Overview
The Cambridge Neuroscience MPhil in Basic and Translational Neuroscience welcomed its first cohort of students in 2015. This innovative interdisciplinary programme for postgraduate students builds on the excellent research training for which Cambridge is renowned but offers a broader experience and greater flexibility than the traditional research MPhil based in a single research group.
Students can take advantage of the broad research community of Cambridge Neuroscience by choosing a project in one of the excellent research groups, alongside modular research training and taught components, including specific neuroscience topics, advanced data analysis and statistics. Our aim is for students to graduate with a deeper understanding and enjoyment of neuroscience and scientific research and establish a network of colleagues and friends who will have shared their experience. Our hope is that they can aspire to become a future leader in whatever direction they wish to take their career, whether it is continued research at PhD level, a career in industry or business, practice in clinical medicine or wherever else their career might take them.
The Cambridge Neuroscience MPhil in Basic and Translational Neuroscience is an extremely popular programme with over 170 applications annually and has grown to accept a maximum of 12-15 students. Establishing a novel MPhil in Basic and Translational Neuroscience, that has >60 members of Cambridge Neuroscience involved in its delivery, has taught 50 students from countries worldwide and has become a flagship teaching programme for future neuroscience leaders gives us a great sense of achievement. Annually, 50-75% of students continue to pursue funded PhD positions upon completion of their MPhil.
Further support would be profoundly useful and enable us to:
- Extend the programme so that more postgraduate students can make the most of this innovative, interdisciplinary style of training.
- Provide studentships to applicants of an exceptional standard so that we can attract the best candidates and allow for greater access to the course.
- Develop the programme into a Cambridge Neuroscience 4-year interdisciplinary PhD programme.