Photo Alina Grubnyak / Unsplash Thus states Dean of Education Arnold Bregt. ‘We have been considering such a programme internally for a while, and there is also demand from the employment market.’
‘We already have four master programmes with a focus on data sciences: Bioinformatics, Geo-Information Science, Biosystems Engineering and Data Science for Food and Health’, Bregt continues. ‘It would be great to add a bachelor that prepares for the master.’
The new bachelor’s is to be a broad-based programme and has the working title Data Science for Life Sciences. Bregt: ‘We are just at the start of this trajectory. First, the workgroup will formulate a plan: what must the programme be like, what courses should it include, and what are the learning goals? An external business will then investigate whether there is a market for such a programme. Then, the ministry will study our plans and the market analysis. Our programme must be unique. How does our bachelor add to the already existing data science bachelors in the Netherlands? As the working title suggests, the programme is unique in its focus on WUR’s domain of life sciences.’
Procedure
If we get the green light from The Hague, the programme can be developed further, Bregt continues. ‘The final step is the test for new programmes by the Dutch-Flemish Accreditation Organisation. If we pass that test, we can launch the programme. But we still have a way to go before we reach that point. I expect this to take at least another two years. September 2025 is the earliest possible date, but 2026 is more realistic.’
