Summary of the programme

The first year involves a lot of effort from the students, but they seem to enjoy that. The core of the year is a series of three 14 week Laboratory Placements. For the student, these have two functions - exploring new disciplines, and testing individual laboratories for suitability for undertaking a PhD project. We encourage the students to try diverse areas, and we provide guidance to help the students select what suits them best.

Besides the Laboratory Placements, the first year also includes Basic Training Modules, an Experimental Design Course, Critical Skills Training Sessions and a series of Advanced Teaching and Training Modules.

In the years two to four, the students spend the vast majority of their time working on their PhD projects. During this period our students become very committed to this endeavour, and one of our hardest jobs is tearing them away from their labs for a few minutes to discuss progress. In order to facilitate interaction between all the students in the Programme, we have a monthly Research Forum in which the students from the different years present their own results, and an Annual Scientific Retreat, organised by the Programme students, at which Programme students present talks and posters, in addition to Programme alumni and other invited speakers.