Beyond your course

Expand your horizons

Your curiosity doesn’t have to end where your course syllabus does. Imperial’s I-Explore programme lets you pick a module from a whole range of other areas to study alongside your course and earn credit towards your degree.

There’s also plenty of opportunities to contribute to your own learning through our Undergraduate and International Research Opportunities Programmes (UROP and IROP).

Anastasia and Leah told us about what they’ve got up to outside of their course…

ANASTASIA, BIOCHEMISTRY

When you choose your degree, it shouldn’t stop you from exploring your other interests.

Imperial's I-Explore programme is perfect because it lets you pick a module from a whole range of other areas to study alongside your course and earn credit towards your degree.

I took the Creative Thinking module as part of Imperial Horizons, and it really helped me step out of the routine and dust off a different part of my brain.

It was a great opportunity and I got to work with people studying all sorts of courses, from engineering to natural sciences – we could all contribute something different.

I-Explore was a big factor in making me want to study at Imperial.

Anastasia (biochemistry) in the Central Library.

FIND OUT MORE

Students using a microscope in a classroom.

Study an area of science from outside your core degree with our STEMM modules.

Students looking at a whiteboard in a classroom.

Choose from modules focused on humanities, social sciences, languages, and culture, society and global challenges with Imperial Horizons.

Students listening to a lecture in the Business School.

Gain a greater understanding of the financial, strategic and operational context of your core subject when you choose our BPES modules, delivered by Imperial College Business School.

Collaborate with students from across the College on problem-solving projects when you choose our Multidisciplinary Project module.

Find out more about I-Explore

LEAH, MOLECULAR BIOENGINEERING

UROP is incredible. It’s a chance to gain hands on research experience as an undergraduate.

You can email an academic whose work you find interesting, not necessarily even one from your department, and ask if you can come and work with them during the summer. Sometimes they’ll say no, but a lot of the times, they’ll say yes!

That’s how I got a placement in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, looking at an app for the self-management of type 1 diabetes and trying to work out how to make it better.

My supervisor and I ended up coming up with a new notation that can be used in app design, which was accepted as a manuscript at two international conferences – I actually presented at one of them!

It’s pretty exciting that, as a first year student, I managed to get published in something that’s not even related to my course.

It’s really worth doing an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Programme if you get the chance because it's so exciting.”

Leah (molecular bioengineering) smiling in a lab.

Leah took part in an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Placement in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.