XClose

UCL Division of Biosciences

Menu

Neuroscience MSc

Prepare for your neuroscience PhD, with this world-renowned intensive master’s that combines biological, clinical and cognitive expertise from Europe’s leading neuroscience institution. 

About the course 

Join us on one of the most time-honoured and widely accepted routes into neuroscience research, on an MSc that incorporates expert academic input from across UCL’s medical, life science and brain science faculties. 

Preparing you for doctoral research in a rapidly expanding field by emphasising multidisciplinary study, you’ll enjoy unrivalled opportunities and access to more than 40 world-class research groups.  

Working across multiple UCL departments and satellite institutions (including the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour), you’ll spend a year embedded as a neuroscience researcher, working alongside the world’s leading senior investigators to tackle the biggest mysteries surrounding the structure of the brain and its functions. 

Completing this course, you’ll be ready to join more than 80% of our graduates who progress to a fully-funded PhD, as part of one of the world’s largest neuroscience academic communities. 

What you can look forward to

  • Complete your research project in any of the 450 different neuroscience laboratories around UCL, including laboratories at our satellite institutions such as the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre or the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit. 
  • Develop your ability to critically analyse and synthesise persuasive technical arguments, with our weekly Journal Club session and opportunities to contribute to published research. 
  • Spend half the course on taught modules, and the other half of the programme gaining hands-on clinical and research experience, working as a fully-fledged member of a world-leading research group to complete your self-directed research project. 
  • Attend the MSc Neuroscience ‘Finding A PhD’ session at the beginning of your course, and absorb the perspectives of PhD programme directors and doctoral researchers to help you plan your route to doctoral studies. 
  • Access specialist clinical expertise through collaborations with the UCL Dementia Research Centre, home to more than 200 researchers. 

 

Take a look at where you'll be studying

Join us in shaping the future of healthcare and scientific research, and unlock endless opportunities for personal and professional growth in one of the world’s most vibrant and diverse cities. 

Take a virtual tour of our campus

Where the course can take you 

This MSc is specifically designed to prepare you for a PhD in neuroscience, with 80% of our graduates progressing onto doctoral study. Alternatively, the specialised research knowledge and skills you’ll acquire will leave you ideally positioned for research-based roles in a variety of industries, including biotech and healthcare. 

Why Study Neuroscience?

Dr Edward Bracey and Danbee Kim describe what neural circuits are, some of the techniques we use at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre to try to understand them, and our collaboration with the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit.

YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-_nyOWE-yg

 

 

Nobel Prize Winning Faculty

Did you know that the UCL Life Sciences faculty has been associated with 11 Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine?

The most recent of these being John O'Keefe, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Cell & Developmental Biology, who was jointly awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of our ‘inner GPS’: the cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain.

YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tMddkDRE5U

 

Read more about Prof John O'Keefe's research here.

Neuroscience alumni’s research included in BBC’s favourite science stories of 2024

UCL graduates Alexander S. Bates and Laia Serratosa Capdevila are two of the authors of a paper mapping the brain of fruit flies which was highlighted by the BBC as a scientific win of 2024.

Alexander S. Bates and Laia Serratosa Capdevila

UCL Research Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology

The Research Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology (NPP) is a major part of the Division of Biosciences in the Faculty of Life Sciences at UCL. NPP brings together scientists undertaking world-leading interdisciplinary research into the nervous system, from molecules and synapses to circuits and behaviour.

Research in NPP is organised into four major themes: ‘Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience’, ‘Cellular and Circuit Neuroscience’, ‘Circuit and Systems Neuroscience’ and ‘Epithelial Biology’

Find out more about the research at the NPP.

 

All the details

Read more about the course entry requirements, how this master’s is structured, and everything from modules and assessments, to fees and funding, here: 

Apply here

Apply for a grant 

If you’re a UK student, or Ukrainian student granted home fee status, you may be eligible for a £10,000 grant to help with your study costs. 

Apply for a grant 

DeepMind Scholarship

The Windsor Fellowship is working with UCL to offer scholarships funded by DeepMind to students who will be starting the Neuroscience MSc at UCL in September 2024, and who have an interest in AI. The DeepMind scholarships provide financial support to students from underrepresented groups seeking to study graduate courses relating to AI and adjacent fields. The deadline for applications is Monday 15 July 2024 at 11.59pm BST.

Apply for DeepMind Scholarship

Meet some of our tutors

Dr Andrew Batchelor

 

Programme lead 

Dr Andrew Batchelor - Principal Teaching Fellow - Neuro, Physiology & Pharmacology 

Andrew Batchelor studies central synaptic transmission, primarily using electrophysiology and imaging techniques. In particular G-protein-coupled glutamate receptors, cannabinoids and nitric oxide. 

Daniel Bendor

Programme lead 

Daniel Bendor – Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience – Experimental Psychology Division of Psychology and Lang Sciences 

Professor Bendor studies how the neocortex and hippocampus encode information, and interact with each other to consolidate memories during sleep. He uses a combination of computational, electrophysiological and molecular-genetic tools to investigate underlying neural mechanisms governing memory and perception. 

Learn more about Professor Bendor  

World Leading Neuroscience Institutes

The Faculty of Life Science at UCL hosts two of the world’s leading neuroscience institutes:

The Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit - teaching and research unit with a focus on computationally and probabilistically oriented theoretical neuroscience, and statistical machine learning.

The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour - state-of-the-art systems neuroscience research facility with an aim to understand the biology of intelligence by uncovering neural algorithms supporting adaptive behaviour.

YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYpLbEkl_x4

Graduate Open Event

See what UCL is like for yourself by coming along to one of our Graduate Open Events. It’s a great chance to find out more about studying with us and what UCL can offer for your graduate studies. 

Book onto one of our next graduate open events