chemistry, and organic spectroscopy.
• Second year:
  • Biochemistry: a number of central metabolic pathways and their control are studied in detail, alongside examples of their importance in disease and recent metabolomic studies.
  • Cell Biology: introduces the concept of ‘a cell’, moving on to discuss different types of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell.
  • Molecular Biology: provides an introduction to modern molecular biology, covering fundamental biological processes such as transcription, translation, and DNA replication and repair.
  • Applied Molecular Biology: examines case studies to provide examples of how molecular biology techniques are applied in research to address real-life questions and problems.
  • Inorganic Chemistry 2: covers metal complexes and organometallics, descriptive transition-metal chemistry, atmospheric chemistry, solid-state chemistry, and descriptive main-group chemistry.
  • Organic Chemistry 2: covers methods for carbon-carbon bond formation and interconversion of functional groups, aromatic and heteroaromatic reactivity, retrosynthetic analysis, mechanistic biological chemistry, and organic spectroscopy.
• Third and fourth years:
  • Students will continue to specialise in their joint subjects via a wide range of modules covering core topics.
  • Modules that have been offered in previous years include:
    • Protein Structure and Function
    • Membranes and Cell Communication
    • Metabolic and Clinical Biochemistry
    • Biomolecular Sciences Public Engagement
    • Carbohydrate and Nucleic Acid Chemistry
    • Mechanism in Organic Chemistry
    • Blockbuster Pharmaceuticals
    • Natural Products, Biosynthesis, and Enzyme Co-factors.

Teaching

The University of St Andrews operates on a flexible modular degree system by which degrees are obtained through the accumulation of credits.

Fees

• Scotland: £1,820
• England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Republic of Ireland, Channel Islands, Isle of Man: £9,535
• EU and overseas: £31,670

Accommodation Fees

Find out about accommodation fees for University accommodation.

Funding and Scholarships

The University of St Andrews offers a number of scholarships and support packages to undergraduate students each year.

Careers

The Careers Centre offers one-to-one advice to all students as well as a programme of events to assist students to build their employability skills.