Microbiology BSc (Hons) - 2023/4

Other information

This programme is aligned to the University of Surrey¿s Five Pillars of Curriculum Design and design, namely (in alphabetical order), Digital Capabilities, Employability, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Resourcefulness & Resilience, and Sustainability. Specifically, these pillars are covered in this programme in the following ways:

Digital Capabilities: Throughout their programme, microbiology students adapt and learn how to best make use of the SurreyLearn Virtual Learning Environment and other digital resources and online databases to aid their learning and undertake research (microbiology and epidemiology datasets). Students are also trained into being proficient in topic specific digital tools that include those required for the analysis of microbiology data such as epidemiology analysis and statistical packages, building their skills to assess how outbreaks occur and spread, how microbes grow and propagate, generating, analysing, and presenting data.
Students are further encouraged to use modern means of communicating science for team or individual work including Whatsapp, Teams, Zoom, and utilising cloud/file sharing for communication and team working. The appropriate storage and curating of digital media and communication platforms is increasingly important for the modern microbiologist and their interaction with the general public and patient, and through use and discussion of these students gain an awareness of their roles, plus their limitations and misuse which can have wider impact (e.g., to digital well-being, scientific misinformation, misconduct, research integrity)

Employability: The programme is accredited by the Royal Society of Biology, as such, the programme is already designed to equip students with all the core competencies associated with this accreditation. Throughout the course students will be taught by, and exposed to, a variety of internal and external speakers exposing students to the full extent of microbiology specific roles from patient facing, drug development, basic research to understand pathogen biology. The tasks and assessments undertaken across the modules are specifically chosen to equip students with knowledge and skills that are key to the role of modern microbiologists. Paramount to this idea, students will develop their ability to critically appraise evidence and apply the appropriate knowledge to specific pathogens, case studies, outbreak scenarios in the development of new mitigations strategies, therapeutic approaches (enterprise skills) or advancing research.

Global and Cultural Capabilities: Like all other programmes at Surrey, Microbiology is taught in an interactive and collaborative way, in a cohort that commonly represents a wealth of nationalities and backgrounds on both students and staff side. Students are encouraged to engage with, and learn from, diverse perspectives through interaction and teamwork. There is clear evidence that different ethnicities, gender, cultures all impact how microbes affect and are managed in the general population. Therefore students will draw from these findings to appreciate better their understanding of response to pathogens at the cellular, organismal and populational level. Students will also develop an understanding of inequalities in health and the underlying causes of inadequate access to diagnostics or specific therapies worldwide, and how this impacts on global health.

Resourcefulness & Resilience: From their first day at Surrey the students are introduced to the expectations regarding teaching, learning and assessment to facilitate self-efficacy and the strong commitment required in this two-way communication. The timetabling promotes agency in planning their workloads in advance and preparations for the many sessions which employs aspects of ¿flipped learning¿, or practical aspect of the course. The different formative and summative assessments are designed to ¿feed forward¿ to assessments within but also across modules in the programme. Collaborative learning, communication, and peer support is foster throughout assessment activities, group works but also participation in topic-specific societies.
Overall in-class activities and assessments, formative and summative, are design to build independent learning, critical thinking, dynamism, risk assessment and problem-solving attributes. By its structure the microbiology programme enables students to draw upon individual and collective resourcefulness. Whether individually or as a cohort, through practical and professional elements of the programme, the importance of leadership, self-efficacy and resilience is highlighted in the microbiologist role profile and the challenges associated to raising to excellence.

Sustainability: Sustainability is becoming increasingly important for modern microbiologist, whether it is through accessible diagnostic tools, treatments or drugs, or managing a research in the context of challenging consumables sourcing and often poor or limited option for sustainability. Broader aspects relevant to sustainability, linked to food microbiology including food production, processing, distribution, retail and impact on global resources and the environment are topics that are addressed across the programme. Seminars and tutorials give students the opportunity to explore specific topical aspects of sustainability including how to develop low impact diagnostics or eco-friendly lab research culture through addressing the key questions that are : How do you make a lab more environmentally friendly? How do you conduct a sustainable research? How do you run a sustainability science research group sustainably? How do you make a project environmentally friendly? Students are provided opportunities to demonstrate this in practice during laboratory sessions and their final year project.