MBI has done a study of social and academic belonging among bachelor students in molecular biology.

Background

About 35 – 40 new students enrol in the bachelor programme in molecular biology every autumn. Around half of these are still active in their fifth semester, and about 1/6 continue to do a master’s degree with us. These figures indicate that the retention of the bachelor programme is acceptable, but the recruitment of our own bachelor students to our master’s programme is low.

We wanted to strengthen the feeling of social and academic belonging of our bachelor students. The project also aims to raise the retention of bachelor students, and increase the number of bachelor students who choose to go on to do a master’s degree at the Department of Molecular Biology.

We wanted to strengthen the feeling of social and academic belonging of our bachelor students. The project also aims to raise the retention of bachelor students, and increase the number of bachelor students who choose to go on to do a master’s degree at the Department of Molecular Biology.

Mayor findings

The study revealed three mayor findings. First; a seemingly common perception is that the lack of teaching at the department at an early stage in the bachelors programme is one of the main reasons for lowered social and academic belonging. However, and rather surprisingly, our first year students do not seem to worry that molecular biology courses are not introduced until the second semester and teaching at the High Technology Centre does not take place until the third semester.

Second; expectations developed during the first year does not seem to be fulfilled the following years of the degree. The students also have an insatiable want for information.

And third; Most of the information they require does exist, however new ways for it to reach its intended audience seem to be needed.

Read the full report

You can read the full report here. Note that the report is written in Norwegian with an English abstract.