13.10.2015

School of Natural Sciences Structured PhD Programme

General guidelines

PhD students in the School of Natural Sciences Students will take 30 ECTS through courses in addition to their research project. The assessment of all modules is on a pass/fail basis. Pass level is 40% unless otherwise specified. Credit can be granted only one time per module.

Modules to be taken have to be agreed between the student and his/her supervisor. Moreover, for all modules that are not assessed directly by the supervisor, students must first be accepted by the module owner. Before registering for a module, students should therefore always contact module owners to check 1) whether the module is taught at all in a certain time period and 2) whether space is available for them (since many modules have quotas).

The School of Natural Sciences will abide by the College of Science Structured PhDguidelines:

General guidelines for research degree programs can be found on the Graduate Studies website:

Modules offered

Different types of modules are available for the structured PhD program. General Graduate Studies (GS) modules fall into two broad categories: Those modules that are assessed by the supervisor (Table1) and those modules that are delivered and/or coordinated by dedicated "module owners” (Table 2). Module descriptions for all of these modules can be found on the Graduate Studies website( by clicking on the respective module codes. In addition to GS modules, special modules are offered by various disciplines for structured PhD students (Table 3).

Modules from the taught postgraduate programs in the College of Science (CoS) have also been made available for PhD students although quotas may be in place and spaces may be quite limited. It is therefore essential that prior acceptance by module owners is sought for these modules. An overview of all taught postgraduate programs and the modules offered can be found here: Contact the program coordinators listed there for details on module codes, module owners and module contents.

Moreover, students may also take modules offered by other Schools within the CoS (e.g.Physics, Chemistry) or even from other Colleges (e.g. Medicine) with approval of the respective module owners. If students wish to take modules from other Colleges than CoS, they should first submit a request to the CoS.If granted, the respective module code will be added to the CoS syllabus file.

Finally, modules from other Irish universities are also available and may be recognized by CoS upon request:

Table1: GS modules assessed by supervisor
Module Code / Title / ECTS
GS501 / Seminar Programmeor Conference Participation / 5
GS502 / Participation in Journal Club Programme / 5
GS505 / Graduate Research Skills / 5
GS508 / Formulating a Research Project Proposal / 5
GS509 / Participation in Workshops/Courses / 5
GS511 / Research Placement 1 / 5
GS512 / Engaging with the community: research, practice and reflection / 10
GS513 / Research Placement 2 / 10
GS514 / Research Placement 3 / 15
GS515 / Research Paper Publication / 5
GS516 / Work-based Placement 1 / 5
GS517 / Work-basedPlacement 2 / 10
GS518 / Work-basedPlacement 3 / 15
GS526 / Oral/Poster communication / 5
GS527 / Clinical Skill Development 1 / 5
GS528 / Clinical Skill Development 2 / 5
GS529 / Clinical Skill Development 3 / 5
GS532 / Introduction to Psychopharmacology(BAP) / 5
GS536 / Communication & Outreach / 5
GS5103 / Conference Organisation / 5
Table 2: GS modules with module owner
Contact Person / Module
Code / Title / ECTS
/ GS506 / Teaching & Learning / 5
/ GS507 / Statistical Methods for Research / 5
/ GS530 / Graduate Research Information Skills / 5
/ GS520 / BioInnovate I Core: Needs finding to concept generation / 10
/ GS521 / BioInnovate I core and project: Needs finding to concept generation / 15
/ GS522 / BioInnovate II Core: Concept Development and Implementation / 10
/ GS523 / BioInnovate II Core and project: Concept Development and Implementation / 5
/ GS5101 / BioInnovate I: Needs finding to concept generation / 5
/ GS5102 / BioInnovate II: Concept Development and Implementation / 5
/ GS525 / Laboratory Animal Science Training (LAST) Ireland course / 5
/ GS535 / Induction & Professional Development / 5
Table 3: Other modules
Contact Person / Module
Code / Title / ECTS
/ BI504 / Advanced Cell Biology / 5
/ ZO509 / Biometry – Statistics for Biologists / 5
/ MI504 / Advanced Topics in microbiology / 5
/ EOS6100 / Balancing the hydrological equation / 5
/ EOS5101 / Advanced topics in earth and ocean sciences / 5
/ MA570 / Data analysis for genomics technologies / 5
/ MD536 / Advanced and applied immunology / 5

5.3 GSB 16-11-2015