Biomedical Science @ Monash

[Daenerys Targaryen]

Having completed this degree what career prospects am I looking at?

Edit: Will study more if need be, but where could I branch off to after Biomedical Science?

Thanks,
Khalessi

[hobbitle]

Very little unless you do Honours (possibly also PhD) or use it to get into postgrad Medicine.
Not intending to be negative but it's almost impossible to get any decent jobs with just a 3 year Science/Biomedical Science/Biomedicine degree.

[Daenerys Targaryen]

Will study more if need be, but where could I branch off to after Biomedical Science with Honours?

[hobbitle]

Will study more if need be, but where could I branch off to after Biomedical Science with Honours?

Usually people would go into research but it depends a bit on what your major is?  But in order to progress at all in the research field you require a PhD.

[alondouek]

I'm going to disagree with the above because you do have a pretty broad range of career prospects available to you with a biomed degree from Monash.

Some people decide to do further study (Honours, Masters, PhD), while others will opt to do specialised graduate courses such as the MD. However , other people will go into medical research (which monash biomed prepares you well for, both technically and through connections). The beauty of "medical research" is that it's a very broad term; for example, you could go into the lab-heavy side of medical research, or you could do some more population health-based things.

An example of the latter is where I'm working at the moment, the Monash School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at the Alfred, which deals a lot with epidemiology, biostatistics, health promotion, disease control and modelling etc. It's not lab-based work, but a number of people I work with there have BBiomedSc.

Also re: the above, the Monash biomed degree doesn't have majors, it teaches a set of core units with some space for electives. The point of the biomed degree is to give you a taste of everything biomedicine related (it encompasses - including but not limited to - biological sciences, physics, chemistry, informatics, mathematics, epidemiology, health promotion, biostatistics and computer science from a biomedical perspective).

As for jobs, with the connections you make in undergrad biomed it's not too difficult to find a job if you have the right cocurricular experience to boot.

Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions!

[Russ]

I'm going to disagree with the above because you do have a pretty broad range of career prospects available to you with a biomed degree from Monash.

Which of them don't involve any further study and involve going directly into a long term career?
hobbitle was saying that there aren't a lot of career prospects for someone with just a bachelor's degree, which I agree with. You don't necessarily need a PhD but most people will have ended up with a diploma, MPH, MSc etc.

 

[alondouek]

Which of them don't involve any further study and involve going directly into a long term career?
hobbitle was saying that there aren't a lot of career prospects for someone with just a bachelor's degree, which I agree with. You don't necessarily need a PhD but most people will have ended up with a diploma, MPH, MSc etc.

I agree for the most part with that, but there are a number of people in my department with just a BSc/(Hons) or BBiomedSc/(Hons) working as epidemiologists or biostatisticians. Granted, many of them are working on or towards a higher degree by research but they're still currently employed with the department.

Your prospects of employment in the biomedical sciences would definitely increase as you get higher degrees by research. A BBiomedSc is as good a place to start as any!

[hobbitle]

I only said that with the 3-year degree your career prospects are almost nil.
You can definitely have a career with only Honours (as I also said).
I merely pointed out that if you want to get into higher research you need a PhD.

[Daenerys Targaryen]

(Im actually a noob when it comes to Uni and all of its qualifications and what not)

Having completed biomed, would I still be able to graduate into optometry (and other health sort of stuff other than research and medicine) or do I need MBBS?

I'm not too sure if research is where I want to do

[hobbitle]

You don't need an MBBS to do Optometry.  You can do postgraduate Optometry at several universities with your undergrad Biomedical Science degree, you might need to sit (and score well in) the GAMSAT though, depending on the course.  You need to go to the uni websites and check out their prerequisites for postgrad Optometry.

[alondouek]

(Im actually a noob when it comes to Uni and all of its qualifications and what not)

Having completed biomed, would I still be able to graduate into optometry (and other health sort of stuff other than research and medicine) or do I need MBBS?

I'm not too sure if research is where I want to do

If you're really keen on optometry, I think Deakin offers an undergraduate optometry degree?

[Daenerys Targaryen]

Dont know how i feel about optometry, was just the first example that came to mind. But thats reassuring, knowing I can extend onto other health sciences after it.

In comparing Science and Biomed, does science offer a more diverse range of masters than biomed? Do they overlap?

[alondouek]

Dont know how i feel about optometry, was just the first example that came to mind. But thats reassuring, knowing I can extend onto other health sciences after it.

In comparing Science and Biomed, does science offer a more diverse range of masters than biomed? Do they overlap?

In terms of undergraduate degrees, science is definitely more broad in terms of areas of study. There is also a lot if overlap (e.g. There are a number of units I'd like to for my BSc but cannot because they're prohibited by my BBiomedSc).

However, once you're at the postgrad level, the MSc and the MBiomedSc are both as narrowly-focused as each other, as you'll be focusing very specifically on your chosen area.