Master of Science (MSc) in Biotechnology

Please note: The MSc in Biotechnology with a minor subject is only for applicants with a Danish Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology including the required courses from the minor subject. The minor subject consists of courses taught in Danish, where the first part is compulsory in the Bachelor’s degree, and the remaining is part of the MSc.

You can study biotechnology with a minor subject in biology if you want to acquire the competences to teach or disseminate both subjects. This enables you to teach in Danish upper secondary schools.

You will also be qualified to work e.g., in other educational establishments, within research, quality management or product sales in the biotechnical industry, as a scientist at research institutions, or as consultant in governmental agencies.

See the full description of the admission requirements, as well as the knowledge, competences, and skills you obtain in the curriculum for Biotechnology with a Minor Subject >>

Programme Overview

The programme can be structured in two different ways depending on whether you start in September or February:

Course Table, Study Start in September

Compulsory courses in biotechnology: 7.5 ECTS
Compulsory courses in biology: 22.5 ECTS
Restricted elective courses in biotechnology: 30 ECTS
Elective courses: 30 ECTS
Master's thesis: 30 ECTS

One block each year equals nine weeks of study and 15 ECTS. The table is primarily for guidance and may be subject to revision.

Course Table, Study Start in February

Study start in February is only for students with legal right of admission to the programme. Read about legal right of admission.

Compulsory courses in biotechnology: 7.5 ECTS
Compulsory courses in biology: 22.5 ECTS
Restricted elective courses in biotechnology: 30 ECTS
Elective courses: 30 ECTS
Master's thesis: 30 ECTS

One block each year equals nine weeks of study and 15 ECTS. The table is primarily for guidance and may be subject to revision.

Restricted Elective Courses

Choose your restricted elective courses from the list below. Click on each course for a detailed description.

• Genome and Cell Biology
• Advanced Microbial Biotechnology
• Applied Microbiology
• Heterologous Expression
• Synthetic Biology
• Analytical Chemistry
• Frontiers in Plant Science

Please note: The MSc in Biotechnology with a minor subject is only for applicants with a Danish Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology including the required courses from the minor subject. The minor subject consists of courses taught in Danish, where the first part is compulsory in the Bachelor’s degree, and the remaining is part of the MSc.

You can study biotechnology with a minor subject in chemistry if you want to acquire the competences to teach or disseminate both subjects. This enables you to teach in Danish upper secondary schools.

You will also be qualified to work e.g., in other educational establishments, within research, quality management or product sales in the biotechnical industry, as a scientist at research institutions, or as consultant in governmental agencies.

See the full description of the admission requirements, as well as the knowledge, competences, and skills you obtain in the curriculum for Biotechnology with a Minor Subject >>

Programme Overview

The programme can be structured in two different ways depending on whether you start in September or February:

Course Table, Minor Subject in Chemistry, Study Start September

Compulsory courses in biotechnology: 7.5 ECTS
Compulsory courses in chemistry: 52.5 ECTS
Restricted elective courses: 30 ECTS
Master's thesis: 30 ECTS

One block each year equals nine weeks of study and 15 ECTS. The table is primarily for guidance and may be subject to revision.

Course Table, Study Start in February

Study start in February is only for students with legal right of admission to the programme. Read about legal right of admission.

Compulsory courses in biotechnology: 7.5 ECTS
Compulsory courses in chemistry: 52.5 ECTS
Restricted elective courses: 30 ECTS
Master's thesis: 30 ECTS

One block each year equals nine weeks of study and 15 ECTS. The table is primarily for guidance and may be subject to revision.

Restricted Elective Courses

Choose your restricted elective courses from the list below. Click on each course for a detailed description.

• Advanced Microbial Biotechnology
• Analytical Chemistry
• Applied Microbiology
• Genome and Cell Biology
• Synthetic Biology

Why did you choose Biotechnology?

I had a good biology teacher in upper secondary school, so I found it interesting and exciting.

I was actually planning to do biology, but then someone told me about Biotechnology. Since I knew I wanted to work in the pharmaceutical sector developing medicines, this seemed an obvious choice. I wanted to work with cancer medicines, and that’s exactly what I’ve ended up doing. 

I got a shock when I started studying. I did quite badly in the first two exams. These were difficult subjects – mathematics and biophysics. I feared that I would never get through the degree programme. But when we began doing more biology it started to get really interesting.

What are you doing now?

I now work for CMC Biologics*, a contract-based company that produces medicines for other companies. For example, a customer orders a given quantity of a product, and CMC produces this. It might sound simple, but it’s not. Otherwise there would be no work for us. It could be cancer medicine, malaria medicine or something else. 

Did you feel ready for the labour market? 

Yes, but it’s a totally different world, going from writing a thesis to working in a production company. There are all sorts of documentation and traceability requirements you have to comply with. For example, if a person becomes ill from a given medicine in five years’ time, you have to be able to go back and document all the processes involved in the production.

So you have to familiarise yourself with reams of formalities, documentation systems and procedures, which you don’t learn about at university. And so there are generally many more checks and much more monitoring compared to university.

I feel that I’m very good at reading and quickly appraising new material. So, I’ve learned the necessary methods at university. I’ve tried my hand at a lot of different things at university and have done a lot of laboratory work. The combination of theory and practice during my studies has suited me well. Working with theory in practice helps you understand and remember better. So I’m good at learning new things. 

When you were doing your bachelor’s degree, did you know that you would go on to do a master’s?

Yes, I knew I wanted to do a master’s degree in Biotechnology. At the start of my master’s programme I went to Australia for six months and studied at the University of New England in Armidale. That was really great. I lived in a college, travelled around and enjoyed myself – but I also got a lot out of it academically. I had a really good chemistry professor who pushed me hard.  

What about the future? 

I’d like to go abroad in a couple of years’ time, once I’ve acquired some more competences, so I have something to offer. I may be able to apply for a job at CMC’s sister company in Seattle.

Or I might go to the USA, Germany, the UK or even Australia. As long as it is somewhere with a strong biotech sector. My girlfriend, who has an MSc in Biology and works at Novo, would also like to travel abroad.  

Would you recommend this programme to others?

Yes, if you find biology, chemistry and science exciting, it’s an enjoyable programme. There’s a lot of choice, and you can go on to do a PhD, or find a job in the private sector, as an upper secondary school teacher, or as a researcher. It’s an incredibly exciting and dynamic sector. You cannot open a newspaper without seeing headlines about new advances in the field of biotechnology, so there’s a lot of money in the sector for equipment and research. 

I would definitely recommend becoming a ‘student for a day’ and going along to the university’s open day events. I had no idea such events were held when I applied, and it could have affected my choice. 

Be sure to look at other options. You can find a lot of information on websites – also on the websites of the universities in Aarhus and Odense. I would also encourage everyone to go abroad during their studies. You get so much out of it – friendships, academic knowledge and contacts.

*Simon now works as Senior Project Manager at Novo Nordisk.

Where did you study before you came to Copenhagen?

I went to Bonn University. It’s right next to Köln – 20 kilometers from there. I studied for my bachelor in Biology for three years.

And then right after my bachelor, I went to Copenhagen. I handed in my thesis, took the train and came here. The deadlines were so close because I wanted to do a language course, so I had to be here in August.

So you are learning Danish too?

Yes! Haha … jeg kan snakke lidt dansk. (‘I can say a few things in Danish’)

The language course was a good help. I came here without any knowledge of the language. It was actually pretty hard at first, because I couldn’t read the contracts I signed, I couldn’t read the signs in the supermarket, and with some people I couldn’t communicate. So it was really tough and the language course in August helped me a lot, because it was every day, and progress was fast.

So you are counting on using Danish in the future?
 

I live in this country, so I want to communicate with people in their native language, and I also want to get a job here. So it’s a requirement and it’s just better if you can speak Danish.

Did you choose Copenhagen because of the programme or did you just want to get abroad?

I think it was a combination. On one hand I really wanted to go abroad. And also the programme is pretty good. I

searched for a programme where I could choose the courses I wanted, and in other countries you had mostly quite strict structures and everything was preplanned. Here in Copenhagen, I could choose almost everything. So that was the main reason why I chose Copenhagen.

Which courses did you choose?

I began with computer programming for the life sciences, pharmaceutical analysis – so, a bit outside of biology. One course was actual plant biology and the other course was really technical … so a bit different, something interdisciplinary.

And then basic biotechnology afterwards – heterologous expression – which gave me a good basis for my work on my thesis, because it deals with everything you need for biotechnology, a broad basis.

What’s your choice of subject for your thesis?

Actually it’s a project which includes everything I learned in heterologous expression. You transfer a gene to another organism.

Heterologous expression is if a gene is transcribed to a protein in another host, which is not a native one. It makes an enzyme, for example you can produce insulin which is normally produced in us humans. You can produce it in yeast. That’s what Novo Nordisk does.

I will do genetic engineering of yeast for better protein production. If for instance the current yield of a protein which research groups are interested in is very low, I will use the genetic tools and attempt to increase this yield sufficiently, so we can use it for structural studies. And for that kind of studies you need a lot of protein.

Couldn’t you have found similar programmes somewhere else in Europe?

Well – I was in Scandinavia last summer and experienced a bit of the social system and the people and everything, so I also wanted to learn more about that too.

The education is very good and it’s free to study here, so that’s also a very good point. Because if you study in the UK it will cost you a lot of money.

What about the social life here?

We are a lot of people in the same situation, so you get together really easily. And there are a lot of social activities around here, sports you can do, and meeting places like the Friday Bar at A-vej (A-vej means A-road and refers to one of the roads in the campus), where you can have free coffee on Tuesdays and Thursdays, games you can enjoy with some friends, and the joy of just meeting people.

And Copenhagen is such a vibrant place – especially when the full degree students arrive in August and September, there’s a lot going on here. So it’s really easy to socialize in Copenhagen.

What are your plans when you finish your studies?

It would be great if I could find a job and work here for a while. I would like to become a scientist and stay in the university environment. Or maybe I’ll do my PhD in biotechnology directly after finishing my Master’s.

Would you recommend the programme to others?

I would recommend it, but I would definitely think a lot about which choices to make – about how to pick the right elective courses. Really think about what do I want to do, and where do I want to end up with my studies.

After graduation, Sebastian went on to do a PhD at the Technical University of Denmark. He now works as a Senior Computational Biologist in the pharmaceutical company LifeMine Therapeutics in the United States.