Life Sciences (Biology and Medical Laboratory Research) | HAN UNIVERSITY

Subjects in the Life Sciences course include: Molecular Biology, Molecular Genetics, Cell Biology, Microbiology, Immunology, Virology, Bioinformatics, Molecular Plant Biology, Carcinogenesis, Immunology, Physiology of Plants and Animals, Communication Skills (written and oral), Research Skills.

During your 1st year, your lecturers guide you through current research topics in the life sciences. You gain a broad theoretical overview of the field as well as practical skills. Because you work in small groups, you receive plenty of individual attention from your lecturers.

Subjects in the 1st year: - Basic Knowledge of Life Sciences - Basic theory of Biology and Chemistry - Basic practical Biology and Chemistry Skills - Biomolecules in their Environment - The Cell in a Medical Context

At the end of your 1st year, you receive a written recommendation about your further education. If you have obtained all your 1st-year credits, you will be advised to continue with the Life Sciences course.

If you have not earned all of your 1st-year credits and the teaching staff feel that you will not be able to successfully complete the course within a reasonable amount of time, you will be advised not to continue. This recommendation is binding.

In the 2nd, 3rd and 4th years, your instructors challenge you to work more independently. You take part in group and individual projects on current issues in the life sciences. You also design experiments, organize activities, draw conclusions and present your results just as a professional laboratory technician would.

Year 2 Courses: 

- Molecular and biochemical research  - Interaction between human, plant and microorganisms

Year 3 Courses:        

- Biomedical research - Molecular plant biology - Biotechnology

- Work placement (1 semester)

- Minor (2 semesters, 3rd or 4th year)

During your 3rd year, you do a work placement at a research institute, a teaching hospital, or a company. You are free to choose your own work placement, either in the Netherlands or abroad.

Year  4           

- Minor

- Graduation project

The minor exchange course takes six months and can be done in your 3rd or 4th year.

HAN University of Applied Sciences offers the following minor exchange courses in English for students in the laboratory education domain:

Discovery, Analyses & Production of Biomolecules, BioInformatics -Molecular Plant Biology, Nanotechnogy.

Students may choose to do your minor exchange course at another Dutch university or at a university abroad. If you graduate from both HAN and the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences in Germany, you earn both a Dutch Bachelor of Applied Sciences and a German Bachelor of Science. This is a major advantage if you want to work in an international setting. This option for the minor is part of our double degree program and an additional language course, as well as additional thesis defense are required.

If HAN students have studied Life Sciences at a foreign university, they may request exemption from the minor exchange course. To acquire an exemption, you will need to prove that you have studied Life Sciences for at least two years. The subjects you followed during this time may not overlap with the subjects offered in the Life Sciences course.

Research Minor Participating in 3rd year regular HAN LS courses in ‘Range of Life Scientific Research. Students intending to improve their research skills can opt to use the space in the minor exchange course to conduct research projects with companies. A number of companies have offered positions that are too brief for placement/traineeship, but are challenging enough for students. Some of these projects pay students. 

For your Bachelors degree you are also required to spend one semester abroad. You may attend any of the universities that HAN collaborates with in South Africa, Asia, Europe and the UK. You may also choose to do your work placement, your minor and your graduation assignment abroad.

Graduation project

Your graduation project gives you hands-on experience at designing and carrying out your very own research project in a hospital, research institute or company. Your graduation project will focus on a major issue in the field of life sciences. As part of this project, you will develop your own research questions, complete a literature study, organize lab activities, obtain results and write lab reports.

Once you have finished the project, you present your results in a formal report, professional presentation or poster presentation at a conference.

If HAN students have studied Life Sciences at a foreign university, they may request exemption from the minor exchange course. To acquire an exemption, you will need to prove that you have studied Life Sciences for at least two years. The subjects you followed during this time may not overlap with the subjects offered in the Life Sciences course. The minor exchange course takes six months and can be done in your 3rd or 4th year.

All courses and examinations will be in English, so you need a good command of spoken and written English.

The level required for admission should be an equivalent of the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) score of 6.0 or higher, or TOEFL iBT score of 80 or higher, or diploma’s such as:

Cambridge Advanced (CAE) Grade C (180 - 184)

Cambridge Proficiency (CPE)

Greek high school diploma (Apolytirio Genikou Lykeio), with a general grade of at least 16 and a grade of at least 17 for the subjects: Biology, Mathematics & Physics.

If you apply for a course at HAN, you are eligible for a course selection check. You receive advice about whether you have chosen a course that suits you. The course selection check consists of a (Skype) call. If you apply after 1 May, the course selection check is mandatory.

August 15, 2019

In general it will be your own responsibility to find accommodation. Rental prices for a student room vary from €300 to €500 per calendar month. However, you will most commonly find rooms to rent for around € 400. Make sure you book a room in time (preferably in the early spring), so you have the best chances to find the room that suits your wishes. Unfurnished rooms can be cheaper to rent than furnished ones.

Greek (EU) students do not have a guaranteed room on campus, but can contact the HAN Housing Office by email for a place on the campus Housing waiting list.

For more information and assistance in finding your right housing, please contact us on info@studyinholland.gr

As a HAN Life Sciences graduate, you will have diverse, marketable skills. You will be highly attractive to a wide range of employers and so you can choose from many positions both in both the commercial and public sector. For example, you may work at a research institute, a hospital, a health agency, or a pharmaceutical company. You could be involved in researching diseases, designing new drugs, undertaking quality assurance, or working as a product or marketing specialist.

Our graduates are trained to be able to independently plan and execute short to medium-length projects. Your practical experience combined with the knowledge and skills in science and in project management, and with basic knowledge of other expertise involved in life sciences projects, such as quality assurance, guidelines for industry, statistics, patents or financial issues, make you the linking pin between lab technicians and (scientific) management and also between different departments. You will bring in innovative ideas and ensure that projects run more efficiently.

The Life Sciences Bachelors degree is a good basis for a number of Masters courses. Many graduates obtain a Masters degree and some even go on to do a PhD. With a Bachelors diploma from HAN University of Applied Sciences, you can continue doing a Master’s program at a Research University. If you want to do this abroad, you can usually start straightaway. If you have done your minor at a research university in the Netherlands during the third year of your studies at the HAN University of Applied Sciences, you can get direct access to a Master’s program at a research university in the Netherlands as well. If not, Dutch research universities offer bridging program to prepare HAN Bachelors students for a Masters course.