Master of Bioinformatics

The Master of Bioinformatics at Edith Cowan University is a two-year coursework degree for people who want to work at the point where biology meets data. You will study how to take raw sequence data from DNA and RNA, assemble and annotate genomes, and use statistics and programming to find meaning in large biological datasets. Expect units in molecular biology and genetics alongside programming, statistical modelling and database work, because the job is genuinely a hybrid one. You need to be comfortable at a keyboard as well as in a lab.

Australian master's degrees by coursework usually run over two years full time, split into semesters or trimesters. You enrol in units of study, each worth a set number of credit points, and you accumulate enough credit points to graduate. Many courses build in a capstone unit or a research project in the final year, and this one sits in a field where a supervised project is common. Some students use that project to work with a research group or an industry partner, which is how work-integrated learning tends to appear in bioinformatics. Confirm the exact unit list, credit point rules and whether a placement or industry project is offered on the official course page.

Skills you come away with include writing code to process sequence data, using command-line tools on high-performance computing systems, applying statistical methods to biological questions, and explaining your results to scientists who do not code. You also learn to handle the ethical and privacy questions that come with genomic data, which matters in clinical and research settings. Western Australia has growing activity in medical research, agriculture and environmental genomics, and bioinformatics skills are in demand wherever large biological datasets are generated.

This degree suits two groups. One is recent science graduates with a biology, biochemistry or genetics background who want to add computational skills. The other is computing or statistics graduates who want to move into the life sciences. If you have some programming experience or a strong quantitative bent, you will find the first semester easier. If your background is purely biological, expect to work hard on the coding side early on. International students should check the English language requirements carefully, since the standard for coursework postgraduate courses is usually IELTS Academic 6.0 to 6.5 overall, with higher scores needed for teaching, nursing, medicine, law and social work. TOEFL iBT, PTE Academic and Cambridge C1 Advanced are accepted as equivalents. The Department of Home Affairs sets its own separate English threshold for the Student visa, so you need to meet both. While studying, a student visa generally allows work of up to 48 hours per fortnight during term. After graduating, the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) post-study work stream is the usual pathway for staying on to work in Australia, subject to the current rules. Tuition is published on the CRICOS register under course code 0100038, and you should confirm fees and entry requirements on the official ECU page before applying.

• Bioinformatician in medical research institutes, universities and hospital pathology services
• Genomics analyst in clinical genetics and diagnostic laboratories
• Computational biologist in agricultural and environmental research organisations
• Data analyst or data scientist in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies
• Research assistant supporting large-scale sequencing projects
• Bioinformatics support and software roles with life science technology providers
• Further study at PhD level in genomics, computational biology or related fields