Bachelor’s Programme Biology
Are you interested in all core areas of biology and want to learn to understand nature?
The Bachelor’s Degree Programme in Biology offers a broad education in the main branches of biology. The students acquire theoretical knowledge and practical skills through extensive laboratory work and field experience. With this basic education the graduates know how to detect, analyse and assess biological systems and their interaction with their environment at the molecular, organism and ecosystem level.
Bachelor of Science
Duration/ECTS-Credits
6 semesters/180 ECTS-Credits
Mode of Study
Full-time
Language
German
Requirements
Secondary school completion certificate/equivalent
and Language Certificates
Faculty
Faculty of Biology
Level of qualification
Bachelor (First Cycle)
ISCED-11: Level 6, EQF/NQF: Level 6
ISCED-F
0511 Biology
Study Code
UC 033 630
FAQ
Graduates are able to elaborate, evaluate, assess and implement scientific developments in the fields of biology and to apply them in interdisciplinary contexts. They possess theoretical and methodological problem-solving skills as well as multidisciplinary skills, such as learning strategies, literature research and information retrieval, and scientific communication.
The Bachelor's Programme Biology, incorporating the fundamentals of the natural sciences (chemistry, biochemistry, physics) and general abilities (multidisciplinary skills, laboratory methods, field methods, experimental design, statistics), offers wide-ranging instruction in the individual branches of biology (botany, zoology, microbiology, ecology and molecular biology).
The modules convey both theoretical knowledge, based on extensive laboratory and field experience, and necessary practical skills. Students are made familiar with scientific writing and research and are able to develop problem-solving skills. Individual specialization may be pursued through the selection of specific elective modules from the branches of biology, allowing students to adapt their programme to meet individual occupational goals.
The Bachelor's Programme Biology specifically prepares students for activities in private and public institutions in the fields of agriculture and forestry, environment and nature conservation, landscape planning and management, pharmaceutics, medicine, public administration, museums and libraries, botanical and zoological gardens, and nature reserves.
Graduates tracking: Shows which occupational fields students enter after graduation
Faculty of Biology Examination Office Information for students with disabilities
Curriculum
From the field
A molecular fountain of youth for the brain
What happens in the brain as we age? Might it be at all possible to rejuvenate nerve cells? Seeking answers to these questions, a research group led by Frank Edenhofer at the Department of Molecular Biology has succeeded for the first time in observing mini-brains age.
The unknown climate factor from the permafrost
Ecologist Christina Biasi is exploring the conditions under which tiny organisms contribute to permafrost soils emitting nitrous oxide. Her research could be essential for the development of future climate scenarios.
High-alpine animal species need more protected areas
Melting glaciers due to global warming caused by the climate crisis have massive consequences for biodiversity in the Alpine region, as an international team of researchers including the Innsbruck ecologist Leopold Füreder has now shown for the first time for a period between 2020 and 2100. According to the study, numerous invertebrate species are threatened with the loss of their habitats. The researchers call for the expansion of protected areas, also in glacier forelands. The study has been published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
The carbon cycle is speeding up
Soil is the largest natural carbon storage in the world. In Northern ecosystems particularly large amounts of carbon are stored, but they are also particularly strongly affected by global warming. A recently published study by an international team led by Michael Bahn of the University of Innsbruck investigated how ongoing warming affects the uptake and release of carbon dioxide in subarctic grassland. The researchers used a geothermally active area in Iceland as a natural „climate chamber”.
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