Master of Science (BioSciences) (MC-SCIBIO) // Course structure

Course structure

Students must complete 200 points including:

• Discipline Core subjects (25 pts)
• Discipline Elective subjects (25 – 37.5 pts)
• Professional Skill subjects (12.5 - 25 pts)
• Research Project, undertaken consecutively in sequence (125 pts)

Core subjects (25 pts)

One of:

and:

Discipline Elective subjects (25 – 37.5 pts)

Students will complete 25-37.5 pts of the following Discipline Elective subjects:

Or another graduate level subject as approved by course coordinator.

A student may complete a third-year level subject if no suitable alternative is available at the graduate level. Students wishing to take a second-year subject or more than one third-year subject will need the approval of the MSc Coordinators and the Associate Dean.

Professional Skills subjects (12.5 - 25 pts)

Students must complete:

And may also complete one of:

Research Project (125 pts undertaken consecutively in sequence)

The Research Project involves laboratory or field-based experimental research in an area of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Genomics and Developmental Biology, and Plant Biology. The research projects cover a broad range of research from molecular to population and evolutionary biology in micro-organisms, insects, plants and animals.

The project will be based in the laboratory of an academic staff member in the School of BioSciences or an approved external supervisor, depending on the particular research project. The research project aims to develop a range of experimental and technical skills, a capacity to set goals and to design and plan experiments.

Apart from the help and guidance from their supervisor(s) each student also has a committee, which provides additional help and expertise. This committee is responsible for assessment of the research project subject. The subject also provides students with skills and knowledge for understanding original research and enhanced written and oral communication skills.

For full-time students, the project will be taken over four consecutive semesters and will begin on the Monday of the first semester (students can start either semester 1 or semester 2 for mid-year intake) and continue for up to 88 weeks until the end of the fourth semester, minus recreation leave of between 4 and 8 weeks (22 weeks per semester over the four semesters).

For how long and at what time within the enrolment the actual period of leave is to be taken needs to be negotiated with the student’s supervisor.

For part-time students, the project will be taken over five consecutive semesters. This will typically be from Semester 3 to Semester 7 of a 48 month MSc course.

Students will first enrol in BioSciences Research Project Part 1 in their first Research semester, and then progress through to Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

*Note: in the case of part-time studies, students will first enrol in BioSciences Research Project Part 1 and then progress through to Part 2, Part 3, Pt 4(Cont.) and Pt5.

Students may only progress through BioScience Research Project subjects upon successful completion of the earlier project component.

The entire research project for the Master of Science (BioSciences) consists of 125 points with assessments as follows:

• A 20 minute oral presentation due around week 8 of the first semester of the research project (5%)
• A 3000 word research proposal/literature review due around week 10 of the first semester of the research project (15%)
• A research thesis of between 10,000 and 20,000 words due at the end of the final semester of the research project (70%)
• A 25 minute final oral presentation due in the exam period after the final semester of the research project (10%)

For Part Time Course Enrolments:

Last updated: 2 February 2024