Bioengineering

Programme content

The curriculum for the Bachelor's degree in Bioscience engineering is designed to develop a comprehensive understanding of living systems and to help you acquire the skills needed to devise the sustainable solutions of tomorrow.

The program is structured around six learning modules:

MATTER, ENERGY, AND SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGIES: Physics (Thermodynamics, Mechanics), Chemistry (From Atoms to Molecules, Chemistry of Equilibria)

MODELING AND DATA ANALYSIS: Mathematical and numerical tools for data analysis

BIODIVERSITY AND THE FUNCTIONING OF LIVING ORGANISMS: Biology (Organization and Functioning of Living Organisms, Diversity and Evolution of Living Organisms)

ECOSYSTEMS, CLIMATE, AND AGRICULTURE: Biomes, Flows and Balances in Ecosystems, Sustainability and Transition

COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGES, AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT: English, First-Year Seminars*

This structure reinforces the interdisciplinary nature of learning and highlights the connections between science, technology, and societal challenges.

Teaching Methods

The educational activities are diverse: theoretical courses and nearly 50% practical work, field trips, group projects, and individual assignments (insect boxes, herbariums, courses on participatory management, etc.).

At Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, practical and supervised lab sessions are conducted in "series," meaning in groups of 30 to 35 students maximum, to ensure close supervision of the students: the success rate depends on this and is strongly linked to student attendance at these small-group sessions.

The First Year Seminars* program is a hybrid between a course and an academic support initiative, designed to facilitate students' integration and introduction to the academic world.

Working in teams, students tackle an original project related to one of eight themes proposed by faculty members: topics that allow them to explore different facets of bioengineering careers (participatory management of tropical forests, insects, plants and their uses, water management, the food of the future, etc.). Faculty members serve as guides and support students in their thinking.

Joint sessions, held in parallel, help students develop transferable skills: work organization, decision-making, structured thinking, scientific research, and peer evaluation.

Support for Success

Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech offers targeted support to help you succeed:

• Before the start of the school year: 1 week of preparatory math classes reserved for students who took 4 hours of math in high school;
• As soon as the semester begins: 2 weeks of refresher courses;
• During your first year:

  * practical and guided exercises organized in small groups

  * tutoring sessions every Wednesday afternoon (always scheduled during Block 1),

  * ongoing assessments every Monday morning in Bac1*

  * distribution of report cards and review of exam papers after exam sessions;

• Throughout your program:

  * individual coaching with the academic coordinator,

  * seminars on study skills, time management, stress management, exam preparation planning...

Continuous assessments* are held every Monday morning in Bac1. This allows for better self-management and a more accurate assessment of the learning process while reducing the number of exams during exam periods.

Objectives:

• to encourage consistent study;
• to support students in their organizational skills;
• to bridge the gap between high school and higher education.

Each course includes one or two assessments prior to the final exam. These assessments account for 10% of the final grade.

Added value

Added value

English, a scientific language.

English is the foreign language most frequently used by graduates in their professional activities. As a bioscience engineer, it is essential to become proficient in it. This is why Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech offers an English course which makes up ECTS each year of the programme from the moment you enter the baccalaureate. This course gives students who have never practiced English a solid grounding in the basics of the language (Level 1 course). For students who already have a good command of the language, a level 2 course is offered. Attendance at level 1 or level 2 is based on a placement test organised during the first week of the course.

Innovative pedagogy and student autonomy

In addition to mastering scientific and technological content, students will begin to develop psycho-social, managerial and entrepreneurial skills during the course of their bachelor's degree. Through innovative pedagogical practices, they will learn to work in multidisciplinary teams. Thus, the "Current Environmental Issues" course already enables them to collaborate in small groups on a project from the beginning of their training. This course involves active graduates who sponsor groups of students and introduce them to the professional attitudes essential to the practice of bioscience engineering.

This type of learning is also practised at the end of the cycle as part of the multidisciplinary experimental project. Groups of bachelor's students are supervised by master's students who play the role of tutors. The objective of this course is to discover the profession of researcher by conducting a scientific research project that addresses a real and current problem in the field of plant physiology or ecology.

Observation internship

An observation internship is mandatory in a bachelor's degree. As part of the programme in block 3 of the cycle, it enables students to discover the professional objectives of their training in a practical way within a company.

Learning outcomes

Profile

The years spent on the bachelor's course provide the necessary knowledge for a bioscience engineering masters in a very wide range of basic and applied sciences. This program is characterized by the level of importance attributed to practical work (laboratories, tutorials) carried out alone or in groups and through personal productions requested from students (reports, herbarium, insect collection).  In the 3rd year, students choose one of the four courses that prepare them more specifically for each of the four bioscience engineering masters.

Learning outcomes

At the end of their training, bioscience engineering graduates will have acquired knowledge and a thorough and transversal understanding of a broad field of basic and applied sciences. They gradually develop their analytical skills and experience through targeted personal work and productions.

Upon completion of the bioscience engineering bachelor's degree the student:

• will have acquired a university-standard work methodology;
• will master the foundations of basic sciences (biology, mathematics, physics, chemistry, physics and environmental sciences) and applied sciences (statistics, computer science, soil science, economics, comparative agriculture, etc.) necessary for the bioscience engineering master's courses;
• will display scientific reasoning skills to identify and analyse the variables of a problem, as well as finding ways to resolve it - including its translation into formal language - including interpretation and discussion of the solution;
• will be able to use appropriate instrumental techniques to resolve metrological issues specific to agronomic, environmental, forestry or chemical sciences and to evaluate the performance and quality of results;
• will be able to initiate relevant fundamental arguments on agrarian or silvicultural production systems or on the implementation of processing methods - optimal use of agricultural and biotechnological production according to technical and operational constraints;
• will be able to access scientific information autonomously by matching the appropriate tools; he or she will also demonstrate a spirit of synthesis leading to written productions in correct and appropriate language;
• will demonstrate language skills through spoken and written knowledge of scientific English at B2 level (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages level scale);
• will show they have acquired a new-found ability to work in a group as well as an ability to present and defend ideas or results. The student will gradually open up to group dynamics, organization and changes within work teams;
• will have an outline of his professional project, enriched by a first immersion in the company.