Insight into Five-Years Master of Science Program in Radiation Biology

Abstract

The MSc course in radiation biology has been developed in early 2014 to educate young academics from many fields of medicine and life sciences in the highly interdisciplinary field at the interface of biology, physics, and medicine. The goal was to establish an internationally acknowledged program with diverse and heterogeneous student cohorts, who benefit from each other academically as well as culturally. Depending on the chosen focus within the MSc, i.e. translational radiobiology, radiation protection or molecular radiation biology, we expect the postgraduates to be experts with a strong ability to analyze data independently, advise politicians, companies or others seeking information in this field, or to pursue a career as a medical or clinician scientist. We evaluated the student cohort’s data from the last years regarding gender, age, and nationality as well as the highest degree before applying and career path after graduation. Most of the data come from the application database in the campus management system TUM online at the Technical University of Munich. Additional data has been collected during the years with evaluation surveys and interviews. From overall 162 applications and an average of 45 applications per year in the last three years, 35% of the students are from Africa and Asia each, 24% from Europe and 6% from North and South America. 54% of the applications are from female and 46% from male applicants. Most of the applicants were between 24-29 years old, the total range of age was 20-50 years. The most common degree before application was in medicine with 31% and biology with 28%, followed by a degree in physics with 16% and biotechnology with 12%. 4% of the 162 applicants had a degree health science and 3% in pharmacy, 6% had other degrees. In the first three years, we had student cohorts between 7-10 students with no dropouts. The newest class started in 2018 officially with 19 students, after a few dropouts, we are left with 15 students. So far the first two classes graduated the program. Ten out of those 18 graduates chose to do a PhD, preferably in a German research institute. Three students decided to go back to Medicine with the opportunity to use their degree to become a medical or clinician-scientist in the field of Radiation Oncology, and one student got hired for the training position to become medical physics expert. Another three students went to work in the economy for example in the pharmaceutical industry, and one student is working in a federal institution back in her home country. All over, we have a hiring rate of 67% in the expected fields, right after graduation. After five years of planning and establishing the program, our expectations regarding heterogeneity and diversity of applicants have been met exceedingly. All graduates had excellent career opportunities reflecting the necessity of this MSc and its topics. The future vision includes an expansion of the program as well as undergraduate education opportunities in this field.