MSc Plant Genetics and Crop Improvement (Part time)

Key Details

Attendance: Part Time
Award: Degree of Master of Science
Course Length: 2 years
Course Start Date: September 2023

Other Start Dates

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Course Overview

One of the greatest challenges facing humanity is sustainable food production for a rapidly increasing global population. Achieving this will depend, amongst other things, on our ability to expedite the production of new higher yielding crop varieties that are better adapted to a changing climate, and which will require fewer inputs, such as fertilisers and other agro-chemicals.

You’re ready to specialise in plant genetics and crop improvement at the John Innes Centre (JIC), a ground-breaking institute for research on plant and microbial sciences. With this expert, cutting-edge training, you’ll have the perfect grounding to move onto a PhD, or alternatively into a career within the plant breeding industry.

This MSc in Plant Genetics and Crop Improvement enables you to explore the theoretical basis of plant breeding and statistics, plant genetics, genomics and bioinformatics, while at the same time gaining valuable practical experience. You'll also receive training in key transferable skills. Alongside your taught modules (worth 120 credits), you’ll also complete a laboratory-based research project (worth 60 credits), giving you the opportunity to work alongside world-leading scientists at JIC, The Sainsbury Laboratory, the Earlham Institute, or possibly with an industry partner.

The JIC, which is based on the Norwich Research Park, is one of the world’s leading research institutes in plant genetics and crop improvement. So, there are few better places to study this topic within a world-class teaching and research environment.

About

Our MSc in Plant Genetics and Crop Improvement is perfect training if you plan to study for a further degree in plant genetics, or alternatively, a career in plant breeding and crop improvement. It’s a unique opportunity to study plant molecular genetics and its potential applications in the 21st century, within an environment of academic and research excellence.

JIC is one of the world’s leading research institutes in plant genetics and crop improvement. This means you’ll benefit from teaching by research staff at JIC, and a number of leading plant breeding and plant biotechnology companies within the UK.

In your taught modules, you’ll cover subjects including plant molecular genetics and biotechnology, target traits for crop improvement, and plant breeding with statistics – as well as learning key transferable skills such as laboratory research and communication skills. An important element of the course is the substantial six-month laboratory-based research project that you’ll conduct under the supervision of a senior scientist. As part of this you’ll submit a dissertation and present a seminar on your research project. We offer research projects in the following key areas:

Crop plant genetics
Plant biotechnology and crop improvement
Plant genome organisation
Plant-microbe interactions
Cell and developmental biology
Plant gene function

In recent years, the career prospects for students with a postgraduate degree in plant genetics and crop improvement have been very good, often leading to a PhD or employment within the UK plant breeding industry.

Entry Requirements

Degree Classification

Bachelors degree 2.1 or equivalent

Degree Subject

Biological Sciences or Plant Biology. Employment experience with a plant breeding company or related research experience would be advantageous.

English Foreign Language

We welcome applications from students whose first language is not English. To ensure such students benefit from postgraduate study, we require evidence of proficiency in English. Our usual entry requirements are as follows:

IELTS: 6.0 (minimum 5.5 in two components only, with 6.0 in the other two)
PTE (Pearson): 64 (minimum 59 in two components only with 64 in the other two)

Test dates should be within two years of the course start date.

Other tests, including Cambridge English exams and the Trinity Integrated Skills in English are also accepted by the university. The full list of accepted tests can be found here: Accepted English Language Tests

INTO UEA also run pre-sessional courses which can be taken prior to the start of your course. For further information and to see if you qualify please contact intopre-sessional@uea.ac.uk.

Deferred Entry

This course is open to UK, EU and International applicants. The annual intake for this course is in September each year.

Additional Information or Requirements

Applicants are required to submit two references with their application - at least one of these must be related to your most recent academic study.

Fees and Funding

Tuition fees for the Academic Year 2023/24 are:

UK Students: £12,250 (full time) (includes £1000 bench fee). We also offer a limited number of scholarships to UK students worth between £4.5K-£5K. Further details of these scholarships, and the eligibility criteria, can be found at the following links –

The Chadacre Trust Scholarship
The Clan Trust Scholarship
The Ranworth Trust Scholarship
The Lugden Hill Trust
The Morley Agricultural Foundation Trust Scholarship

If you choose to study part-time, the fee per annum will be half the annual fee for that year, or a pro-rata fee for the module credit you are taking (only available for Home students).

International Students: we are pleased to announce that for the academic year 2023-24 self-funded international students will qualify for a John Innes Centre M.Sc Scholarship (John Innes Centre International Student Scholarships - Fees and Funding (uea.ac.uk). These scholarships will be awarded in the form of a tuition fee discount; eligible students will pay a tuition fee of £12,250 instead of the normal international student rate of £23,500 (includes £1000 bench fee).

We estimate living expenses at £1,023 per month.

Further Information on tuition fees can be found here.

Course Related Costs

Please see Additional Course Fees for details of additional course-related costs.

How to Apply

Applications for Postgraduate Taught programmes at the University of East Anglia should be made directly to the University.

To apply please use our online application form.

FURTHER INFORMATION

If you would like to discuss your individual circumstances prior to applying please do contact us:

Postgraduate Admissions Office
Tel: +44 (0)1603 591515
Email: admissions@uea.ac.uk

International candidates are also encouraged to access the International Students section of our website.

Employability

After the Course

You’ll graduate from this prestigious course well prepared for a career in plant breeding and crop improvement, or further PhD study in this area. Having studied at one of the world’s leading research centres in this field, it’s no wonder that our most recent graduates have achieved great success in finding employment or academic research positions.

Careers

A degree at UEA will prepare you for a wide variety of careers. We've been ranked 1st for Job Prospects by StudentCrowd in 2022.

Examples of careers that you could enter include:

Plant breeding
Crop improvement/Agronomy

Discover more on our Careers webpages.