Course details

Summary

Extend your knowledge in your specialist area at postgraduate level with our honours programme.

The Bachelor of Science (Honours) programme involves one year of full-time study, or two years of part-time study, after you have completed the requirements for the Bachelor of Science.

Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics involves the development and application of computational methods in biology, biotechnology and medicine, taking advantage of rapidly expanding databases including those related to biodiversity, genomics, proteomics and structural biology. The programme draws mainly on existing courses in biology, mathematics and computer science.

The rationale to develop a comprehensive degree programme in bioinformatics stems from a rapidly changing philosophy of how modern biological and biomedical research is conducted. The global availability of genome sequence information for human, animal, plant and micro-organism systems has led to the development of these new technologies. Scientists require the combined skills of molecular biology and computer science to exploit these data for the various applications. As these disciplines have traditionally been taught separately, there is now a severe world-wide shortage of people with these combined skills, and demand is expected to grow strongly throughout the next several decades as the new technologies are further developed.

Requirements:

• 45 points: BIOINF 702, 703, 704
• 45 points: BIOINF 789 Project
• 30 points from BIOSCI 733, 737, 752, 755–758, COMPSCI 715, 720, 732, 760, 767, MATHS 764, STATS 720, 721, 730, 731, 761, 783, 784

Career opportunities

Bioinformaticists find employment in public institutions and in the private sector.

Further study options

• Master of Information Technology
• Master of Energy
• Master of Science
• Master of Speech Language Therapy Practice
• Doctor of Philosophy
• Doctor of Clinical Psychology

Bachelor of Science (Honours) other subjects:

Applied Mathematics, Biological Sciences, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth Sciences, Exercise Sciences, Food Science, Geography, Geology, Geophysics, Logic and Computation, Mathematics, Medical Physics and Image Technology, Medical Statistics, Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacology, Photonics, Physics, Physiology, Psychology, Statistics.

Entry criteria

The prerequisite is a major in Bioinformatics or Biological Sciences and COMPSCI 220 or equivalent as approved by the Director and at least 90 points at Stage III.

English language requirements:IELTS 6.5; TOEFL (iBT) 90; TOEFL (paper-based) 575; CAE or CPE 176; PTE 58; MELAB 85.