Admission requirements - MSc Plant Biotechnology

Purpose and reason for the admission requirements

The admission requirements for the master's programme Plant Biotechnology are defined in such a way that students should be able to successfully complete the programme nominally in two years. To comply, students should have sufficient knowledge on concepts and methodologies related to plant biotechnology, for example molecular biology, genetics, plant physiology, breeding, and bioinformatics. For experimental design and analysis of experimental data, a solid basis in research methodology and statistics is necessary.

The criterion used for admission is

a WUR BSc degree in Plant Sciences, Biotechnology, Molecular Life Sciences, a Dutch BSc in Biology (with CROHO 56860 or 59325), or equivalent.

The norm for this equivalence is

An assessment of the student’s expertise in the following two topics:

• Biology (plant physiology, genetics, molecular biology, microbiology, cell biology)
• Lab skills (at least DNA/RNA isolation, PCR analysis)
• Chemistry (biochemistry)
• Bioinformatics (genome, gene and protein sequence analysis, high-throughput measurement data analysis, experience with widely used bioinformatics databases and tools)
• Statistics (formulate hypotheses for population means, t-tests, confidence intervals, binomial and normal distributions)
• Research methodology

Not all topics mentioned need to be mastered at the same level; they will be weighed by the Admission Board per individual application.

Method of assessment whether this norm is met

• Transcript of records displaying the content of previous course subjects and project work;
• Curriculum vitae displaying relevant work, internship and/or project experience on an academic level in a relevant field if applicable.

Scores attributed by the Admission Board

Admitted / not admitted / admitted under condition obtaining the BSc or MSc degree / not admitted with offer of pre-master

The Admission Board may allow and/or suggest compensation of knowledge gaps by:

• a GPA≥7.0* for the previous education for small discrepancies as new knowledge is sufficiently easily acquired;
• a GPA≥7.0* and an individual pre-master's programme for larger discrepancies that can be compensated in ≤30 ECTS and one year of study.

*Check the general admissions page for the International credentials evaluation guide for international equivalencies to a Dutch GPA>7.0. This guide includes compensating factors for a slightly lower GPA the Admission Board may include in their judgement.

Contact us through the contact button above to discuss the possibilities of a pre-master or how to mitigate knowledge gaps if you are still in the process of obtaining your degree.

Find out more about enrolment and fees of a pre-master's programme.

Admissible study programmes

Graduates from study programmes that may meet the knowledge requirements for Plant Biotechnology are for example: Plant Sciences, Biology, and Life Sciences.

Study programmes with knowledge gaps

Study programmes whose students may have to follow additional courses during the previous study programme or a pre-master to fulfil the knowledge requirements are for example: Agricultural Sciences bachelors without molecular biology and lab skills, and Biotechnology or Bioinformatics related bachelors without plant biology and genetics.