Communication Skills (6 CP)
Essay (2 CP)
You have to write a scientific essay under supervision. This can accompany a seminar or a lecture. Simply ask the person responsible for the course.
The essay should be 10 pages long and will be corrected by the supervisor and discussed with the student.
Design and presentation of a poster (2 CP)
Under supervision, you must prepare a scientific poster and present it at a seminar or scientific conference.
The poster can be created to accompany a seminar or course. Simply ask the head of a seminar or your supervisor of the laboratory course.
Project outline for the Master's thesis (2 CP)
Before you start your Master's thesis, you must create an outline of your Master's thesis project. The outline should be about two pages long and include, for example, the background, objectives, possible methods and realisation of the project. The outline will be corrected by the supervisor and discussed with the student.
Job Skills (6 CP)
Excursions and/or professional qualification events and/or work placement (total 6 CP)
In this module you can choose from various module components.
Excursions: botany, zoology or industry (see SPUR)
Language courses (e.g. German or English language course)
Career qualification events (e.g. IT courses, job application courses, career days for biologists, trade fair visits); 1 CP can be earned for attending career days and trade fair visits, whereby a maximum of two career days and/or trade fair visits can be attended.
Professional internship (in companies with a field of activity for biologists); 2 CP per week full-time; 1 CP per week non-full-time; max. 6 CP
Alumni Talks / RIGeL Lecture Series / Company Talks: These lectures are organised by the graduate school RIGeL for students; for programme see RIGeL homepage (external link, opens in a new window) (external link, opens in a new window). For attending eight lectures you can earn 1 CP as a professional qualification course. Download the form: Download!
For digital lectures offered via Zoom, the names of the participants who are logged in for the entire duration of the lecture will be noted. It is therefore necessary that you log in to Zoom with your full name.
Enter the lecture in the form and submit the complete form (eight lectures) by e-mail (elisabeth.brunner@ur.de).
For a selection of possible professional qualification courses see! (external link, opens in a new window)
If you need help finding a career-qualifying course, please contact the Biology Academic Advising (external link, opens in a new window) Office.
Research Skills (6 CP)
The only course in this module is the course "Research Skills" (6 CP) and is compulsory for all Master's students of Biology; 3 weeks in one block (annually in March)
Note: Please try to attend the course in your first year of study! The contents of the course are helpful for your studies.
For information and enrolment see course catalogues (SPUR) in the winter semester.
Course content:
- Introduction to the philosophy and history of science, the scientific method
- Finding a good research question
- Literature research and organisation
- Experimental design and reproducibility
- Data analysis in R
- Visualisation
- Introduction to LaTeX
- Scientific writing
- Logic and clarity
- Scientific presentations
- Good scientific practice