Master in Biological Sciences from the University of Chile opens its applications with a large and outstanding academic faculty.

Being one of the oldest programs of the University of Chile, the Master in Biological Sciences is presented with more than 60 professors attached to the program, with various specialties and areas to develop in biology.

Millaray Mariqueo, Science in Chile.- East Applications for the program started in 1978 close on October 31, and with nearly 700 graduates. This focuses on specific areas that, through the use of updated techniques, provides the ability to develop independent scientific research in the various areas of the field of biology.

It is mainly oriented towards academics, that is, towards the scientific training of the person who enters it, which implies that one of the conditions is to have an experimental thesis, carrying out either natural or laboratory experiments depending on the area in which one is working.

academic faculty

Now, what characterizes it is that, being only from the Faculty of Sciences, the academic faculty is made up of more than 60 professionals, which include teachers from the Department of Ecology, Department of Biology and guests, that is, people who have applied for admission from other units of the University of Chile, such as the Faculty of Medicine, Agronomy, Veterinary, and others.

“The quality of the academic faculty is super important, they are all professors who comply with the CNA regulations, who are fully productive and with functional projects,” said Claudio Veloso, coordinator and academic.

It is thought to be developed in two years, one of 4 courses ad hoc to the student and the area in which it is going to be developed, and the second of the thesis. In the second semester, the writing of the thesis project is written, which must formally begin the third, ideally, the project lasts one year, and a maximum of three years. It should be noted that it is only the people of the faculty who can direct thesis, the person who wants to guide must contact someone from the faculty and co-direct a thesis.

In relation to this, the coordinator pointed out that they are a experimental program by definition and one of the advantages of the curriculum is the flexibility of the courses, since courses outside the faculty can be taken, expanding the diversity of topics and specialties.

On the other hand, he also highlighted that “one of the things that characterizes us is the close interaction between academics and students, because our policy is that the student is in the laboratory with the person who works, which implies that he is part of the laboratory community and faculty”.

Regarding the research areas, these range from microbiology, biochemistry, ecology in all its dimensions, ecophysiology, behavior, biotechnology, physiology, neurobiology, molecular ecology, systematics, among others.

Program Entry

There are two ways to enter the program: regular shape, that is, with any discipline that has a connection with biology and the way directly, through continuing education for students of the Faculty of Sciences. It generally corresponds to graduates in Biology, Pedagogy in Biology, Biotechnology, Environmental Biology, among others. S well, it is not for the entire spectrum of applicants, Veloso defines it as a fundamental change that optimized admission to the program. “We receive about 70 applications a year and of those 30 or 40 people enter, our faculty is made up of a committee of 9 people who complete all areas of background checks, which is quite a lot, so with that direct route we managed to make a filter, in addition to the requirements of the magister”.

Thanks to this, about 50% that enters is internal and the other 50% external. In addition, they have a constant percentage of foreign students. Graduating about 20 students on average per year

Veloso ends by pointing out that they are currently looking for optimize the time spent in the program, through an improvement in the follow-up of students, therefore, there is greater control of the duration of the master’s degree.