C10242v1 Bachelor of Science

Overview

Students may follow any of 12 different specialised programs leading to award of a degree naming the chosen discipline, e.g. Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics, or Medical Science, or any of the other 10 specialised disciplines available. Majors are chosen at the end of first year when students have experienced a range of disciplines and are more equipped to choose their preferred path. Students may also choose not to follow a major, but to select a range of second and third year subjects to tailor their study according to their interests and graduate with a cross-disciplinary science degree.

The flexibility of this course allows students to either specialise in a specific professional area or to develop skills and knowledge in a range of scientific disciplines. All majors aim to produce professional scientists with a thorough grounding in theory and highly adaptable and practical scientific, experimental and computational skills relevant to the discipline chosen.

Career options

Career options depend on the major chosen.

• Mathematics or statistics: career options include positions in business, economics, engineering, health industries and social science.
• Chemistry: career options include positions in government and private analytical laboratories and in research and development in the food, metals, minerals, paints, petroleum, pharmaceutical and plastics industries.
• Physics or nanotechnology: career options include positions in communications, engineering, manufacturing, medical physics or mining.
• Environmental: career options include positions in government departments such as the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change and state environmental protection authorities, environmental managers in local councils or resource industries, managing parks and gardens, bushland, wildlife reserves, water catchments or commercial open spaces, or as environmental and landscape consultants.
• Biomedical and medical science: career options include positions in diagnostic medical laboratories or in government health departments, hospitals or public health units.
• Biotechnology: career options include positions in food and pharmaceutical manufacture, in research and development of genetically-engineered agricultural crops or new medical drugs and vaccines, in contaminated site bio-remediation and in regulation of bioscience industries.

All graduates may find careers as patent lawyers, science communicators, teachers or in research.

Assumed knowledge

Mathematics; any two units of English; and at least two units of science.

Recommended studies are dependent on the individual disciplines chosen.

Course duration and attendance

Students can complete the course over three years full time. Full-time attendance involves approximately 20 hours each week on campus. Students may also be able to complete the course in part-time mode, usually at the rate of two subjects per semester (a 50 per cent load) taking six years to complete. Part-time students are required to attend some sessions in daytime hours.

Course structure

Students must complete a total of 144 credit points to graduate. Subjects offered by the University have been classified as introductory (normally taken in Stages 1 and 2), intermediate (Stages 3 and 4) and advanced (Stages 5 and 6 or later). In the Bachelor of Science, students are required to complete one of three introductory foundation streams (mathematical sciences, physical sciences, life and environmental sciences). Upon the successful completion of first year, they may choose one of the majors that follow from that stream. The chosen major specifies a series of intermediate and advanced subjects that, if taken, result in award of a Bachelor of Science in that major.

Alternatively, students may choose not to take a specific major but a flexible mix of subjects of interest and graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree without a specified major. If so, they must complete 36 credit points of intermediate and 36 credit points of advanced science subjects. In doing so, students must ensure that they have completed the required prerequisite subjects at each stage. It cannot be guaranteed that all subjects that students in a flexible program wish to take together can be timetabled without clashes and so students need to check timetable constraints before final subject choice each semester.

The Bachelor of Science also contains 24 credit points of free elective subjects that enable students to increase their expertise in other areas of science or other disciplines in the University. This can be in the form of a specialised 24-credit-point sub-major or by a varied selection of subjects.

Students must satisfactorily complete 120 credit points of specified major or flexible science subjects and, in addition, 24 credit points of elective/sub-major subjects for award of the degree.

Industrial training/professional practice

Course completion requirements

Course program

The majors available and the course programs for each major are shown below.

Honours

The Bachelor of Science (Honours) is available in all disciplines as an additional year to meritorious students.

Other information

Further information is available from: