National policy · Teaching, learning and curriculum · Germany
KBF and VBIO overhaul biology bachelor's canon, adding big data and AI competences
Two biology bodies, KBF and VBIO, have fundamentally revised the biology subject canon, giving bachelor's programmes an updated nationwide orientation framework that now includes data and AI competences.
Why it matters: Biology bachelor's programmes and their students now have an updated, nationally agreed orientation framework that covers expected knowledge, practical skills, assessment formats and data and AI competences.
The Konferenz Biologischer Fachbereiche (KBF, the conference of biology departments) and the Verband Biologie, Biowissenschaften und Biomedizin (VBIO, the association for biology, biosciences and biomedicine) have fundamentally revised the Fachkanon Biologie, the biology subject canon.
According to the two bodies, the canon sets out the knowledge and practical skills that students in biology bachelor's programmes should acquire, and it again provides a current orientation framework agreed nationwide.
The revised canon also takes account of contemporary assessment formats and career prospects.
Competences in working with large volumes of data and artificial intelligence, described as increasingly important, have been newly added to the canon.
Editor’s view
Sarah Williamson, Teaching, Digital and AI Editor
The revised canon is aimed at biology bachelor's programmes and their students, offering a nationwide orientation framework on knowledge, practical skills, assessment formats and career prospects that now also covers data and artificial intelligence competences.
