Natural Sciences at Cambridge

The University of Cambridge has an undergraduate degree program in the sciences that differs from most other universities, in that one cannot read only one 'science', but a student must study several different broad bases of the sciences in their 1st year, specialising further in the 2nd year of their Tripos and completely in their 3rd year in, for example, genetics or anatomy. Whilst other universities in the United Kingdom offer such a course, such as the University of Birmingham, they generally do so with other, specialised science degrees. There is no such comparable option in Cambridge.

This structure also allows other scientific subjects to link with Natural Sciences at Cambridge such as Computer Sciences, Mathematics (a traditionally very strong subject at Cambridge) and Medicine, so that once, say, the 2-year Part I of the Medical Sciences tripos has been completed, one can specialise in another biological science in Part II during one's 3rd year, and still come out with a science degree specialised enough to move into postgraduate studies, such as a Ph.D..

The University of Cambridge believe that their course's generalisation then specialisation gives their students an advantage, and they believe that they can do these both because, in their own words, 'we start with the best students, we give them the best teaching and we work them hard.' NatSci information booklet, July 2003.