Program details

The program extends over 3 semesters. The program concludes in the third semester with a master's thesis that is written during a six-month internship at a research lab of the student's choice.

All courses offered by the Biomedical Sciences program are taught and assessed in English. Therefore, a good knowledge of  English is required. In addition, basic German skills are helpful as the University of Bern is situated in the German-speaking city of Bern. We do not require any language proficiency certificates. Language competence is the student's own responsibility.

The timetable is displayed in KSL under the heading “standard timetables”.

https://www.unibe.ch/studies/dates/semesterdates/index_eng.html

Purpose: It is the goal of the elective modules to give the students the opportunity to get acquainted with scientific topics of interest, to learn new experimental techniques and to indulge in daily lab routines. If feasible, students get the opportunity to work on a small project on their own. Apart from offering students deeper insights into preferred fields of research, elective modules ideally also serve as an entry point towards the master thesis.

Dates:
Slot 1: 08.02. - 26.02.2027
Slot 2: 01.03. – 19.03.2027

Registration Process:
(1) The registration is handled via KSL. The proposals are listed in KSL. The instructions on how to register are listed below.
(2) Each student shall choose one proposal per slot no later than November 12th 2026

Studies listed below refer to topics that may be of special interest to Master students in Biomedical Sciences. Important : While ECTS points earned with these courses are NOT eligible towards achieving the Masters' degree in BMSc, they will be listed in the Diploma Supplement as additional voluntary studies.

Introductory Course in Laboratory Animal Science (2 ECTS)

• Letter of intent must be sent by mail or regular mail to the coordinator's office before registration to the LTK course
• The letter will be signed by the coordinator and sent back to you.
• Proceed with the registration to the LTK course: under the heading "remarks", state that you received the signed agreement (mandatory for successful registration)
• When registering: please be sure to include following billing address: Zentraler Rechnungseingang, REF-200-80, Hochschulstrasse 6, 3012 Bern
• After the LTK course: Students that have successfully finished the course are asked to provide the diploma to the office of the study coordinator.

Module in CTU

Course objectives
This course is aimed at providing prospective clinical investigators with the essential knowledge of Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and of other regulatory and ethical requirements, and the skills for contributing to clinical trials

The topics covered will include
- Ethical and legal principles
- Swiss regulations for research involving humans (HRA, ClinO, HRO and OrgO)
- GCP guidelines
- Basics of clinical research and study designs
- Basics of data management in clinical research
- Patient information and consent
- Study conduct & quality assurance
- Safety

GCB Homepage

Registration Process

The registration is handled via KSL. The proposals are listed in KSL from a date announced to enrolled students in the spring semester. The instructions on how to register are listed in a PDF document further below.

Alumni Award

The Alumni Biomedical Sciences will award a prize for the best master's thesis. A committee will judge the anonymized abstracts based on clarity, writing, and scientific content. Selected on abstract quality, the full master's thesis of some students will be read in full and judged. Judging criteria are based on scientific writing and methodology rather than on the project success itself. A prize of CHF 500.- will be awarded to the winner at the official diploma ceremony in March. To be eligible for the prize, please send the abstract of your master's thesis before 13.01.25 (for the students who started their theses in 2024) to the study coordinator. The Alumni Biomedical Sciences wish you good luck with your experiments and all the best for your master's thesis.

Grading, guidelines, further documents

Exams take place twice a year towards the respective ends of semesters 1 and 2. The exam schedule for the current year can be viewed below.

• For teaching modules shared with other programs (5 modules), exams take place at the end of the respective modules.
• For BMSc specific modules (14 modules): combined MC exams are sat at the end of each semesters, i.e. in December/January (1^st semester) and June (2^nd semester).
• To pass a semester, the average of the weighted grades of all exams in that semester has to be ≥  4.0.
• All failed exams can be repeated once.
• The master's thesis can be started when all exams have been taken and at least one of the two semesters has been passed.

Exam fees:
An invoice over CHF 300 will be sent in November of year 1. Diplomas will only be issued after receipt of this fee.

Completion of the master's program:
The program is completed successfully when all required mandatory courses (adding up to at least 60 ECTS credits) have been concluded, exams have been passed, and the master's thesis (30 ECTS credits) has been completed and marked with a passing mark.

Withdrawal from the exam:
In case of withdrawal from the exam or in case of illness, students must inform the exam supervisor via email or telephone (031 684 87 44) about their absence before the exam. Alternatively, they may contact the study coordinator (email or 031 684 87 22).

Students must provide a brief written explanation (e.g., via email) within 3 working days, stating the important reason that prevented them from attending the exam. Supporting evidence or medical certificates should then generally be submitted within a period of 10 days.

Failure to comply with these requirements will result in the application of Article 21 of the regulations, and a grade of 1 will be awarded.

Excerpt from the Master in Biomedical Science Regulations (translation from the German Reglement: bmsc_7_Reglement_Master_BiomedicalSciences_2010-08-06-1-1_eng.pdf)

Art. 21

1. Registration for assessments is generally not required. Students are automatically registered for all assessments of the compulsory and core elective courses they are required to complete.

2. In general, only important reasons, such as illness, accident, military service of the student, or the death of a close relative, provide acceptable reasons for withdrawal from an assessment. Otherwise, the assessment is deemed failed with a grade of 1, or "failed" in the case of ungraded assessments.

3. If students withdraw during an assessment or do not appear, they must provide evidence of an important reason according to paragraph 2 within three working days. Otherwise, the assessment is deemed failed with a grade of 1, or "failed" in the case of ungraded assessments. Illness and accidents must be documented by a medical certificate; a medical examiner may be consulted.

4. Students who were prevented from participating in an assessment for an important reason according to paragraph 2 may, upon request, retake the assessment within 6 months.

Examination overview

All teaching modules undergo evaluation. Online links to complete evaluation surveys are sent to enrolled students by email in December and June.
Participation in evaluations is obligatory.