Bachelor's degree in Human Biology
Four academic years
€ 1.248,52 (Approximate price for EU students. Other types)
65
Health sciences
This is a full-time study programme due to the high volume of practical work involved. Classes are taught in the morning and afternoon alike. Students are expected to devote 45 hours a week to their studies during teaching periods (including face-to-face and online activity and personal study).
From September to June
240 ECTS credits
Basic subjects: 74; compulsory subjects: 140; optional subjects: 16; bachelor's degree final project: 10
First and second courses: Catalan or Spanish depending on the subject. Third and fourth year: English.
Presentation
The Human Biology degree aims to provide students with the skills and the knowledge required to become professionals in the health and biomedical sector. The degree has been specifically designed in response to the demand frin industry and enables graduates to work in the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industry, clinical laboratories, biomedical research or teaching.
The studies take place in a multidisciplinary biosanitary environment with a strong synergy between the Human Biology degree and the Medicine degree taught jointly by the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
Objectives and competences
The bachelor's degree programme in Human Biology aims to produce biologists capable of developing a career in the field of biomedicine and health or of embarking upon postgraduate training in optimal conditions.
The programme is taught in a multidisciplinary biomedical zone in which there is a great deal of synergy with the bachelor's degree course in Medicine offered by UPF and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB).
The ultimate objective is to endow graduates with general and specific competences for successfully undertaking professional activities in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry and in environmental or clinical analysis laboratories (an area in which the public health system is notably active), as well as to equip them to lead future biomedical research in the academic and industrial spheres alike.
Competences to be acquired
The programme's graduates will acquire both specific competences related to working as a biologist and general competences necessary for any kind of professional activity.
The specific competences in question correspond to nine fields of knowledge, namely basic sciences; applied sciences; molecular and cellular bases; biology of the human organism; human health; biology of organisms and systems; humanities; basic general procedures; and professional responsibilities, attitudes and ethics.
While the programme fosters all the general competences recommended by European education authorities, its graduates must demonstrate that they have acquired five of particular relevance, specifically speaking in public, expressing themselves correctly in writing, searching for information, using new technologies proficiently and working in a team.
Periods abroad
The faculty encourages students to study or carry out research in other countries. In addition to the standard exchange programmes (e.g. ERASMUS), the course's curriculum provides for a term of mobility so that students who undertake a study period at another university (be it in Spain or abroad) can gain automatic academic recognition for a significant number of credits.
The faculty also promotes summertime research activity at other universities. Almost all UPF's Biology students have undertaken such research periods, most of them abroad.
Career prospects
Social needs are one of the factors that were taken into consideration when designing the bachelor's degree in Human Biology, and the programme has a direct bearing on students' career prospects.
The practical work that students carry out in the programme's final year, when they receive particularly career-oriented training, will have a positive effect on their chances of immediately finding a job or of being accepted for postgraduate education.
The programme is specifically intended to enable graduates to develop a career in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, in clinical laboratories (an area in which the public health system is notably active), or in the fields of biomedical research or education.
