Our MSc in Neuroimaging for Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience will provide you with the theoretical and practical skills required to carry out high-quality cognitive brain imaging work in healthy individuals and patient populations.
Our course is aimed at graduates with scientific training in fields as diverse as experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, neuroscience, physics, computer science, mathematics, medicine, pharmacology, and engineering who are interested in a career where brain imaging forms a major focus, or where the scientific and technological needs of brain imaging are addressed.
The course aims to provide a unique environment in which students from a variety of scientific backgrounds can work together in a way that reflects their potential future collaborations, and in which they can readily acquire the multidisciplinary skills needed.
You will explore issues relating to the optimisation of fMRI and EEG data acquisition and analysis, with a particular focus on the cross-talk between the physics of the scanning environment, the psychology of the experimental design, and the neuroanatomy and neurophysiology of the human brain.
In addition, the course offers an in-depth grounding in cognitive, social, behavioural, and clinical neuroscience theory, and offers the opportunity to be directly involved neuroimaging research.
Graduating students will be ideally placed to make major contributions to research and technological development within the field of brain imaging.
MSc + PhD studentships
Our MSc can form the first year of Research Council-funded 1+3 postgraduate PhD studentships (such as from the ESRC Northwest Doctoral Training Centre ).
Our course is delivered through a series of lectures and practical lab-based classes, as well as informal seminar-style sessions encouraging interaction and discussion.
The research project offers one-to-one supervision within the research environment.
Apart from doing standard background reading and preparation for coursework and examinations, you will be required to work on lab-based skills outside formal teaching times. Dedicated facilities will be available for this.
Assessment will vary between course units, but will comprise a mixture of examinations (including short answer and multiple-choice formats), coursework, lab reports and a final research report.
You will take eight taught course units worth 15 credits each and complete a research project.
Semester 1:
Semester 2:
Research projects
For the research project, you will join an active neuroimaging research programme from across the University. A wide variety of research options will be made available in the hope that the experience reflects the research environment that you might enter once you have graduated.
All students will be required to carry out a major component of neuroimaging data analysis and interpretation of results as part of the project. Project results will be presented in poster format at a mini-conference towards the end of the course.
You will be able to access a range of facilities throughout the University.
Practical support and advice for current students and applicants is available from the Disability Advisory and Support Service
This MSc will prepare you for a career path in scientific and clinical research and academia, as it provides the ideal platform from which to proceed to doctoral work involving brain imaging.
The course also provides clear career paths in specialist software and hardware industries, and in specialist sections of the pharmaceutical industry.
In addition, our MSc offers a high-level specialisation relevant for students and graduates of medicine.
Lead academic: Dr Jonathan Wood
Translational Neuroscience looks at how laboratory research relating to brain structure and function informs the development of new therapies for diseases of the nervous system.
Combining the research strengths from the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health and the Faculty of Science, leading international basic and clinical scientists will provide an innovative and progressive programme. You’ll study basic neurobiology and molecular biology through to neuroimaging and applied clinical practice.
The MSc will provide you with up-to-date knowledge of advances in the field, research experience with internationally renowned research groups and transferable skills to provide a springboard for your future career.
You’ll be based in teaching hospitals that serve a population of over half a million people and refer a further two million. We also have close links with the University’s other health-related departments.
Our research funding comes from many sources including the NIHR, MRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, the Department of Health, EU, and prominent charities such as the Wellcome Trust, ARC, YCR, Cancer Research UK and BHF. Our partners and sponsors include Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Astra Zeneca and Eli Lilly.
You’ll also benefit from our collaboration with the Department of Biomedical Sciences.
Classes are kept small (15–20 students) to make sure you get the best possible experience in laboratories and in clinical settings.
We have a state-of-the-art biorepository and a £30m stem cell laboratory. The Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) opened in November 2010. We also have microarray, genetics, histology, flow cytometry and high-throughput screening technology, and the latest equipment for bone and oncology research.
At our Clinical Research Facility, you’ll be able to conduct studies with adult patients and volunteers. The Sheffield Children’s Hospital houses a complementary facility for paediatric experimental medical research.
If your course involves a significant risk of exposure to human blood or other body fluids and tissue, you’ll need to complete a course of Hepatitis B immunisation before starting. We conform to national guidelines that are in place to protect patients, health care workers and students.
A 20-week Research Project will be undertaken in the summer term.
Lectures, seminars, tutorials, laboratory demonstrations, computer practicals and student-led group work.
Assessment is primarily by written assignments and coursework, although there are some written examinations and oral presentations. The research project is assessed by a thesis and presentation.
This course is about the relationship between brain function and mechanisms that underpin behaviour.
Computational neuroscience uses data to construct models of brain function. Cognitive neuroscience and human imaging relate function to its underlying neural substrate.
The course includes a long research project which gives you the chance to carry out an in-depth imaging study. The computational and analytical skills you’ll learn are great preparation for a PhD.
The course takes students from both life sciences and the physical sciences and engineering. Appropriate training is given to ensure all students can master the required skills and complete the course successfully.
For the taught component of the course, students choose one of two options: either a pathway focused on mathematics, computational neuroscience and MR-physics or a pathway focused on ethics, clinical neurology, neuroradiology and neuroanatomy, which includes a practical human brain dissection course.
You’ll develop the skills and knowledge for all sorts of careers. Many of our graduates continue to PhD level. Others work as research associates and assistant psychologists for employers such as universities and the NHS. Throughout your course, you’ll have frequent reviews with your tutor to discuss your learning needs and objectives.
Our ongoing collaborative projects with hospitals, mental health care units, the police and prison service, and several leading firms in business and industry will show you how psychology can be applied in the real world.
You’ll also benefit from our research excellence. We don’t just focus on one or two specialisms – with active researchers in most areas of psychology, we are consistently one of the highest-ranked research departments in the UK.
Whatever your particular interest, we have the facilities for your research. Our research environment was rated amongst the best in the country in the last national assessment. We are exceptionally well resourced for research in Social and Health Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Developmental Psychology, with a dedicated suite of rooms for different participant groups.
To give you the right tools for your research, there is a fully equipped neuroscience unit with excellent facilities for brain imaging, neuroanatomy, electrophysiology, behavioural neuroscience and computational neuroscience. We have access to a small-bore MRI device and to the University’s MRI facility for human studies.
Please contact us for the latest funding opportunities.
PATHWAY 1
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PATHWAY 2
Teaching is through lectures, seminars and laboratory classes.
There are examinations at the end of semesters one and two, written coursework and an extensive empirical research project over the summer.
The course is designed to prepare you for a PhD, but your experience could land you a job in the private sector as a lab technician or a developer.
The MSc in Psychology (Conversion) is a full-time taught postgraduate programme run by the School of Psychology and Neuroscience.
Over two semesters, students will take nine compulsory modules. The modules are taught through lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials. Assessment comprises entirely of coursework; there are no exams. Class sizes range up to 135 students for lectures, which are shared with undergraduates in our Honours programme for modules focusing in core psychological knowledge, and up to 20 students for seminars, workshops, and tutorials.
The final three months of your course will be dedicated to a 15,000-word research project dissertation.
In addition to the support provided by the research project supervisor and module coordinators, there is a dedicated team of staff offering support for students.
Further particulars regarding curriculum development.
The modules in this programme have varying methods of delivery and assessment. For more details of each module, including weekly contact hours, teaching methods and assessment, please see the latest module catalogue which is for the 2017–2018 academic year; some elements may be subject to change for 2018 entry.
This combined research and taught masters programme provides students with a research orientated training in the practical, theoretical and applied elements of Exercise and Sport Sciences.
Optional modules make up the taught component of the course, and offer teaching, learning and experience in core disciplines of exercise and health as well as in sport. Research experience is offered in academic or industrial settings within exercise, health or sports sciences.
The MRes in Exercise and Sport Sciences is a one-year full-time masters course programme that provides students with a research-orientated training in a lively, highly interactive teaching and research environment.
This programme takes students who have a research focus, from a variety of backgrounds at entry and gives them new skills to enable them to move into further research and/or employment in a number of disciplines.
It is offered by the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, in collaboration with the School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, and Department of Nursing and Physiotherapy in the University of Birmingham Medical School.
The purpose of the MRes Exercise and Sport Sciences is to provide a strong foundation for research in exercise and sport sciences in health and disease
Course Information
The taught elements of the course will be delivered in the form of optional modules in core disciplines within exercise and sports sciences, allowing students to shape the course to their particular interest. Optional modules include: Neuromuscular performance through the human lifetime; Integrated body systems; Cardiovascular and respiratory physiology; Nutrition and metabolism in health and obesity; Psychology of physical activity promotion.
Extended research experience is offered in the shape of a six-month research project in the students chosen discipline.
Specific areas of active research include:
The courses have a taught component, and an extended period of research to produce a dissertation.
The career opportunities available to sport and exercise scientists are expanding all the time. The 2012 London Olympics and increased National Lottery funding for sport has increased the number of jobs in elite level sport and public health. Many hospitals are starting to appoint specialists with exercise backgrounds to work in areas such as cardiac rehabilitation and health promotion. Clubs in a variety of different sports employ sports scientists as performance analysts, biomechanists and coaches. Other career routes include roles in the fitness and leisure industry, governing bodies, teaching, exercise prescription and testing, and sport promotion.
You will also have the support of a dedicated careers and employability team, to offer individual advice and guidance services and deliver an employability programme tailored to your needs.
Find out more on the Careers Network intranet pages
The Neurasmus program is a full-time Neuroscience study program offering a unique interdisciplinary and integrated approach of normal brain functions and diseases. It strongly emphasizes training in cutting-edge techniques in all major topics of brain research, from molecules to cognition. The Neurasmus curricula are completely embedded in international-oriented local Master programs of the partner universities. Each program features among the best and most reputed national programs in Neuroscience. The Neurasmus program is an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree developed under the Key Action 1 of the Erasmus+ program.
At the application stage, students choose the main track they wish to follow. This defines their first year mobility. Depending on the track chosen, students spend their first and second semesters in Amsterdam/Göttingen /Berlin/Bordeaux. The Board of Education agrees on the first, second or third wish according to the selection ranking and intake capacity of partner institutions. At the end of the first semester, students choose a subspecialty which defines the partner university(ies) for the 2nd year. It is part of the student’s Personal Training Plan (PTP).
Main Tracks
Students have up to the end of first year/start of third semester to choose the subject of their Master Thesis. Students then spend their third and fourth semesters in one or two locations: Amsterdam/Göttingen/Berlin/Bordeaux/Laval.
Semester 1 and 2: Core curriculum
Semester 3: Advanced courses
Semester 4: Master thesis
On completion of the Master program, students are qualified candidates for different exchange and training PhD programs currently available among the consortium members.
Graduates will have also the possibility to pursue their studies at PhD level at any of the consortium graduate schools or at any other research institution worldwide.
Graduates interested in starting a career within the business sector, benefit from the industrial network of the consortium.
High standards: The Bordeaux International Master of Neuroscience emphasises training in cutting-edge techniques in all major topics of brain research, from molecules to cognition. Its main objective is to foster Neuroscience education and train new brain scientists, by offering a unique interdisciplinary and integrated approach from normal brain functions to brain disorders.
Excellent teaching: In Bordeaux, about 30 professors and lecturers in Neuroscience are involved in teaching as well as many neuroscientists and colleagues specialized in psychology, cognition, modeling, physiology, genetics, medicine, brain imaging, etc.
Top research/traineeships: Neuroscience in Bordeaux has grown over the last 15 years to become one of the largest Neuroscience scientific communities in France and in Europe, with over 600 people working in the various Neuroscience laboratories of the University of Bordeaux. In order to meet the most important challenges facing Neuroscience research, all these laboratories are grouped within a virtual institute, called the Bordeaux Neurocampus, a multidisciplinary consortium of world renowned scientists. Bordeaux Neurocampus offers, together with our international academic partners, excellent opportunities for traineeships.
Interaction with the professional sector: Students have access to Pharma multinationals for traineeships through internationally oriented consortia such as Pierre Fabre, Sanofi-Aventis, Glaxo-SmithKline etc.
International mobility is highly recommended for at least one of the two traineeships. Mobility fellowships are provided upon application.
Year 1:
Semester 1: September - January (30 ECTS)
Compulsory courses
Semester 2: January - June (30 ECTS)
Year 2:
Semester 3: September - January (30 ECTS)
Compulsory courses
Optional courses
Semester 4: January - June (30 ECTS)
After graduation, students have access to career opportunities in the industrial sector, in clinical research or may carry out further fundamental research as PhD students.
