Plant Sciences

Plants are essential for life on our planet as they underpin nearly all food chains. Plants provide us with food but also are important sources of sustainable materials and chemicals for industry, such as medicines, cosmetics, fibres and fuels. Plant science research is therefore essential for understanding ecosystem function and implications of climate change. Understanding how plants can be used and improved for higher crop yields, for improved nutrition and with enhanced resilience to biotic and abiotic stress is important for providing global food security. Plant science research also examines how plants and microalgae can be exploited to generate renewable and sustainable biofuels, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, or used for processes such as bioremediation. Our research studies natural ecosystems, crop species and model plants such as Arabidopsis. Plant Sciences research in the School includes the interactions between plants and soil microorganisms in ecosystem function and agriculture, understanding photosynthesis and plant metabolism in response to stress, genetic responses to biotic and abiotic stress, and biofuels and bioproducts from plants and algae.

Students attend the university from over 150 countries around the world and there are various systems in place to help them adapt to their new life. The Student Immigration Team is a dedicated team in place to help with support and advice regarding immigration and visas and are based at the Student Services Centre. The student support centre is a single contact point for all students to help with matters such as finances, examinations, graduation and other matters. There is also help and advice on hand for matter such as integration into the community, learning English and making the most of the time in the UK. The centre of student life is the Students Union (UMIST), which formed at the same time as the university was created in 2004. It is run by an eight-member team rather than a single president. The athletics Union is responsible for the sports clubs within the university and there are over 80 health and fitness classes in addition to 44 sports clubs. There are around 250 societies and clubs in total across many areas of interest including a student run newspaper, radio station, a fundraising organisation, a volunteer project and across the arts and politics arena.