Health & Safety and Ethics 

Health & Safety and Ethics Induction 

You will need to attend a Department H&S Briefing. During this briefing, you will be told about laboratory safety, off-campus H&S and research ethics.

You will also need to attend a Department Facilities Tour, where you will be shown where staff offices are, taken around the labs and be briefed on important H&S matters such as fire exits and locations of alarms. 

For PGR students these sessions will be combined (see welcome week schedule).

You will need to complete a form to confirm that you have completed these induction activities. These sessions are compulsory and your UCard will not be updated to give you access to the department until they are completed. 

PGT Google form by Friday 29 September 

PGR Google form by Friday 20th October

Out of Hours (OOH) Access

PGT and PGR students can gain OOH access to use the labs after 5pm and on weekends and all lab-based PGR and PGT students are expected to gain OOH access. 


To gain OOH access you need to complete two compulsory online H&S courses (accessible online once you have an IT account):


Once you have your IT account, you'll be able to access the OOH risk assessment here - 


You will need to complete a form to confirm that you have completed these courses and read the risk assessment. .


PGT Google form by Friday 13 October.


PGR Google form by Friday 27th October


You will receive an email from the lab manager confirming access has been granted and added to your UCard, as well as more information about signing in and the alarm codes.

Laboratory/field work requirements and costs

If your programme involves laboratory work, then for your wellbeing, you are required to follow all the regulations concerning laboratory safety and health which will be communicated to you via the compulsory H&S induction activities (as above). 

You will be expected to wear a cotton laboratory coat when working in the laboratory, there are shared ones available, or you can buy your own.  If your study area is in Human Anatomy you will need to purchase your own lab coat as well as your own dissection kit. We don't require any kind of special lab coat; just a standard white long sleeved one. Similarly, the department will insist that if your programme includes field work then you must possess appropriate waterproof, outdoor field clothing and footwear (steel toe capped boots).  

If you are intending to take a dissertation module you may incur some expenses if you choose a topic that is not resourced by the department. Where modules incorporate field work/work placement this may involve additional travel or other costs.  It is possible that you may also be charged for any costs met by the department for fieldwork associated with Master's dissertations, or MPhil or PhD theses.  There may also be travel and associated costs with attendance at conferences.  

In some cases your sponsor may have agreed to defray part or all of these costs.  You will also need to purchase various books, stationery, IT accessories, and where appropriate other items such as, notebooks, as well as the presentation of your dissertation, etc.