Specialisations in the master’s in Biology to be merged from 2025
The faculty has long wanted to move away from specialisations on the master’s programs. The program board for the bachelor’s and master’s program in biology has decided to merge all specialisations on the master’s program in biology from the admission for autumn 2025.
The subject groups are working to set up proposals for thematic course packages within each of the disciplines currently represented by a specialisation. The study administration will work out proposals for updated recruitment texts to be published on the Master’s program’s website.
The study administration will work out a procedure for how students should choose course packages/theme for the master’s thesis after admission to the master’s program in biology. The proposed procedure will be presented at the biology program board meeting in February.
Supplementary admission master’s spring 2025
On 1 October, Søknadsweb opened for applications for admission to the master’s in spring 2025 (supplementary admission) and these study programmes/directions have admission:
- Microbiology (2 places)
- Environmental toxicology (3 places)
- Developmental biology, physiology and nutrition (4 places)
- Molecular biology (3 places)
The application deadline is 1 November.
Study plan changes
For many courses there were only minor changes or editorial changes, while a few courses made major changes:
- BIO225 Marine benthic fauna: changed from 5 credits to 10 credits. New compulsory teaching activity: presentation on field courses.
- BIO302 Biostatistics II: change content and name to “Methods for Reproducible and Open Science”.
- BIO349 Theory and Practice of Sustainable Management of Living Marine Resources: new course to replace BIO339.
- BIO359 Future Earth – Biodiversity Efficiency and Policy: the old course “BIO347 Global Change Ecology” is resurrected with a new course code, new name and revised content. Will be taught from 2026.
New continuing education [etter- og videreutdanning] course
- “The big questions – about nature’s building blocks, the universe, life and the future” has been decided to be created as a fully digital continuing education course. Jarl Giske from BIO and Jan-Petter Hansen from IFT teach two modules, while the other two modules are taught at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. The head of studies continues to work with the EVU team at UiB to get all the administrative stuff in place.
Course that will not be taught in spring 2025
MOL217 Applied Bioinformatics II will not be taught in the spring due to lack of teachers.
Courses being discontinued
- BIO241 Behavioral Ecology
- BIO260 Cultural landscape in the Nordic region
- BIO309 Marine flora
- BIO324 Fish behaviour
- BIO339 Ecosystem and fisheries models (replaced by BIO349)
- BIO341 Biodiversity
- BIO347 Global Change Ecology (replaced by BIO359)
- SDG110 Perspectives on sustainable development
The faculty requires courses to be taught at least every other year, and courses that have not been taught in recent years have therefore been discontinued. Even if the courses are closed now, the program boards can decide to “reopen” them again at a later date.
Links to minutes
Complete minutes from all the program board meetings can be found here [Norwegian language]: