Bioscience laboratory practicals, projects and placements in a Covid-19 world

ABSTRACT

The aim of this review is to discuss alternatives to the traditional practicals, undergraduate projects and student placements that are presently being disrupted by Covid-19. We focus on bioscience higher education (biology, biomedical sciences) with an emphasis on the laboratory sciences. In the context of a shifting environmental and political landscape, we consider whether higher education institutions can deliver the latest bioscience skills and knoweldge sought by employers through the use of virtual learning. To take the pressure off being in the laboratory, we suggest that there may be opportunities to reduce lab teaching, and in doing so, meet industry needs for more computational and policy-related knowledge. There may be opportunities for academic teams to build relationships with local businesses and industry partners to find new solutions, and think about how agility can be incorporated into curriculum design to accommodate the rapidly changing external environment. In this paper we share examples of how the authors work together to enhance student employability. Further research is required to understand the views of each stakeholder – student, academic and business or industry partners - in order to fully understand the context of the problems and possible solutions.

KEYWORDS:

• SARS-CoV-2
• Covid-19
• laboratory practicals
• undergraduate projects
• student placements
• bioscience
• higher education
• stem

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

No funding was received for this work.