Are you interested in the evolution of animal behaviour, the genetic engineering of crops or the hidden worlds of molecular and cell biology? Are you curious about how plants and animals will respond to climate change?

Our course will teach you the full scope of life through multiple biological disciplines: from bacteria to blue whales, from enzymes to ecosystems. For the first two years you’ll develop an in-depth understanding of the general processes that govern life on Earth, before specialising according to your interests in the latter half of the degree programme. As you develop your practical skills you’ll become involved with research, giving you the opportunity to contribute to biological discoveries.

Fieldwork will be an essential part of your training. In addition to fieldwork in Scotland, we run optional fieldtrips in Years 3 and 4. One course is currently situated in southern Europe (for example, recent trips have travelled to the French Cévennes Mountains, a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, to the CERES Field Centre in Parque Natural do Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vicentina on the western Portuguese Atlantic coast). Another is based at Gabon’s Lopé National Park, in the heart of the western Congo Basin, where Stirling scientists have a long history of ecological and conservation management research.

Our staff, active in international research, will ensure you have the skills and in-depth knowledge required for any of the diverse careers in biology.

From life science jobs to research and teaching, there’s a great deal of variation in jobs available to graduates with an Animal Biology degree including:

• research scientist
• science writer
• medical writer
• biotechnologist
• higher education lecturer
• microbiologist
• nanotechnologist
• conservation
• pharmacologist
• secondary school teacher
• soil scientist
• statistician
• zoologist

Animal biologists work in the agricultural, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, and in conservation management and environmental agencies. Other career paths include: forensic sciences, teaching, the food industry, commercial analytical laboratories and, with further study, professions allied to medicine, and in academic, government and industrial research laboratories.

About one third of recent Stirling Biology graduates have continued their studies to obtain a further qualification, such as an MSc or PhD.