Medical Physiology (Hons) University of East London

Overview

There is placed a strong emphasis on learning all about the body's structure and functions, with a particular focus on anatomy, histology, biochemistry and pharmacology in the Medical Physiology (Hons) course at University of East London.

You will be given a practical insight into the techniques and instrumentation used to investigate the human body in varying states of health and disease, such as fitness tests, chest X-rays and electrocardiograms (ECG), which measure the electrical activity of the heart.

You'll examine life support systems and have the chance to earn a first-aid qualification. You'll also discover what happens when body systems break down and how this can lead to disease.

You'll have the option to take our four-year placement course, which features a year's work experience, normally in a laboratory, after your second year. We've seen how such placements often lead to full-time jobs.

If you don't meet the entry requirements for a BSc degree, you have the option of taking an extended four-year version of this course. You'll begin by taking a Bioscience foundation year which will prepare you for the BSc degree.

Your future career

They've worked hard to ensure that this course will be the perfect launch-pad for your future career. Employers recognise the quality of the scientists we produce at UEL and graduates of our course have landed jobs at Hammersmith Hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital and Royal Brompton Hospital, among others.

If you take the option of the one-year work placement, you'll be in a good position to go on to full-time employment in the same organisation, as many of our graduates have done in the past.

The thorough grounding you'll receive in physiology and the transferable skills you'll learn will open up all sorts of career avenues to you, as Isaac Mwita found.

This 2012 graduate reckons the practical knowledge he acquired in investigating the workings of the human respiratory system during our course was largely responsible for securing him a job as a clinical physiologist in the lung function unit of London's Royal Brompton Hospital.

The students have gone into a variety of jobs in clinical physiology, medicine, radiography, physiotherapy and teaching. In addition, the industrial and pharmaceutical industries are always on the look-out for physiologists.

You might decide to study for a further degree in a related subject, either an MSc or PhD, or embark on a research career in the biological or medical fields. There's always the possibility that, with further study, you could become a doctor or dentist.