M1 International Track in France, Site Orsay

More information

 Past and current students gathered for the Welcome days.

General presentation

Program Content

The pluridisciplinary Master 1 program is composed of two semesters of study for a total of 60 ECTS. It is divided into three parts.

Part 1: Core Courses – compulsory for all students (20 ECTS)

During the first part of the program, students will take the following courses that address key concepts and challenges in the following basic fields of Life Sciences and Health:

• Genetics and Genomics

• Cellular Biology

• Biochemistry and Cell Signaling

• Systems biology

This part of the program will be mostly based on active learning which includes reverse approaches and problem-based activities.

Part 2: Electives (20 to 25 ECTS)

During the second part of the program, students will choose among a wide range of elective courses in accordance with their academic and career development goals. Some of the areas of study include:

- Epigenetics
- Microbiology
- Neuroscience
- Biotherapies
- Development
- Evolution
- Applied genetics and precision medicine
- Synthetic biology

Elective courses only open if there is a minimum of 10 registered students. Some elective courses cannot be chosen together because of schedule conflicts.

Part 3: Research training (17,5 to 22,5 ECTS)

We are offering a research-driven Master program through which students can focus on their own research interests and can develop individual research trajectories.

The concept of “Masteriales” requires students to organize themselves in small groups and to design an innovative thematic and/or technological research project in a limited time (48 hours). At the end, they must present their project in a reasoned way before a jury of scientists. Students will also be asked to write a virtual research grant application. Taking place from the first days of the academic year, the annual edition of the “Masteriales” allows for better group cohesion, a possible disinhibition and building of self-confidence among the students. They also discover some of the difficulties inherent in designing research projects.

During the first semester, students have the possibility of performing laboratory rotations for a period of 2 to 4 weeks in partner establishments of the Université Paris-Saclay in the field of Life Sciences. The rotations cover a wide range of research topics and will address questions about how model organisms advance science.

During the second semester, students will be tutored in a teaching unit leading to the conception of a research project that will be undertaken during an 8-week internship in a host scientific laboratory. This training provides students with an ideal opportunity to prepare for a career in research (in both academic and private settings).

Optional:

We encourage our students to participate to supplementary training courses to enhance their career skills (foreign languages, intercultural communication, thematic summer schools, internship,…). Supplementary teaching units are assessed. Some may qualify for ECTS credits but are not considered when calculating the average mean of the M1 year. In addition, the optional activities taken by the students and the acquired competencies will be notified on the diploma supplement.

Discover the training opportunities and events organized by EUGLOH - the European University Alliance for Global Health – in which our university participates: click here.

Program Goals

The aim of this Master program is to provide a solid and broad-based foundation in prominent areas in Life Sciences and Health. In addition, given the elective courses offered, and the intensive research training internship, students will obtain both theoretical and practical experience in their fields of interest.

Competences and skills to be acquired in the field of Life Sciences and Health are:

- ability to comprehend general scientific developments
- in-depth and critical analysis of scientific literature in specialized international journals
- formulation of new questions and hypotheses
- communication with professionals
- ability to design and implement scientific experiments
- ability to describe, analyze and report on research data
- development of practical skills
- autonomy

Scholarship program:

Candidates for the International track (2 years) and Mater 2 programs (1 year) with an outstanding academic record are encouraged to apply for scholarships offered by the University of Paris-Saclay (Scholarship program).

Why choose this Master?

You will experience a newly-created and innovative study environment located on a world-class and highly-competitive campus and research site in Europe (more here). This international opportunity will expand your horizons and enhance your personal development. Demands for graduates with an international cursus are constantly increasing due to the transverse skills they have acquired such as cultural awareness, language skills, adaptability, resilience, just to name a few. In terms of career opportunities, your international experience will prove be an extremely valuable asset.

Documents

Contact

odile.bronchain@universite-paris-saclay.fr

Site

Some of our teaching approaches

 1) eCampus platform

The Master has two digital workspaces on the Paris-Saclay eCampus platform. They provide access from a single web page called "my courses" to all resources and information made available by the teaching team.

• The "Initial training" workspace, made in collaboration with the Institut Pasteur, contains refresher and updating courses that cover the essential prerequisites for our Master in Molecular Biology, Cellular Biology, Biochemistry, Genetics and Statistics.

It is also used during the year as remedial courses to help students fill some gaps they might have in specific areas.

• The main workspace contains the description and the entire teaching program of the M1 Life Sciences and Health - International Track - France. All courses are listed as a dedicated section that includes lecture contents and associated resources.

Students also have access to 3 additional sections: one containing methodological supports, one is dedicated to the iGEM competition to which our students are invited to participate to (if they wish) and finally, a “special” section in which we are building monthly playlists to exchange songs from France and student’s countries of origin.

2) Masteriales

To take off the new academic year, all students will be engaged in the class called “Masteriales”. This course is an integration module. It aims to create a group dynamic by developing an innovative scientific and/or technologic project requiring the contribution of students coming from different horizons and with complementary knowledge and skills in biology, computer sciences, statistics, genomics and/or bioinformatics.

3) Interactive learning

We implement active learning methods as often as possible. Students participate to and develop educational escape games, make their own short scientific videos and participate in bioinformatics and laboratory research workshops.

Student Accomplishments

 1) « Whatiz ? » : Using short videos to learn and share scientific knowledge.

We ask the students to answer fundamental questions in the field of Life Sciences and Health by producing animated videos. These short films must in a few minutes give an updated vision and explain scientific ideas and concepts addressed in the Core courses of the program.

Whatever is well conceived is clearly said... and the words to say it flow with ease.

Expected outcomes are to:

• Develop valuable and transferable scientific and technical understanding
• Develop professional communication skills
• Strengthen the capacity to analyse, integrate and synthesised
• Formulate one’s own vision
• Promote the ability to work with others

This year’s Whatiz movies: What is a gene? What is a genome?

2) Unlocking science in Escape Games.

We use escape games as an innovating learning tool to manipulate key concepts in Life Sciences and Health and to challenge student’s knowledge across various disciplines.

Escape games are an educational component of the “Core Courses” that cover the following basic fields: Genetics & Genomics, Cellular Biology, Biochemistry and Cell Signalling. Students are divided in teams that first design their own games that must incorporate enigmas based on the concepts and methods seen in the Core Courses. They then run the games between teams.

Expected outcomes are to:

• engage student with their learning
• strengthen and confront knowledge
• promote problem solving skills
• encourage critical thinking
• reinforce teamwork and communication skills

Here are this year student’s escape games organisation chart / storyboard.

3) Masteriales: Combine your talents to create innovative projects.

Students have 48 hours in a team of 3 or 4 people to develop their project. They must identify innovative perspectives in the fields of Life Sciences and Health and/or Biotechnology and ensure the viability and feasibility of the project both technically and financially. Students are supervised by teachers but must also contact experts in different fields to support their project (referents and collaborators).

Expected outcomes are to:

• Use and share knowledge to develop an innovative project.
• Master communication tools for knowledge transfer and presentation of scientific projects.
• Develop creativity, reactivity, initiation, autonomy and group work skills.

Here is a short presentation this year student’s projects.

Student's corner