Duration
Number of credits
| Master in biochemistry and molecular and cell biology (120 ECTS) | 25 crédits |
Lecturer
Collégialité
Coordinator
Language(s) of instruction
French language
Organisation and examination
All year long
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
Students enrolled in Block 2 of M-BBMC must complete a final thesis. The final thesis is produced under the scientific supervision of (i) a promoter or (ii) a promoter and a co-promoter. The promoter must hold a PhD and be a teacher or a scientist of the Department (appointed permanently, or for a fixed term, such as the postdoctorat researchers funded by the FRS-FNRS).
With the prior approval of the Jury of the M-BBMC, the thesis project can be carried out in the research department of a private company or in a research laboratory of another Department, whose head will be co-promoter. The thesis project can not be done in the same laboratory as the one where the student would have done an internship for the course SSTG0044-1 of Block 2. Any proposition of thesis project must be submitted beforehand to the approval of the BBMC Master Jury, which remains sovereign to rule on any special cases.
The thesis projects are proposed by the teachers, accompanied by a brief description of the topic and the techniques that will be used by the students. The proposals are grouped in a file that is accessible on eCampus. The choice of the host laboratories by the students must be transmitted to the President of the Jury at the end of October, at the latest. A form must be filled in with provisional title and summary. The jury establishes the composition of the reading committee, based on suggestions from the promoter.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Recommended or required readings
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
oral exam
Written work / report
Additional information:
1. Written dissertation
The dissertations are written in French or in English. They must be clear and concise; their length must not exceed 65 pages of text (75 for the didactic specialty) (1.5 line spacing, at least 11 in character size) including the main figures. The table of contents, the list of abbreviations, the bibliographic list and any annexes (see below) are not paginated and do not count in the calculation of the number of pages.
The dissertation may include certain appendices such as sequences (DNA, proteins), sequence alignments, vector/promoter schemes, as well as complementary figures illustrating some important results and for which certain figures/illustrations already exist in the body of the text.
The dissertations must contain an introduction/purpose of the work, a survey of the literature, materials and methods, results/discussion and a list of references (complete references with titles of articles and journals).
Each dissertation must also include a one-page summary with the title of the dissertation, the name of the student, the year and laboratory in which the work was performed, and the name of the promoter (and co-promoter, if applicable). This summary describes the objectives, the main results obtained, as well as the general conclusions that can be drawn from the work. If the thesis is written in ENglish, a summary in French is added.
The cover page of the dissertation includes the following indications:
- University of Liège and its logo
- Department of Life Sciences
- Faculty of Sciences
- Title of the dissertation
- Name of the student
- Grade concerned and orientation / option, + date (month, year)
- The host laboratory (s) and the name of the promoter (and co-promoter) may be included.
A reading committee is composed of 3 members in addition to the promoter and co-promoter (if any), holders of a PhD (or equivalent). It can not include more than 2 members of the same laboratory or more than 3 members of the 2 laboratories hosting the student.
On the scheduled date, between 8:30 and 17:00, student send an electronic copy to the administrative secretary of the Department (Stéphanie Hanson, s.hanson@uliege.be), deposits it on the MatheO platform and sends a pdf to the members of the reading committee. A printed copy can be sent to jury members if they wish.
2. Oral presentation
The dissertation is presented orally in 15 minutes, followed by a public defense of 15 minutes during which members of the reading committee can ask all relevant questions. The members of the reading committee who can not attend the defense must send to the President of the Jury their note for the dissertation and 3 questions that the President will ask on their behalf. Moderators representing the different orientations of the Master (and which include the President of the Jury) are present for the whole day.
3. Evaluation
For the basic specialty:
- A note is given by the promoter for the day-to-day laboratory work corresponding to the course BBMC0020-1 Final thesis (complement).
- A note is given by the reading committee for the written dissertation and the respect of the related instructions (10/20), while two notes are awarded by the reading committee and the moderators for the presentation (5/20) and the defense (5/20). These last two notes are likely to be smoothed at the end of the day by the moderators to ensure the homogeneity of the grading. The sum of these three notes corresponds to the final note of the thesis (SMEM0019-1).
For the didactic specialty:
- One note is given by the promoter for the daily work, another by the reading committee for the written dissertation and a note is given by the reading committee and the moderators for the oral performance (presentation and defense). The note of the final thesis is calculated by summing these three notes after having respectively multiplied them by 0.2, 0.4 and 0.4.
Work placement(s)
Organisational remarks and main changes to the course
The final thesis must normally be presented during an exam session of Block 2. An out-of-session presentation is only possible for exceptional reasons, with the agreement of the Faculty of Sciences. The choice of the presentation session must be submitted no later than 1 May; the presentation schedule is established before May 15th.
Contacts
Claire Périlleux, présidente du jury du master BBMC
cperilleux@uliege.be
04/3663833