The Degree in Biology is a degree adapted to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), which gives continuity to previous undergraduate studies of Bachelor’s degree that have been part of the Faculty of Biology since its inception. The main objective of the Degree in Biology is to form biologists with capacity to understand the functioning and behaviour of living beings, their origin and evolution, and their relations with the environment that surrounds them.
In addition to the basic education that any biologist should possess, the Degree in Biology includes a professionalising module with specific orientations in which competences for the application of biological knowledge to the fields of health, industry and productive systems, new technologies and the environment are acquired.
In the current EHEA system, the duration of the studies is measured in ECTS credits, which represent the student’s volume or workload to acquire the learning objectives (specified in terms of learning outcomes and competences to be acquired). At the University of Vigo, the regulations establish that an ECTS credit corresponds to 25 hours of student work, of which 10 hours should be face to face activities (classroom teaching, laboratory, seminars, etc.) while the resting hours correspond to the student’s autonomous work (preparation of work, problem solving, study, etc.).
As a result of this, the Degree in Biology is structured in a series of modules or groupings of subjects that any student has to study during the 4 academic years. In a summarised form, these modules (and their corresponding credits) are as follows:
|Basic||Common education in the field of experimental sciences||1st||60|
|Compulsory||Specific education for graduates in Biology||2nd and 3rd||120|
|Professionalised (elective subjects)||Education oriented towards professional outcomes in the biology field||4th||36|
|Project Training and End-of-degree Project||Includes the subjects of ‘Drafting and execution of the Projects’ and End-of-degree Projects||4th||24|