Discussions in Linköping. From left Fredrik Johansson (Lund), Lina Roth (Linköping), Jep Agrell (Lund), Jordi Altimiras (Linköping), Eva Mattsson (Linköping), Ulla Carlsson-Granér (Umeå), Caroline Blomquist (Umeå), Ann-Christin Lindås (Stockholm) och Mikael Thollesson (Uppsala). Photo: Birgitta Åkerman.

It was the so-called small network that met this year. It consists of the six major universities, i.e. Umeå, Uppsala, Stockholm, Linköping, Gothenburg and Lund. Roughly twenty people attended the meeting. From BIG in Stockholm came Anki Östlund Farrants, Ann-Christin Lindås, Birgitta Åkerman, Jessica Slove Davidson and Niklas Janz.

The hosts were Jordi Altimiras and Lina Roth, who have just taken over as principal director of studies and deputy director of studies for the biology education in Linköping. They succeed Agneta Johansson, who was director of studies for 23 years. IBG in Uppsala also has new management in that the zooecologist Richard Svanbäck became the new head at the turn of the year after Henning Blom.

The meeting began as usual with short presentations of what happened since the last meeting. The rest of the meeting was devoted to various discussions, after which the day ended with a joint dinner before everyone went home.

Bits of news from different places

When the education volume was compared between different locations, it turned out that Uppsala is the largest in the country with a whopping 630 full-year students. In Stockholm, we are not far behind, we have close to 600 full-year students. Instead, Lund distinguishes itself by having the largest proportion of master's education. Two-thirds of the students attend the master's program there; in Stockholm it is no more than a third.

For the participants from Gothenburg, it will be an exciting year: all biologists will move to common premises in a new building named Natrium. They will also work with chemists, geoscientists, environmental scientists etc. so it is a giant project for almost two billion. Natrium is built on the southern part of Medicinareberget, so natural scientists are also close to the medical education and research at Sahlgrenska Academy. However, the biologists are concerned that they will have fewer teaching rooms in the new building.

Linköping has started a new bachelor's program in animal psychology with 24 places. It has the same prerequisites as the biology program and gives a degree in the same main field. On the web, the program is described as unique in the Nordics with its combination of biology and human psychology. The students read, among other things, ethology, psychology, anthrozoology, evolution, physiology and behavior analysis as well as courses in scientific methodology, entrepreneurship, communication and sustainability.

Discussion topics and reading tips

Some issues discussed at the meeting were:

• collaboration with biology teachers (regarding subject content, research information, etc.),
• simulation labs (not to replace real labs but as preparation for these and increased safety in the lab),
• oral examination (tried on some courses in Linköping, where it was found important to have an assessment template),
• how to prevent ChatGPT from being used to cheat and how it affects the design of our examination.

In addition, the difficulties that teachers may experience in meeting students with functional variants were discussed. Petra Korall, plant systematist in Uppsala, has written a thought-provoking article about this: "Teaching accessibly with a focus on students with neuropsychiatric functional variants”. The writing gives a lot of wise advice. Anyone with questions or comments is welcome to contact Petra.

Download the text on accessible teaching

Next meeting

Next spring it is time for the large network to meet. It consists of all the country's higher education institutions with biology education, and there are a total of fourteen of them. The meeting will be held in Umeå on 14-15 March 2024.