A little bit of how to read the list of courses below:
In your masters you will have a Theoretical component of 15 EC, with the obligatory courses. This is the essentials course and either introduction to Modelling or Bioinformatics and Genomics, depending on your previous education. Together this amounts up to 9.5 EC. This means you have 5.5 EC left, which you have to fill up with the courses from the list on the bottom of the page (except for the intro R and Python, those are not part of the masters program). These are the official Bioinformatics and BioComplexity (BiBC) courses. In Period 1 the two main theoretical courses are given. Normally course enrolments for period 1 are already in May which is too early for those who start in September, therefore the coordinator of the master program will enrol you instead. So as a starting student (year 1 of the masters) you don’t need to worry about the first courses!
Below you will see a schedule, this schedule is made to help you plan, not as an exact … this is the way it has to be.. list. Because if you add up all the EC’s of the courses listed you will go well beyond 15EC.. Luckily you also have an ELECTIVE component which is 12 EC in total. You may fill those 12 EC with our bioinformatics courses, but you are also allowed to look elsewhere at what is offered at the University! (use this link to search the course catalogus)
As mentioned above, we have decided to offer all our Bioinformatics courses in Period 1, 2 and Period 3, and were possible back to back without much overlap. Again you can also choose other courses (for the electives), that is fine, but you have to schedule them yourselves. They may overlap, or even been given in a different period. This is not a problem, but it is up to you to make it work in your schedule. Also important to know, it is not a problem to combine your major research project with courses! Actually that is the way to do it.
It is the idea is that you start a Major Research Project around December, that would be most efficient. Perhaps you have seen a great group and topic? And maybe that topic requires you to learn a little bit more about a certain bioinformatics or biocomplexity item which is possibly given in one of our courses 😉
Theoretical (obligatory) courses (Osiris numbers can be found in the column Course code).
| Course name | EC | Course code | Time frame | Timeslot | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GSLS introduction week (ILS) | – | – | 01-09-2025 to 09-05-2025 | Fulltime 1 week | Mandatory week |
| BiBC Essentials | 4.5 | B-MBIOCES | 8-09-2025 to 24-10-2025 | B/C | Mandatory for all BiBC students Exam in the week of 20 to 24 October 2025 |
| Introduction to Biological Modelling * | 5 | B-MBIOINBM | 8-09-2025 to 24-10-2025 | A/D* | Exam in the week of 20 to 24 October 2025 |
| Bioinformatics and Genomics * | 5 | B-MBIOGEN | 8-09-2025 to 24-10-2025 | A/D* | Exam in the week of 20 to 24 October 2025 |
| Poster session and social event for 1st & 2nd year BiBC students** | – | – | TBA (end sept or 1st week oct) | – | Mandatory for all BiBC students |
| Introduction to Machine Learning | 3 | B-MBIOBMLB | 27-10-2024 to 7-11-2024 | – | Fulltime 2 weeks |
* Together with the coordinator it will be decided which course you will follow.
** The now 2nd year students will present their internships to the 1st year students. Posters of the Major/Minor research projects will be presented and a social event with all students will be organized.
| Course name | EC | Course code | Time frame | Timeslot | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modeling Life (*new) | 7.5 | B-MBIMODLI | 10-11-2025 to 29-12-2026 | B/C | Replaces the ‘old’ biological modeling course. This is a new course |
| Microbial Genomics | 4.5 | B-MBIMIGE | 10-11-2025 to 28-11-2025 | Fulltime 3 weeks | – |
| Bioinformatics and Evol. Genomics | 3 | B-MBIEG06 | 08-12-2025 to 19-12-2025 | Fulltime 2 weeks | – |
| Holiday Break | – | – | – | – | |
| Structural Bioinformatics | 4.5 | SK-MCBIM21 | 12-01-2026 to 30-01-2026 | Fulltime 3 weeks | – |
Preferably you now have also started with your Major Research Project, Minor, Writing assignment and so on.
| Course name | EC | Course code | Time frame | Timeslot | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Computational Biology | 7.5 | B-MCOBI17 | 02-02-2026 to 10-04-2026 | B/C (full period!) | – |
| System tipping points: bifurcations <NEW 2025> | 3.0 | B-MBIOSTP | 02-02-2026 to 13-02-2026 | Fulltime 2 weeks | required level: Intro to biological modeling or similar |
| Microbiome course (bi-annual) <new 2026> | 3.0 | BMB503625 (3 EC) | 02-02-2026 to 13-02-2026 | Fulltime 2 weeks | New course |
| Advanced R | 3 | B-MADR19 | 16-02-2026 to 17-02-2026 | Fulltime 2 weeks | – |
| Cancer Genomics | 3 | BMB521219 | 2-03-2026 to 13-03-2026 | Fulltime 2 weeks | – |
| Analytics and Algorithms | 3 | BMB508219 | 31-03-2026 to 11-04-2026 | Fulltime 2 weeks | – |
| Advanced Omics | 3 | BMB502324 | 07-04-2026 to 17-04-2026 | Fulltime 2 weeks | First monday |
Preferably you now have also started with your Major Research Project, Minor, Writing assignment and so on.
| Course name | EC | Course code | Time frame | Timeslot | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced Bioinformatics | 1.5 | BMB502214 | 12-05-2026 to 23-05-2026 | 1 week fulltime | |
| Name | Osiris |
|---|---|
| Modeling Life | B-MBIMODLI |
| Bioinformatics and Evolutionary genomics | B-MBIEG06 |
| Structural Bioinformatics and Modelling | SK-MSTBIMO |
| Advanced R for the Life Sciences | B-MADR19 |
| Advanced Omics for Life Science | BMB502324 |
| Advanced Bioinformatics for Life Sciences | BMB502114 |
| Introduction to research data management for the life sciences | B-MINRDM |
| Analytics and Algorithms for Omics data | BMB508219 |
| Microbial Genomics | B-MCMIGE |
| Cancer Genomics | BMB521219 |
| Bioinformatica en Genoom analyse | BWM33316 |
| Essentials (Master Cursus) | B-MBIOCES |
| Biological Modelling | B-MBIMOD |
| Bioinformatics and Genomics | B-MBIOGEN |
| Basic Machine Learning | B-MBIOMLB |
| Bifurcation: Systems tipping points | B-MBIOSTP |
| Genes 2 Organisms*** | SK-MCSB |
| Systems Biology*** | B-B1SYSB09 |
| Microbiome | BMV-503625 |
| Genes 2 Organisms*** | SK-MCSB |
The list below is a number of recommended courses. The first 4 are bachelor courses, which means you maybe can follow them but won’t get full credits (EC) and you need permission from the Board of Examiners.
The last 3 courses are really nice master level courses. Be aware that we cannot guarantee enrolment in these courses, as they are officially offered in an other masters programme. But if you are interested, let the BiBC coordinator know and we can try to get you enrolled.
NEW: Via eduxchange.nl you can now also select courses from our alliance universities. https://eduxchange.nl/for-students-uu/explore
A list of interesting courses for you could be:
WUR (is Wageningen University), please be aware, they have a different Period system as we have. All EC’s earned at WUR count as electives for our programme.
| Course | Program | Course code | Semester/Period | EC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Numerical Mathematics | Bachelor 2 | WISB251 | Period 2 | - |
| Introduction Scientific Computing | Bachelor 3 | WISB356 | Period 3 | - |
| Game Theory | Bachelor 2 | WISB272 | Period 2 | - |
| Toy Models | Bachelor 3 | SK-BTOYM | Period 4 | - |
| Introduction Numerical Bifurcation Analysis | Master | WISL606 | SEM2 | 8 |
| Introduction to Complex Systems | Master | WISM484 | SEM1 | 7.5 |
| Seminar mathematical epidemiology | Master | WISM436 | SEM1 | 7.5 |
