Foto: Eivind Senneset, UiB
The numbers of applicants for higher education are ready, and I am very satisfied with the application to our study programmes. There are mostly minor changes compared to last year.
The professional study in fish health has 25 places (we have lost three since the last time) and has 74 first-priority applicants. There is a decrease of 14% since last year, but the number of applicants is still strong in relation to the number of study places. For th ecivil engineer programme in aquaculture there are 55 applicants for 20 places, a decrease of 3% since last year but still very good.
The Bachelor’s in Biology has 99 places and received 123 1st priority applicants. An increase of 3%, but in this case it may be challenging to fill all the places.
The Bachelor’s in molecular biology has 40 places (we had 55 places last year) and received 68 applicants, down 3% since last year. Here we should be able to fill all the study places, especially considering that we have lost 15 places.
The Master’s in Biology has 53 places (we had 61 places last year) and received 175 first-priority applicants, a decrease of 3% since last year.
The Master’s in Molecular Biology has 20 places (we had 25 places last year), received 57 first-priority applicants, an increase of 19% since last year. Very good!
Overall, these numbers of applicants should indicate that we will manage to fill all our study places, perhaps with the exception of the bachelor’s in biology, which is very satisfactory. The reason why we have lost study places is that we were allocated extra study places curing the COVID-19 pandemic, which have now been withdrawn. This of course has negative financial consequences, so it is all the more important that we manage to fill up the places we have and that our skilled students complete their degrees.
BIO has a fantastic group of skilled technicians in engineer positions. They do a brilliant job and are absolutely crucial for the research and teaching at BIO. Their competence spans an impressively broad field, and we will now start mapping this competence, so that we have better information with regard to capacity and competence to assess whether technicians can work and contribute across groups and fields.
More information about this will come at the staff meeting Thursday 4 May at 0900. At that meeting we will also talk about finances, the process of course budgeting and other issues we work on.
With these winged, but modest, words, I wish you all a very good weekend.
Ørjan