General provisions

The course is a compulsory course in the Master's programme in Biopharmaceuticals.

Entry requirements

Accepted on the Master's Programme in Biopharmaceuticals FBL2M

Learning outcomes

After completing the course, the student will be able to:

• Explain relevant concepts in subject areas that are essential to biopharmaceuticals.
• Summarise and reflect over their own skills and understandings related to the relevant subject areas of biopharmaceuticals, as well as identifying their own needs for further development.
• Reflect on their own skills and learning strategies, leading to the identification of their own needs for further development and appropriate learning strategies.
• Evaluate and critically interpret scientific information relevant to the current issue.
• Critically and systematically compile scientific information relevant to biopharmaceuticals, using a good level of written English.

Content

This is a course whose aims are to provide students with a good platform, which they can build upon when studying future courses in the programme. The course is split into two parts. The first part will focus on furthering the student's basic understandings in relevant subject areas in biopharmaceuticals. The second part will focus more on developing skills among the students to help them with their continued higher education studies. The course is designed to create common goals among the students using parallel tracks, which will endeavour to create an academic level playing field that will assist the students when studying future courses in the programme.

In order to be able to analyse their own knowledge and understandings, the students will be given lessons in reflective practices and processes.   

In order to meet the student's different knowledge requirements, the course will conduct partly parallel tracks in the subjects that are central to the Master's programme in Biopharmaceuticals, such as pharmaceutical sciences, cell biology, biotechnology, physiology, biomedicine, chemistry and biology. Using these tracks, the students will be able to further their understandings in the subject areas that need to be strengthened.

The course also includes common elements such as academic writing, searching and evaluating scientific information, correct use of source material and reference management. In addition, the students will also learn strategies to help them in their higher education studies, such as study techniques, study planning, stress management and how to actively collaborate and work productively within a group setting. The students will be encouraged to evaluate their own strengths and need for development through discussions with an assigned mentor and the use of reflective text.

Instruction

Teaching moments will be adjusted to the individual student's needs based on mentor discussions, formative evaluations and prior knowledge from previous courses, where one evaluates the elements that are the most relevant for every student to focus on, to achieve the course goals.

Teaching moments associated with concepts relevant to biopharmaceuticals are laid out in parallel tracks using various methods. For example, the student's understanding of the content of pre-recorded lectures can be evaluated through group discussions, peer learning or quiz assignments.

The teaching of study skills, such as study techniques and stress management, will be taken with the whole class and will be organised in the form of seminars/workshops with invited speakers. These sessions will be followed up through group discussions and mentor discussions. This will give the students an opportunity to personally reflect on their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as providing methods to deal with any issues that arise during their studies.

The teaching of scientific writing and source critic will be conducted using group assignments and reported in the form of a promemoria (PM).

The course concludes with teacher-led seminars that connect the different aspects of the course, allowing the students to collate everything they have learned from the individual tracks they have taken. A written examination will used to assess the student's understandings of the basic concepts related to the different subjects that are relevant to biopharmaceuticals. The students will also meet with their mentor to once again reflect on their own academic progression, study techniques and strategies for studies in higher education, using previous reflective texts for guidance.

Compulsory parts:  Reflection discussions with mentor, PM and seminars.

The course is given entirely in English.

Assessment

Written exam will be taken at the end of the course. For a passing grade in the whole course, passing the written exam (2 credits), passing the PM (2 credits), passing the seminars (2,5 credits) and passing the reflection discussions with mentor (1 credit) is required.

 In special circumstances, the examiner may make an exception from the specified examination method and allow a student to be examined in another way. Special circumstances could be, for example, be informed of the need for special pedagogical support from the university's coordinator.