Biology

Applying to St Hugh’s for Biology

Candidates are expected to have Biology and either Chemistry, Physics or Mathematics to A-level, Advanced Higher, Higher Level in the IB or another equivalent.

Tutors are looking for evidence of enthusiasm for biology and aptitude for independent and analytical thinking. In order for your application to be competitive, it is essential that you display genuine passion for Biology in your UCAS form. You are unlikely to be shortlisted for interview if your personal statement does not make it clear that Biology is your preferred course of study.

Choosing St Hugh’s for Biology

The study of living things has undergone tremendous expansion in recent years, accompanied by a blurring of the distinctions between disciplines: influencing and being influenced by a variety of other fields. St Hugh’s enjoys a strong reputation for Biology, and undergraduate teaching is comprised of both University lectures (around ten per week), college-based tutorials, and practical laboratory or computer-based sessions. The fourth year includes an eighteen-week research project, which enables students to design their own experiments, plan a research programme, and write up their findings in a form suitable for publication.

The Tutors are enthusiastic about tutorial teaching and believe it rightly complements the more formal lectures by providing students with the opportunity to explore their own ideas, and to develop their ability to express them.

Biology at St Hugh’s is close-knit community, encouraging collaboration and personal growth within a spacious and peaceful setting – Professor Steve Portugal

Professor Steven Portugal

Professor Rachel Tanner

Studying and living at St Hugh’s

Undergraduate teaching at Oxford is made up of a mixture of University lectures, college-based tutorials, and practical laboratory sessions as well as statistics classes. The Biology degree is research-led and skills-based, meaning that students are not only taught the most up-to-date theoretical aspects of Biology, but also the techniques to further their own learning and research. Practical laboratory and fieldwork work is an integral part of teaching and there is a compulsory one-week field trip for all first year students to Pembrokeshire to study ecology; funds are available at St Hugh’s to support travel costs.

The College coordinates an exchange scheme with Texas A&M University that enables some undergraduates to do summer vacation project work in Texas. There is also the Gatsby Plant Science Summer School at the University of Leeds which is open for first year undergraduates to apply to.

Biology students benefit from the College’s beautiful gardens, which are rich with wildlife.

Possible careers

Some of our students pursue careers which may or may not have direct connections to biological topics. These vary from charity and not-for-profit, law, energy and the environment, financial services, consultancy, health and social care, government and public services, and media, marketing, and publishing.