Student placements

Biological Sciences at the University of Southampton led the way in offering work placements and we have recently introduced academic placements at a host universities in Australia, New Zealand and Europe.

University of Sydney — Placements at universities in Australia, New Zealand and Europe

We provide expert assistance in helping students to secure their placement through a series of pre-placement workshops on CVs, interviews, and assessment centres as well as through the eﬀorts of our placements tutor.

One-year placements can be in the field or in a research laboratory. Placements are usually paid employment
There are opportunities, in year two, to undertake one semester at partner universities in Australia, New Zealand and Europe
We also work with sponsoring agencies to provide vacation scholarships to undertake a research project in our labs during the summer
If you are interested in mammalian physiology/pharmacology we help students to secure places on the British Pharmacological Society's course, Integrative Pharmacology and Physiology, which provides training for those who want to pursue a research career in this area.

Previous placements include:

GlaxoSmithKline
AstraZeneca
Novartis
Eli Lilly
Pfizer
Sanofi
Jansen-Cilag
Science and Technology Research Council
Kew gardens
Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust
Royal Marsden (NHS)

Study abroad opportunities

University of Adelaide (Adelaide, Australia)
University of Western Australia (Perth, Australia)
University of Tasmania (Hobart, Australia)
Deakin University (Melbourne, Australia)
James Cook University (Townsville, Australia)
University of Sydney (Sydney, Australia)
University of Auckland (Auckland, New Zealand)
University of Vienna (Vienna, Austria)
University of Gothenburg (Gothenburg, Sweden)

Contact Information

For more information on student placements please contact Dr David Tumbarello: D.A.Tumbarello@soton.ac.uk

“My placement year was the real highlight. I was at Astra Zeneca in Cambridge, one of the country’s biggest pharmaceutical companies. I did geno-medicine, modelling cancer to find better treatments, it’s one of the latest technologies and I was fortunate to get all that laboratory experience.”

Charles Dunlop

“I did a placement year at Sanofi, a global pharmaceutical company, in their new product planning and business development team.”

Genevieve Farrell

“I completed a 14 month industrial placement at Sanofi, which is a leading EU pharmaceutical company. I worked in the regulatory affairs department monitoring new safety legislation and maintaining medical drug documentation to ensure patient safety. ”

Francesca Pipkin

“Throughout my time with GSK, I was working alongside doctors, scientists and statisticians who were very helpful and supportive. It was great to see how much the company was science-led and devoted a lot of resources to the development of staff. The pharmaceutical industry can be mistrusted, and it was refreshing to see that GSK went beyond the commercial side of business to enhance its corporate social responsibility and remain focused on R&D.”

Alex Simpson

“ spent a year in industry at GSK in Stevenage looking at ways to monitor liver and kidney fibrosis.”

Phillippa Richardson

“I would recommend other students to do placement years during their degree as I felt I developed new and existing skills during the year and had real-life industry experience when applying for roles after my degree.”

Charlotte Taylor

Previous placements include:

Study abroad opportunities

Contact Information

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