History
In short
The Medical Biologist Association Mebiose (M.B.V. Mebiose) is a study association which was founded in 1986 when the new bachelor was founded, called “Medical Biology”. Nowadays, the bachelor is called “Biomedical Sciences and the M.B.V. Mebiose has become a sprouting study association. The history of the M.B.V. Mebiose is further explained in an overview on this part of the website.
The beginning
From the beginning of the study of Medical Biology, a number of committees spontaneously arose, namely the symposium committee, the party committee and the editor of the periodical for medical biologists, the Tight Junction. In November 1985, the idea arose to centralize these committees and the idea of a Medical Biologists Association began to take shape. In December 1985, an independent Chair and Treasurer were elected by the medical biologists. Then, one person was nominated for each committee and each year representatives (JVT) to form the rest of the board. So in December/January, a board of seven went to work things out.
Among other things, the bylaws and Internal Regulations (HR) were crafted by this board. The Internal Regulations were made on the basis of the Internal Regulations of another fairly new association, the Utrecht Chemical Student Association ‘Proton’.
The first General Assembly (ALV) of the Medical Biologists Association was held on February 25, 1986. This date is now considered the anniversary date of the association. At this ALV, among other things, the Internal Regulations were approved and a name for the association was discussed. A number of proposals were made: Combi, Jaws 4, VUMB, Gombal, cAMB, Fermentarium and Mebiose. The choice proved so difficult that the meeting was suspended and resumed on the 11th of March. It was then decided by a large majority to give the association the name M.B.V. Mebiose. On the 11th of March in 1986 at this second ALV, the Internal Regulations were finally approved. On the 26th of May 1986 the first board of M.B.V. Mebiose was officially installed. Our honorary member Prof. Dr. Jan Willers had the honor of installing our first Praeses, Ellen Satter, in his own lab. Afterwards there was a reception in the garden of the Microbiology Laboratory on the Catharijnesingel. Thus the establishment of the M.B.V. Mebiose as an independent sub-association of the Medical Student Faculty Association Utrecht (M.S.F.U.), was a fact. Later on the 8th of October in 1987, the M.B.V. Mebiose was lifted as a sub-association of the M.S.F.U. and became the independent association M.B.V. Mebiose as we now know it to be.
The origin of the bachelor Biomedical Sciences
In September 1984, the experimental study in Medical Biology (MB) began at the Faculty of Medicine of Utrecht University. This study stemmed from the B5*-course, which was taught by the Faculty of Biology. MB became a partnership between the (sub)faculties of Biology, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine and Medicine. In addition to these four “main faculties”, teaching was also provided by the faculties of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. The purpose of this study was to train researchers who conduct fundamental, applied and application-oriented medical biological research from a strong natural science base.
In 1989 the Common Biomedical Education (GBO) was introduced. Much of the teaching at that time was done together with medical students. The idea behind this was that training doctors and researchers together would contribute to good cooperation in the near future. At the end of the third year, students began the graduation phase, which consisted of a major and a minor internship, followed by a thesis and a graduation talk.
After the 1999 visitation, where the Medicine program received a so-called “yellow card,” and education had to change drastically, the new curriculum, Cru’99, was introduced. The teaching of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine was completely separated from then on. Biomedical Sciences students now start their internships only at the beginning of their fourth year. Furthermore, in Cru’99 it was possible to take Bèta-fanning from block 3 of the second year. This meant that you could exchange a block for a block in Biology, Pharmacy or Chemistry. In addition, students would take a “project education” in part of the first and second year, in addition to the regular blocks. This was 1 day a week, where they worked with a group of about 10 students on a particular topic, on which they found out everything they could about it. At the end of the project, the knowledge gained was presented to the rest of the students during a symposium.
In September 2002, the Bachelor-Master system was introduced. The first three years are now the Bachelor Biomedical Sciences, completed with a Bachelor’s degree. The last 2 years constitute the Master Biomedical Sciences, completed with a Master’s degree. The propaedeutic and doctoral exams, and with them the propaedeutic and doctoral degrees, have thus been dropped. The students who started their studies in the year 2001 were the last to be able to pass their propaedeutic exam.
In September 2005, a new curriculum was introduced in the Bachelor’s degree. This is because the Utrecht University Board of Governors decided that there should be more opportunities to take courses at other faculties. The intention is that all faculties switch to a year format with 4 blocks of 10 weeks (15 ECTS). These blocks will be divided into fixed parts of the day, the so-called ‘time slots’. In this way, all programs work to the same timetable and therefore subjects can easily be exchanged. The education has now been adapted to fit into these time slots.
