Major Molecular Biotechnology

Description of the program implementation

The second-cycle programme of study in Molecular Biotechnology is run in English. The programme encompasses 4 semesters of courses (year I – winter and summer semester, year II – winter and summer semester). The number of ECTS points required for graduation is 121. 

The programme comprises:

1. compulsory courses (54 ECTS points), including specialization courses and the courses in the humanities and social sciences, two diploma seminars, a foreign langauge course, practicum in thesis preparation and occupational safety and health training.
2. elective courses (67 ECTS points), including: Laboratory Practice – part 1, 2 and 3, as well as specialized elective courses.

While attending compulsory and elective courses the students obtain advanced knowledge in, among other fields, biotechnology, biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology and bioinformatics, as well as in selected issue in the humanities and social sciences. The students are required to attend two diploma seminars (2nd year of study, winter and summer semesters).

They attend a course in a foreign language that is credited with an exam for two semesters in the 1st year of study and that matches their language skills. They may choose a course in a different foreign language or be exempt from a course in a foreign language as long as they can submit a certificate of the English language skills (following the rules which are in force at the Jagiellonian University). 

Among elective courses there are specialized courses which the students choose during two years of study, following their own academic interests (22 ECTS points). Among those courses there is also Laboratory Practice (part 1,2,3) (45 ECTS points). Although Laboratory Practice (part 1,2,3) has a set number of hours and ECTS points, the students may choose where to take it (either a lab or a department at the Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology or an institution/unit outside the Faculty, as long as they obtain a permission) and the subject of the research project (from among those listed). The courses enable students to acquire more advanced knowledge in selected fields of biotechnology, including the subjects related to the research project carried out as a part of the diploma thesis, to develop and improve the use of selected research methods, to develop and improve planning and executing experiments, as well as to document, examine and present obtained results. To graduate the students need to prepare and submit a diploma thesis and to pass the final examination.

Graduation

To graduate, the student is required to prepare and submit a thesis and to pass the final examination. The student works on his/her thesis under the guidance of the thesis supervisor. 

The thesis should offer a solution of a given scientific problem and should contain original research results obtained by the student in the field of broadly understood biotechnology. He/she prepares the written thesis following the rules that apply to original academic publications on biology and specified in detail at the Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology. The student may take the final examination when he/she meets the requirements set in “Regulation for first-cycle, second-cycle and long-cycle study programmes”.