Admission requirements
A BSc in Biology or related subject, with an interest in continued work or study in science within academia or industry. The student should be in the final stage of his/her (last) MSc research project.
Description
This course includes four weeks of MSc-training in essential transferable skills that are required for prospective PhD-students, but that will also come in handy in almost any academic or industry setting. We aim to help you develop a conceptual understanding of associative and interdisciplinary thinking. We also intend to broaden your perspective on the nature and speed of scientific developments within a discipline. Students will be educated at an advanced level in a range of skills, such as writing compelling scientific texts for a broad audience, presenting scientific papers, communicating facts and opinions, reviewing and criticizing work by peers, and writing a novel research proposal. The course is open for students of all four IBL-MSc-specialisations and welcomes MSc-students from other institutes. Students are encouraged to develop their own individual expertise in the direction of their choice by selecting primary literature for the various assignments and by scientific sparring with the course coordinators, MSc-specialisation specific supervisors and fellow students with similar and different interests.
Course Objectives
After completion of the course, students are able to:
Develop skills in creativity, interdisciplinary thinking and scientific project design
Formulate and write a viable and well-defined research proposal based on current NWO guidelines.
Present written and oral research ideas in a clear and well-argued manner,
Review and evaluate peer research proposals, ideas and oral presentations
Reflect on diverse career trajectories within and outside of academics
Reflect on key elements of academic life: scientific ethics, implicit bias, the role of social media, effective scientific presentations, the structure of academic institutes and funding bodies
Timetable
The course spans four full weeks , during which students are required to be present at all group activities and otherwise work in groups or individually. Although there will be fixed contact hours typically in the morning throughout the course, there is reasonable flexibility and independence in how and when students allocate their effort and time.
In MyTimetable, you can find all course and programme schedules, allowing you to create your personal timetable. Activities for which you have enrolled via MyStudyMap will automatically appear in your timetable.
Additionally, you can easily link MyTimetable to a calendar app on your phone, and schedule changes will be automatically updated in your calendar. You can also choose to receive email notifications about schedule changes. You can enable notifications in Settings after logging in.
Questions? Watch the video, read the instructions, or contact the ISSC helpdesk.
Note: Joint Degree students from Leiden/Delft need to combine information from both the Leiden and Delft MyTimetables to see a complete schedule. This video explains how to do it.
Mode of instruction
This course is based on lectures, discussions, student presentations, essay assignments, and self study, using primary literature. The time schedule involves a limited number of fixed contact hours with teachers. The course will require presence for about 4 hours per day. The rest of the time will be spent on self study and student interactions independent of teachers.
Do expect a heavy workload for a five-day work week and full day commitment at least during office hours.
Assessment method
Testing will be done by two short written assignments (once in a pair and once individually), two oral presentations and a longer written assignment (both individually, each student will present).
Minimum grade:
Courses require a minimum, unrounded 5.5 grade to complete.
If a course has 2 or more written partial exams, the minimum grade only applies to the weighted average of the exams.
For partial grades from components other than exams (e.g. practicals, seminars, writing assignments), the bottom grade does apply to the individual components.
Please refer to the Student Charter for an overview of regulations.
Reading list
Students will read a variable number of documents and scientific papers. Several will be provided by the teachers and are the same for all students. Others will be selected by the students themselves guided by their own interests.
Registration
As a student, you are responsible for enrolling on time through MyStudyMap.
In this short video, you can see step-by-step how to enrol for courses in MyStudyMap.
Extensive information about the operation of MyStudyMap can be found here.
There are two enrolment periods per year:
Enrolment for the fall opens in July
Enrolment for the spring opens in December
See this page for more information about deadlines and enrolling for courses and exams.
Note:
It is mandatory to enrol for all activities of a course that you are going to follow.
Your enrolment is only complete when you submit your course planning in the ‘Ready for enrolment’ tab by clicking ‘Send’.
Not being enrolled for an exam/resit means that you are not allowed to participate in the exam/resit.
Contact
Dr. D.E. Rozen d.e.rozen@biology.leidenuniv.nl
and Prof.dr. A. Briegel a.briegel@biology.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
Maximum number of participants: 20
Your registration is not complete if you have not registered for all course components available in MyStudymap (exam, lecture, etc.).
Hand-outs of lectures, informative documents, references to primary literature and links to important websites will be provided via Brightspace.
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.