Bioengineering

Programme content

The first cycle of Bioscience engineering studies offers basic training aimed at learning to conduct scientific reasoning based on an excellent command of the fundamental knowledge necessary for the practice of the profession.

These courses are perfectly in line with the competency framework of this training. Some teachers are actually drawn from the Faculty of Sciences of ULiege (Geology, Physics...) and are specialists in their fields but they courses they teach in Gembloux are exclusively targeted at the needs of future Bioscience engineers. It should be noted that most teachers in the bachelor's cycle also teach on a master's degree, thus ensuring an ideal transition between the two cycles.

Bioscience engineering studies at Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech are distinguished by the variety of disciplines offered from the bloc 1 of the bachelor's cycle.

The basic disciplines, such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology (animal and plant) make it possible to acquire the technical and scientific knowledge and know-how essential to the exercise of the bioscience engineering profession.

At the same time, open disciplines, such as English, economics, law and sociology, will provide students with the transversal and psycho-social skills required in order to become managers and understand all the constraints of a constantly-changing society.

During blocs 1 and 2, all students take the same courses. This gives them a broad base of multidisciplinary know-how. The specialization disciplines, which are available at the end of the baccalaureate cycle, prepare students for the four occupational groups covered by the bioscience engineering masters.

The pedagogical activities are varied: theoretical courses, practical work, field visits, group projects and personal work (insect box, herbarium, participatory management courses...). In Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, the practical and supervised work courses take place in "series", i.e. in groups of 30 to 35 students maximum in order to ensure close supervision of the students: the success rate depends on this and is strongly linked to the students' attendance at these small group sessions. 

Professional situations (excursions, company visits, internships, end-of-study work, personal projects) also form an essential part of the entire curriculum. These activities help students to develop their project and create a link between their training and professional life.

Coaching focused on each student's professional project is organized during the 3rd bloc. The primary objectives of this coaching are: to draft a personal professional project, define a first place of internship and select among the development workshops the skills most beneficial to the professional project. Students can also have their own activities or projects they wish to invest in which allow them to develop transversal skills, recognised by a board of examiners. At the end of the cycle, students debrief this first step of personalization of their course and can thus calmly choose their master's orientation.

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.