Biology Degree (2nd edition)

• Admission profile

  Given that no specific prior training is required, students can be admitted to the Degree in Biology if they meet the access requirements. In any case, it is recommended that the student has studied the scientific-technological branches or health sciences. Within these profiles, in addition to biology, it is recommended, but not essential, to have taken the subjects of mathematics, physics and chemistry.
  Desirable qualities of the future student of the Biology degree:
  - Work capacity
  - Reasoning capacity
  - Ability to obtain, interpret and apply knowledge
  - Scientific spirit

• Minimum number of ECTS enrollment credits per student and school period

  Given that no specific prior training is required, students can be admitted to the Degree in Biology if they meet the access requirements. In any case, it is recommended that the student has studied the scientific-technological branches or health sciences. Within these profiles, in addition to biology, it is recommended, but not essential, to have taken the subjects of mathematics, physics and chemistry.
  Desirable qualities of the future student of the Biology degree:
  - Work capacity
  - Reasoning capacity
  - Ability to obtain, interpret and apply knowledge
  - Scientific spirit

• Tutorial action and reception

  With regard to students from other universities, they are received by the RAM of the centre who informs and guides them about the faculty and their studies, at the same time facilitating contact with the academic coordinators who will act as tutors, as well as with the staff of the center involved in the your attention
  In addition, it has support resources for host students, such as the reservation of places in the university residences, or the Assistance Programme for Non-Community Students (PATEX) of the Vice-Chancellor for Students and Internationalisation, through which USC volunteers they carry out accompanying tasks aimed at the integration in the city and the university of the host students. At the beginning of each semester, a reception session is organised for host students, in which they are informed and oriented about the faculty and the studies, while putting them in contact with the academic coordinators, who will act as tutors, and the staff of the centre involved in their attention
  The faculty has the collaboration of several professors who act as academic coordinators, and whose function is to tutor and assist the host and host students in their academic decisions.
  The USC has a programme of student tutors for undergraduate degrees, so that final year students, after training provided by the University, carry out guidance tasks for students who are starting their studies.

• Title suspension rules

  When a degree suspension occurs, the USC guarantees the adequate development of teachings that were initiated by their students until its suspension. For that, the Government Council approves the criteria related with the admission of new degree entry registration and the gradual suspension of teaching impartation, among others.

  If the suspended degree is substituted for a similar one —modifying the nature of the degree—, the new degree regulations will set the conditions to facilitate students the continuity of the new degree’s studies. These regulations will also set subject equivalences in both programmes.

• Access and admission rules

  The general for the bachelor’s degree.
  No special Access conditions or test are contemplated.

The Faculty of Biology has 10 classrooms for explanatory teaching, 6 seminar-classrooms, 3 computer rooms, Aula Magna, Graduation Hall, a lecture Hall in the Cibus building, and an assembly hall as well as 10 fully equipped practice laboratories. All the classrooms are equipped with video projection systems and four of them also have complete video-conferencing systems;..

Students have additional spaces, such as areas for group work and a student’s room.

Wireless Internet connection is possible from any point in the Faculty.

The Faculty also has a modern automated greenhouse and an animal-housing unit.

The "Victor López Seoane” Biology library is part of the University Library of Santiago de Compostela (BUSC) and as a whole it brings together the bibliographic resources that are indispensable for the degree. It consists of two reading rooms (269 seats), and a room for group work (20 seats).

The final objective of the Degree in Biology is the training of professionals who understand and know the complexity and diversity of living beings and their relationship with the environment in which they live, who study them at all levels of organisation and under an integrative perspective. For this reason, the title of Graduate in Biology which is the subject of this report aims to provide (through the basic and compulsory training credits of the first three years) a solid training in the various subjects that make up the scientific knowledge of biology, including the most advanced recent developments in this constantly evolving science. In the fourth year, there is the possibility to carry out a more specialised training, with the inclusion of two mentions: Mention in Biosanitary Biology and Mention in Environmental Biology.

• Basic skills

  - Students must prove that they possess and understand knowledge in an area of study that starts from the base of general secondary education, and is usually found at a level that, although it relies on advanced textbooks, also includes some aspects that involve knowledge from the vanguard of their field of study.
  - Students must know how to apply their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and possess the skills that can be proved through the preparation and defence of arguments and the resolution of problems within their area of study.
  - Students must have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (usually within their area of study) to make judgments that include reflection on relevant social, scientific or ethical issues.
  - Students must be able to transmit information, ideas, problems and solutions to both a specialised and non-specialised audience.
  - Students must develop the learning skills necessary to undertake further studies with a high degree of autonomy.

• Generic skills

  - Know the most important concepts, methods and results of the different branches of biology.
  - Apply the theoretical-practical knowledge acquired in the formulation of problems and the search for their solutions in both academic and professional contexts.
  - Know how to obtain and interpret relevant information and results and obtain conclusions on topics related to biology.
  - Be able to transmit information both in writing and orally and to debate ideas, problems and solutions related to biology, before a general or specialised audience.
  - Study and learn independently, with organisation of time and resources, new knowledge and techniques in biology.

• Specific skills

  - Know and understand the physical-chemical principles of biology.
  - Propose, apply and interpret mathematical models and statistical methods in the field of biology.
  - Know and know how to apply the instrumental techniques, and design work protocols in the laboratory and in the field, applying the regulations and the appropriate techniques related to safety, hygiene, waste management and quality.
  - Know the origin of life, the mechanisms of inheritance and its evolution.
  - Know the diversity of living beings and biological cycles, as well as develop the ability to analyze and interpret their adaptations to the environment.
  - Develop the ability to obtain, handle, conserve, identify and classify biological specimens, as well as their remains and traces
  - Know the structure of biomolecules, their physicochemical properties and relate it to their functions, integrating the different levels of organisation of living beings
  - Understand the principles of bioenergetics and biosignaling, and know the main metabolic routes and their regulation, as well as the flow of genetic and biochemical information in living beings.
  - Know and understand the structure and function of viruses, prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.
  - Know and understand the development, morphology and anatomy of living beings.
  - Understand and integrate the functioning and regulation of the main physiological processes of living beings as well as their interaction with the biotic and abiotic environment.
  - Know and understand the structure and dynamics of populations and communities.
  - Know how to describe, analyse and interpret the physical environment and its relationship with living beings.
  - Know the flow of energy in ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles.

• Transversal skills

  - Ability to search, process, analyse and synthesize information from various sources.
  - Capacity for reasoning, argumentation and critical thinking.
  - Ability to work in a group and cover problematic situations collectively.
  - Ability to prepare and present an organised and comprehensible text.
  - Ability to make a public presentation in a clear, concise and coherent manner.
  - Ability to adequately reflect the sources of information used.
  - Ability to apply ICT in the field of biology.
  - Ability to solve problems through the integrated application of their knowledge, promoting initiative and creativity.
  - Ability to organise and plan work.
  - Ability to interpret experimental results.

Mobility

Student mobility takes place from the second year of studies in the degree onwards, in four-month or annual periods. The selection of candidates is carried out, for each call or programme, by a Selection Committee, composed of the dean, the vice dean responsible for exchange programmes, the person in charge of the UAGCD and the academic coordinators, of in accordance with grading criteria, previously established, which take into account the academic record, a report and, where appropriate, the language skills required by the destination University.
Student mobility is regulated through the “Regulation of inter-university exchange.” Exchange programs are managed through the International Relations Office, such as national exchange programs (SICUE) as well as Europeans (ERASMUS) and from outside the European Union (exchanges with Latin American countries or English-speaking countries):

Portal Internacional

The Faculty of Biology has a member of the Centre's management team to assume the functions of academic mobility officer (RAM), who, in accordance with current regulations, will convene and preside over the student selection committees in those processes in which it is determined, in addition to ensuring compliance in the application of the rules and criteria established in the different mobility programmes.

Internships

The study plan for the Degree in Biology includes external internships for a total of 6 ECTS. The fundamental objective is for the students to develop the skills acquired in the subjects of the degree through their immersion in a working environment representative of their future professional context.
Although the external internships are scheduled for the 1st semester of the fourth year of the degree, students will be able to do them throughout the academic year. They will be organised and administered in order to guarantee quality, academic recognition and the most appropriate use by students. For this, they will have an external tutor, belonging to the institution where the internships are carried out, who will coordinate with an academic tutor, who will carry out the evaluation based on the quality of the memory that the students present and the report issued by the external tutor.

In order to obtain the title of Graduate in Biology, it is compulsory to complete a final dissertation (TFG) of 12 ECTS credits, consisting of an original project prepared by the student, in which the training content received, the skills, competences and skills acquired during the studies of the Degree in Biology.
The student will be able to register and, therefore, take the TFG during the fourth academic year of the degree, as long as they do not have more than 75 credits pending to complete the studies, excluding those corresponding to the final dissertation. The TFGs may be bibliographic, experimental or of another nature. They will include, at a minimum, tasks of research and bibliographic review, reading and integration of information, drawing up schemes, writing and presentation.