Biomedical sciences

Labour market information for biomedical sciences doctoral graduates (August 2011)

Biomedical doctoral graduates were less affected by recession and subsequent spending cuts than those from other disciplines and the labour market for this group of doctoral graduates is only slightly changed from the labour market before the recession. There has been a minor reduction in the proportion of doctoral graduates entering scientific R&D as public and private research budgets fell in the last two years however, it remains to be seen whether this is temporary or represents a permanent retrenchment of the biomedical doctoral labour market.

‘What do researchers do? Doctoral graduate destinations and impact three years on' reported that within the UK, 36% were employed in the the health and social work sector and 40% in the higher education sector. Health professionals were the most common occupation (31%), with 23% working in research and 15% as teaching and lecturing roles in the higher education sector. 

The biomedical sciences disciplinary group includes the following subjects:

• Anatomy, physiology and pathology
• Aural and oral sciences
• Clinical dentistry
• Clinical medicine
• Complementary medicine
• Medical technology
• Nursing
• Nutrition
• Ophthalmics
• Pharmacology
• Pharmacy
• Psychology

Subject specific information is provided for clinical medicine, psychology, pharmacology and pharmacy.