On behalf of all the staff I very much welcome you to the Department of Life Sciences. This newly formed department brings together the departments of Biology and Biochemistry and Pharmacy and Pharmacology, and the vision is for it to be at the forefront of world-leading research and teaching in the life sciences.
I am sure you are looking forward to starting your university career and we hope that you will continue to be successful in your studies. We are here to help you to transition to tertiary education. We aim to support you to embrace the personal and academic growth that being at university encourages. If you encounter any issues, we need you to come forward to take up the support we have.
There is a programme of Welcome events - in these we will give you more details about your new Department, studying at University of Bath and about your degree course. This will be a large amount of information, so we will have recordings and online resources to which you can refer if you miss something. However, we do encourage you to try to grasp the main points straight away as that will allow a smoother transition to your new environment.
Early on you get to meet your Personal Tutor, who will be a point of both academic and pastoral support for you during your studies. It is important to build a strong relationship with your tutor, but, as with all relationships, both parties need to put in effort for it to work really well. Your Personal Tutor would normally be the first contact point if you have an issue whilst at University.
A second set of staff who help students are the Directors of Studies. A Director of Studies is the lead academic for a course and its year group. Our undergraduate Directors of Studies are:
- Dr Susan Crennell (Biochemistry all years)
- Dr James Doughty (Biology all years)
- Dr Cressida Lyon (Biomedical Sciences all years)
- Mrs Angela Mitchell (Pharmacy Years 1 and 2)
- Dr Matthew Jones (Pharmacy Years 3 and 4)
- Dr Christine Edmead (Pharmacology all years)
You will get to meet your Director of Studies during the Welcome events. Your Director of Studies is responsible for the day-to-day management of your course and liaising with you about your course.
As Director of Education, I have an overarching role to ensure overall smooth operation of teaching in the Department.
We look forward to meeting you at the start of the academic year. Please arrive refreshed and ready to throw yourself into all that the University has to offer; it is your degree so make the most of it.
Dr Chris Todd, Director of Education