Undergraduate Programmes

The MChem Degree

• Accredited by the Royal Society of Chemistry
• Requires 5 years of full-time study

The BSc Honours Degree

• Accredited by the Royal Society of Chemistry
• Requires 4 years of full-time study

We also offer a BSc Designated degree in Chemistry after three years of study.

Our teaching in the first two years aims to give a balanced treatment of all the main branches of the subject.

In the third and fourth years we develop a selection of topics in more depth and include courses where students may look at the application of fundamental science to understanding issues ranging from biomaterials to environmental remediation and nanotechnology.

Level 4 includes more advanced lecture topics, including research-led teaching. Students will undertale a research project where they'll have the opportunity to interact with active research groups. For students opting for the MChem degree, this offers a large four month research project placement which may be hosted in an overseas research laboratory. Options enable students to tailor their programmes to suit their own aptitudes and interests.

Sponsored summer studentships are available for students at level 3 and 4 which again, allow an opportunity to gain research experience.

• Students normally study Chemistry for the Physical Sciences I and Elements of Chemistry 1 in the first half-session and Chemistry for the Physical Sciences II and Elements of Chemistry 2, in the second half-session.
   
• The remainder of the first year programme is made up of an additional four courses, so that Chemistry accounts for one half of the total first year work load. Non-Chemistry courses are known as Enhanced Study, and offers flexibility, choice, and support to our students.
   
• Students who think they may want to take one of the specialised degrees must also include the appropriate additional course(s) in their Level 1 curriculum. We suggest that intending Chemistry students should also include some study of Mathematics at an appropriate level.

• Students take five Chemistry courses, Chemical Kinetics and Thermodynamics, Inorganic Chemistry, Organic and Biological Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry and Spectroscopy, and Introduction to Materials.
• The four main lecture and labs courses consists of 22 one-hour lectures, 5 tutorials, and 12 three-hour lab sessions. Introduciton to Materials has workshops to introduce different topics and then independent or group research and study for continuous assessments on each materials topic.
• Chemistry normally takes up half of the second year curriculum, with further courses behing taken from Enhanced Study options.
• The other subjects to be taken may be partially or fully specified for the specialised programmes.

• Chemistry courses occupy the whole of the level 3 timetable, except for that students taking specialised degrees may spend up to 25% of their time in other departments.
• Level 3 includes a course Professional Skills for Physics and Chemistry which includes IT, data analysis and programming skills, library and literature skills, and careers planning and employability.
• In the fourth year of the BSc programmes, a personal research project is an important component of the course.
• Level 4 has an Advanced Honours Chemistry module which covers a range of current topics based on lecturers research interests and specialisms. This include topics such as inorganic biomaterials, medicinal chemistry, catalysis and materials for energy applications. Students have some choice in which lecture topics to attend based on their own interests.
• There is also an Enhanced Study option in level 4. Students often take the course Science in Society which includes science in the media, ethics, interlectual property and entrepreneurship.
• The first half of the Level 5 course consists of Chemistry course work; the rest of the session is spent on a full-time research project. The project work may be done in industry, at an overseas university, or in the University, depending on the availability of placements.

Our teaching in the first two years aims to give a balanced treatment of all the main branches of the subject. In the third and fourth years we develop a selection of topics in more depth, and offer options which enable students to tailor their programmes to suit their own aptitudes and interests.

Teaching involves a mix of methods: lectures in whole-class groups, informal small-group tutorials, problem classes and seminars, and practical classes. In addition to formal timetabled teaching, we make extensive use of computer-assisted learning materials, group activities, literature work and project work. The teaching of skills in report-writing, communication, information technology and computing is built into the curriculum at all levels.

Although science students often complain about the time they have to spend in practicals, and envy their Arts colleagues who do not have to do so, the laboratories are very often the focus of the social life of the class, where friendships are made, evening and weekend activities planned, and a group spirit developed which may last long after the class has graduated.

These are the subjects that you must pass in order to graduate with the degree of BSc with Honours in Chemistry.

In your first year of study, you must take courses in addition to those specified, in each half-session. We recommend that some these courses should be in Mathematics, but this is not compulsory. Again, in your second year of study, you must take additional courses. See our pages on Enhanced Study for more details.

Environmental Chemistry is one of the public and friendly faces of chemistry. Decisions based on research in Environmental Chemistry have enormous consequences for all of us. You may think that Environmental Chemistry is mostly about pollution, but really it is a subject for people who want to understand how the world works. That is, in order to understand macroscopic processes in the environment (eg why are polar bears contaminated with mercury), we have to focus on the molecular level.

Environmental Chemistry is concerned with the behaviour of chemicals (natural or man-made) in air, water, soils and sediments. It is an interdisciplinary field at the cross roads of important scientific subjects centred around advanced analytical chemistry. It requires knowledge of fundamental principles of many subject areas, including organic chemistry, soil science, biochemistry, toxicology and ecology. Students of Environmental Chemistry need to learn about the chemistry of organic and inorganic compounds, whether they are produced on purpose or generated as by-products of industrial processes, and about their reactivity and their interactions with living systems.

What do Environmental Chemists do?

“Why do Scottish salmon have higher concentrations of a group of organic compounds called PCBs than salmon from Chile?” is the sort of question that might have to be answered by an Environmental Chemist. The Environmental Chemist has to know and understand the best methods to use to analyse the salmon for the PCBs, and also be aware of the likely sources of the PCBs in our environment. He/she will derive models to try to explain how the chemicals have been transported and transformed in the environment, and why the salmon in particular has a tendency to accumulate so much of it.

“Why do oysters no longer reproduce and why do female periwinkles become male?” Environmental Chemists will analyse the water and sediment, and predict the source of a chemical called TBT? “Did the people in pre-Columbian villages suffer from high level of arsenic in their drinking water?” There are mummies that reveal the answer if you know how arsenic behaves in the environment and in contact with humans.

The skills and training of the Environmental Chemistry programme mean that that graduates have excellent job prospects. For example, a BSc graduate would be well qualified to work for SEPA (Scottish Environmental Protection Agency), for a water or energy company to be responsible for environmental monitoring of the quality of water and industrial processes; or alternatively, as a chemist in a forensic laboratory, where well developed interdisciplinary skills and a high level of analytical understanding are required.

Environmental Chemistry students study the full Chemistry course at all levels, with particular emphasis on analytical chemistry, and in addition take courses on ecology, molecular and cell biology, microbiology, and soil science.

These are the subjects that you must pass in order to graduate with the degree of BSc with Honours in Environmental Chemistry:

In your first year of study, you must take courses in addition to those specified, in each half-session. Again, in your second year of study, you must take additional courses. See our pages on Enhanced Study for more details.

The MChem degree, which is fully accredited by the Royal Society of Chemistry, requires five years of full-time study. This is our standard non-specialised chemistry course; it has the advantage that you have a full choice of the additional subjects that you take along with chemistry in the first two years of the course.

These are the subjects that are you must pass in order to graduate with the degree of MChem:

In your first year of study, you must take additional courses in addition to those specified, in each half-session. We recommend that one or two of these courses should be in Mathematics, but this is not compulsory. Again, in your second year of study, you must take additional courses. See our pages on Enhanced Study for more details.

The following are the subjects that you must pass in order to graduate with the degree of MChem with Honours in Environmental Chemistry.

In your first year of study, you must take courses in addition to those specified, in each half-session. Again, in your second year of study, you must take additional courses. See our pages on Enhanced Study for more details.