| The postgraduate students, all of whom are from India and Pakistan, have signed up for the increasingly popular MSc degree in biotechnology, which has until now only run from September.
Until this week, no other course at Abertay has ever run from January.
Dr Graham Wishart, who runs the postgraduate course, said, “This degree has always been very popular, particularly with students from India, and we have seen demand increasing steadily over the past few years.
“Our September intake is simply not big enough to cope, so we have introduced an additional programme that will run from January each year, and allows us to keep standards of teaching at the same high level for all our students.”
A second reason for running this particular degree in January is the large numbers of applications received from students in India.
Many Indian degrees, particularly those in agriculture and pharmacy, hold their graduation in late summer.
This makes it very difficult for applicants to join the usual September intake at Abertay.
Dr Wishart continued, “Without the option of starting a course in January, these students would be forced to wait more than a year before they could continue their studies at postgraduate level.
“By running this course in January, we are helping to keep their education, and their career, running smoothly.”
Students starting the course have completed degrees in subjects including biotechnology, aquaculture and veterinary medicine at universities across India and Pakistan.
The MSc degree allows students to extend their qualifications as a preparation for a career in the biosciences.
The course offers students the opportunity to specialise in areas such as molecular biology, genomics, proteomics, plant, animal, microbial and environmental biotechnology.
The University of Abertay Dundee was the first in Scotland to introduce a degree in biotechnology. It is now a leader for teaching and industrially-relevant research and consultancy in environmental science. |
