Biology Mission Statement
The general mission statement of the University of Würzburg including the Faculty of Biology is “veritati”. We are all indebted to pursue knowledge and truth in both teaching and science according to the intended classical Humboldt imprinting on the community of both students and teachers. It is necessary to raise and promote students´ readiness and capability for self-study, life-long learning, and critical self-reflection on the current state of knowledge. A prerequisite for teaching at high quality is to ascertain sufficient resources in both persons and equipment. Continuous mutual exchange among teachers and students, the inclusion of students in faculty councils, and also mutual learning are all fostering common efforts on quality improvement.
- A series of instruments has been introduced to support quality assurance:
- Student´s evaluation of all courses and curricula,
- Student´s questionnaire at entry level
- Questionnaire on the survey of studies
- Alumni questionnaire
- Close interaction with students´ representatives.
Based on a common professional sense of the subject among the teaching persons, qualification objectives are developed for both particular courses and the whole study program.
This results in the following objectives:
- To cover the broad variety of topics of the Biosciences both in research and teaching as well as to foster interdisciplinary approaches
- To perpetuate the scientific tradition of a broad topical variety at the highest possible level
- To teach in a science related and science oriented manner at “state of the art” level
- To relate studying and teaching, and to sustain the dialog of students and professors
- To foster international networking activities at all stages of occupational development
- To encourage the target-oriented acquisition of knowledge as well as the application of it, and further, to foster an attitude which is in agreement with the intended educational objective
- To raise students´ abilities of self-driven critical reflective thinking
- To stimulate the development of personality and personal skills
- To strengthen both research and teaching as core tasks, and to optimize supporting processes in administration with regard to efficacy and efficiency
- To make use of both subject related scientific and didactic basics in research and to implement teaching related to occupation, theory and professional practice
- To ensure occupational qualification of the students in various fields of the Life Sciences
- To ascertain equal opportunities and support for people with differing background or origin
- To ensure the compatibility of studying, family and occupation
At the Faculty of Biology, the educational program is closely linked to current research activities and, starting towards the end of the bachelor phase and even more during the master phase, the students become directly involved in actively ongoing scientific research projects in the working groups.
Bachelor (180) Biology
(1) 1The Bachelor Study Program Biology is provided by the Faculty of Biology of the JMU as principle-oriented study program with the degree “Bachelor of Science” (B.Sc.). The degree Bachelor of Science constitutes a first professional qualification.
(2) 1The purpose of this study program is to make the student familiar with the basic contents and scientific concepts of the different areas of biology. 2Beyond that, the students are made familiar with elementary methods of biology and train to apply them. 3The Bachelor Study Program Biology fosters the analytic thinking of the students by the processing of practical tasks and scientific issues and hence the comprehension of complex biological mechanisms. 4By the training of these skills, the student acquires the basic knowledge required for a consecutive Master study program. 5As first professional qualification, the Bachelor Study Program prepares for an occupation in the different areas of biology / natural sciences as well as other disciplines of life sciences and qualifies the student to become engaged as biologist / natural scientist in research institutes, companies, administrations as well as national and international organizations.
(3) By means of the final thesis the students demonstrate that they are able to deal with a task in biology within a limited scale of time and topic under guidance largely independently in particular according to the acquired methods and scientific criteria.
(4) The Bachelor examination is to determine if the candidate makes out the fundamental relationships in biology and demonstrates the ability to deploy the applied scientific methods.
(5) The successfully completed Bachelor examination in accordance with the subject-specific provisions of the respective Master study programs of the JMU as amended entitles to the purposes of a Master study.
As described in detail within the module descriptions, the students acquire personal, methodological and communicative competencies according to the general scope of the university, the quality and qualification guidelines and learning outcomes, respectively, of the faculty of Biology as described there. These include in particular personal self and social competences. Graduates have acquired scientific thinking and act according to the guidelines of Good Scientific Practice. They are acting as experts in the Bioscience field according to their qualification level 6 of the German / European qualification framework. Furthermore, the graduates are qualified to communicate subject specific expertise to colleagues as well as to people not professional in the Bio- or natural sciences, respectively. As experts in the field of the Biosciences, graduates are aware of their social responsibility to carefully deal with and use biological materials and furthermore, to evaluate potential consequences arising from both gaining of new knowledge and potential use for further developments.
Bachelor (60) Biology Minor
The Bachelor Study Program Biology Minor is provided by the Faculty of Biology of the JMU as principle-oriented study program with the degree depending on the Major program. The Bachelor degree constitutes a first professional qualification.
The purpose of this study program is to make the student familiar with the basic contents and scientific concepts of the different areas of biology in order to enrich the major topic selected. The Bachelor Study Program Biology fosters the analytic thinking of the students by the processing of practical tasks and scientific issues and hence the comprehension of complex biological mechanisms. 4By the training of these skills, the student acquires the basic knowledge required for a consecutive Master study program (not Biosciences). 5As first professional qualification, the Bachelor Study Program prepares for an occupation in the different areas of natural sciences dependent on the major topic and qualifies the student to become engaged as scientist in research institutes, companies, administrations as well as national and international organizations.
By means of the final thesis the students demonstrate that they are able to deal with a task in biology within a limited scale of time and topic under guidance largely independently in particular according to the acquired methods and scientific criteria.
Biology Mission Statement The Bachelor examination is to determine if the candidate makes out the fundamental relationships of the topics selected and demonstrates the ability to deploy the applied scientific methods.
The successfully completed Bachelor examination in accordance with the subject-specific provisions of the respective Master study programs of the JMU as amended entitles to the purposes of a Master study depending on the major topic.
As described in detail within the module descriptions, the students acquire personal, methodological and communicative competencies according to the general scope of the university, the quality and qualification guidelines and learning outcomes, respectively, of the faculty of Biology as described there. These include in particular personal self and social competences. Graduates have acquired scientific thinking and act according to the guidelines of Good Scientific Practice. They are acting as experts in the Bioscience field according to their qualification level 6 of the German / European qualification framework. Furthermore, the graduates are qualified to communicate subject specific expertise to colleagues as well as to people not professional in the Bio- or natural sciences, respectively. As experts in the field of the Biosciences, graduates are aware of their social responsibility to carefully deal with and use biological materials and furthermore, to evaluate potential consequences arising from both gaining of new knowledge and potential use for further developments.
Master FOKUS (120) Life Sciences
(1) 1The Master Study Program FOKUS Life Sciences is provided by the Faculty of Biology of the JMU as research-oriented international study program with the degree “Master of Science” (M.Sc.) within the framework of a consecutive Bachelor and Master Study pattern. 2The degree Master of Science constitutes an additional professional respectively research-oriented degree.
(2) 1The Master Study Program FOKUS Life Sciences is an international study program in the English language and provides an international, research-oriented education in the field of life sciences. 2Theoretical and practical competences in the field of life sciences are imparted in order to be able to address scientific issues from the fields of life sciences. 3Students attain the competence to apprehend and formulate complex scientific issues. 4Students acquire the ability to identify the relevance of scientific findings and to contrive and implement experimental approaches independently with regard to issues from the field of life sciences. 5Students obtain the ability to interpret the results of experiments and to evaluate and class within a scientific context. 6The flexible organization of the study program opens up the possibility for particularly qualified students to start with a doctorate at an early stage by means of a “Fast Track” which is accompanied by a structured training program and therewith allows for the degree Master of Science in parallel with the doctorate.
7By means of the thesis, the students demonstrate that they are able to deal with a scientific project from life sciences within a limited scale of time and topic independently particularly according to common methods or their modification.
(3) 1The Master examination is to determine if the candidate is able to make up the coherences in an area of life sciences within the respective current scientific state and is capable of deploying scientific methods independently. It constitutes a further professional research-oriented degree, respectively.
As described in detail within the module descriptions, the students acquire personal, methodological and communicative competencies according to the general scope of the university, the quality and qualification guidelines and learning outcomes, respectively, of the faculty of Biology as described there. These include in particular personal self and social competences. Graduates have acquired scientific thinking and act according to the guidelines of Good Scientific Practice. They are acting as experts in the Bioscience field according to their qualification level 7 of the German / European qualification framework. Furthermore, the graduates are qualified to communicate subject specific expertise to colleagues as well as to people not professional in the Bio- or natural sciences, respectively. As experts in the field of the Biosciences, graduates are aware of their social responsibility to carefully deal with and use biological materials and furthermore, to evaluate potential consequences arising from both gaining of new knowledge and potential use for further developments.
