 Master of Biotechnology is a one-and-a-half to two-year degree, and that difference in time is related to your previous area of study. There are four specializations within the Master of Biotechnology at UWA, is the biochemistry molecular biology, genetics and genomics, environmental biotechnology, and genetics and breeding. Now the degree can be done as either coursework only, or it can be done as coursework and dissertation. The second option, so with the dissertation, that basically means a project can be done. So the degree consists of units that are core to the degree itself, there are also units that are core to a particular specialization, and then there are units that are electives. If you choose to do the option of dissertation to do a project, then there are also project specific units. With respect to the units that are core to the degree, they basically fall into two categories. One of those categories is commercialization and project management, and this is actually a part of the UWA Master of Biotechnology that sets it apart from other Master of Biotechnology that are offered. In these units, you learn how to bring an idea to market, you also learn how to design a patent and how to make sure that that patent is a solid patent that's respected by the business community, and basically you learn about market research. The second major category of these degree-specific or degree core units have to do with exploring, building, constructing, also managing and analyzing large data sets. Now again, this is a selling point of the UWA Biotech Masters in the sense that other, again, universities don't offer these kinds of units, but they're very important for all degrees in all specializations within Biotech, so it doesn't matter whether you're comparing genomes of organisms or if you're looking at microbes in microbial diversity in soil or if you're looking at human nutritional data, all of those areas require looking at large data sets and building large data sets. With respect to the units of their core to the specialization, again, they fall into two categories. The first of those categories are the advanced technologies, so you learn, for example, on how the latest technologies allow you to map QTL, so quantitative trait loci, to a genome or to a chromosome, or for example, you might learn the latest and greatest for these technologies on how a protein structure is determined. The second category is basically understanding, knowing the knowledge that shapes biotechnology. In other words, learning the cutting edge discoveries and the directions that biotechnology is taking, and these two groups of units basically allow you to enter the world of biotechnology, and that's the world you're going to enter when you leave UWA with a Master of Biotechnology degree. The units for the research project involve a literature review, so this is where you explore the literature for your area of research and also where you find the gaps in that research area, and so those are some of the gaps that you're going to be filling when you do the research, and also other units are involved with communication, so extending, perfecting your oral communication skills, your written communication skills, and this is done at a much higher level than what you would have experienced as an undergraduate. The elective units, it's your choice whether you want to focus more within your specialization or if you might want to start thinking laterally and explore other areas of biotechnology. One of the strengths of the degree is certainly the commercialization and project management units that I talked about earlier, allowing you to see what it takes to bring a project to the market, to bring a product to the market, and also we think that the hands-on experience with large data sets is an important part of the degree. You're not only reading about these techniques, but you're actually building data sets and analyzing them in these units. Small group instructions, small group work with experts in the field in biotechnology and also in related areas of biotechnology, so the commercialization aspect, the science aspects, you'll be able to see all these different disciplines of biotechnology and how they interact and this is really a strength of the program. And of course the ability to do research, if you qualify to do a research project then you'll be working with an expert that is in the field of applied biotechnology or you might be doing basic research that has foreseeable applications in biotechnology. So what do you do after you leave UWA with a master in biotechnology? Well you can certainly join a biotech company, you could join as a researcher, if you've done a research project you could join as a manager, you could start your own biotech company. You'd have the commercialization background, you've got the science background. You could become an environmental manager, again you've got the commercialization background and all of that entails as well as the science and all of that information. You could advise patent law attorneys, we need people who understand the law and be able to advise and again you'd walk out of UWA with that kind of information. You could be a government agency advisor, so you could actually be involved in shaping scientific policy. You could start your own company and be a consultant to all of the biotech companies, you could be a consultant to law offices, you could be a consultant to a government agency. You could teach, certainly teaching is an option and it's a very important option. We need good teachers at the university level, at the school level. You could become involved in agribusiness, it might be plant or animal agribusiness. You could further your research career by working in a university lab or in a lab at a research institute that has medical implications. You could work in a government research lab. In Australia that would be the CSIRO or a state government lab. What I like about biotechnology is you get to interact with world class researchers and work in a lab and do practical things but also learn some of the theory from some of the best people in the world. So I think it's a good way to, from your undergrad, to really experience some of these things in a lab that otherwise you wouldn't be able to do in your undergrad course.