Year in industry

A year in industry is a placement of nine to 12 months undertaken after your 2nd Year, where you'll gain research experience in an industrial or research institute laboratory. We have excellent relationships with a wide variety of organisations offering placement opportunities, some of which are exclusive to the Department of Biology. Our students have had placements at organisations such as GSK, Kew Gardens, AstraZeneca, Francis Crick Institute, Sosei Heptares and Wild Planet Trust.

You'll be contacted by our Biology Placements Coordinator towards the end of your 1st Year, asking if you'd like to express an interest in doing a year in industry. You'll then have regular contact with the Biology Placements Coordinator throughout your 2nd Year, learning more about the year in industry, identifying placement opportunities, making applications and attending interviews.  

As well as advertising a large number of placements, including exclusive opportunities, we offer extensive support and guidance on applications and interviews. We cannot guarantee a placement as many of the placements we offer are competed for nationally. However, our Biology Placements Coordinator guides you through the process of finding and applying for a placement and our Careers and Placements team give you help and support with CV writing and preparation for interviews, which maximises your chances of finding a placement. Students who are offered a placement receive support from the Department during their year away.

Generally students are paid a salary by the employer during their research placement and others can receive a York Futures scholarship to support unfunded positions. Please see the fees webpage for more information. 

A year in industry is available in all of our programmes.

They are similar in many ways, both being graduate-level work placements of 9-12 months. There are two main differences: 

• Year in Industry involves lab or field research and you are assessed through a scientific report.
• Placement Year involves general work (often based in an office rather than lab/field) and is assessed through a reflective report.

We have a number of exclusive relationships with companies and organisations overseas, for example Novartis (California), Mayo Clinic (Florida), Garvan Institute (Sydney), P53 Lab (Singapore), EMBL (Grenoble), UCB (Brussels), Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre (Ontario). It is also possible to source your own placement overseas. 

No, it’s a competitive process and inevitably some people will miss out. However, nine times out of ten, students with an open mind who try hard will succeed!

Almost all Year in Industry and Placement Year opportunities are paid. The average salary is about £19000 per annum.

Currently we have regular virtual drop-ins with students away from the department and which work really well; you have regular contact from your academic supervisor and our placement coordinator. You also get a whole heap of support from your host and we are in touch with them to make sure everything is running smoothly.

Biochemistry students have gone on to a wide range of placement providers, including; GSK, Sosei Heptares, Institute of Cancer Therapeutics, Francis Crick Institute and Charles River.

Biology students have gone on to a wide range of placement providers, including; Pirbright Institute, Kew Gardens, Oxford Gene Technologies, National Botanical Garden of Wales, LifeArc and Bristol Zoo.

Biomedical Sciences students have gone on to a wide range of placement providers, including; Novartis, GSK, UCB, Qiagen and PhoreMost.