Bachelor's and Master's programmes

When the fall semester's courses started on August 29, all places were filled: 48 in the Bachelor's programme in biology, 12 in the Marine biology programme and 16 in the Molecular biology programme. Since then, as usual, there have been the odd dropouts, but there are good opportunities to fill up later with students from independent courses.

At the beginning of the education, the biology students must choose whether they will follow the programme's study plan 1 or 2. Study plan 1 includes 30 credits of chemistry and courses in cell and molecular biology and physiology that are based on chemistry. Course 2 does not have compulsory chemistry and therefore the courses in cell and molecular biology and physiology are not based on previous studies in chemistry. In autumn 2021, only a quarter of the students chose course 2, but this year it is almost half.

In the Master's programmes within the department, there are a total of 81 registered students, which is about the same as it has been the last two years. How the students are distributed among different programmes varies between years, but it is not possible to see any clear tendencies for certain areas to increase or decrease. As usual, the Master's programme in Social-ecological resilience for sustainable development is the most popular programme with eighteen registered students.

International students

This year there are 38 international exchange students at BIG. BIG's international coordinator Renée Malmgren says that there is great interest in going abroad again, now that everything has opened up and the situation has "normalised". In autumn 2020, we only had 17 incoming exchange students and last autumn no exchanges were announced at all.

Exactly half of this year's exchange students, nineteen people, have come here through the university's central agreement or through CIVIS (the abbreviation CIVIS stands for the European Civic University Alliance, which is a collaboration between ten European universities that includes Stockholm University). Thirteen people have come through the faculty's or BIG's own agreements. Finally, BIG has received six people who come via other departments' exchange agreements. The vast majority of the exchange students come from European universities, but two come from Singapore and two from Australia.

New course on sustainable development

A new course this fall is Sustainability science I 15 credits. The prerequisite is 60 credits in a science subject, alternatively 45 credits in the Bachelor's programme in Business, Ethics and Sustainability. According to the syllabus, the course presents "how the biosphere is both affected by human activities and is a prerequisite for these. The course also introduces Earth system science, different perspectives on sustainable development, and what these mean for companies and entrepreneurship". The knowledge can be deepened through the subsequent course Sustainability science II, also at 15 credits.

The new course has attracted just over 80 students. Lisen Schultz at the Stockholm Resilience Center is in charge of the course and says that "it feels very fun and educational to be able to convey the knowledge we have built up at SRC to students in both business administration and natural sciences. The teaching team has worked intensively to prepare the course and there has been full activity in both lectures and seminar groups".

Teaching again on campus, with some exceptions

Three of BIG's introductory courses this academic year are entirely distance taught: The Evolution, Genetics and Behaviour of the Dog, The world of insects and Biology of contagious diseases, all 7.5 credits. The first course has started with 65 registered students, roughly the same as in previous years.

Otherwise, all teaching is now given on campus, after three semesters marked by the pandemic. To some extent, however, hybrid teaching is offered, i.e. the teaching is given simultaneously on campus and on Zoom, so that students who are ill can follow the teaching digitally (according to BIG's policy, however, it is not something that the students can demand, but something that each teacher decides).

The Biology building. Photo: Margareta Ohné.