Objectives
To develop the Master's Degree in Research in Vision Sciences, which has a marked multidisciplinary and interuniversity character. This degree is heir to the Inter-University Doctoral Programme in Vision Sciences which was offered from 2001 until its extinction, and is a modification of the degree of the same name introduced in the academic year 2006-07, within the Official Postgraduate Programme in Vision Sciences (BOCyL no. 32, 15 February 2006) and verified in an abbreviated form in May 2009.
Its general objective is to offer society researchers and future teachers in the field of Vision Sciences with multidisciplinary training, using the combined and integrated approach of biological, physical and clinical aspects in the study of the phenomenon of vision. This philosophy, initiated with the predecessor doctoral programme and tested in the Master's degree that has been offered since 2006-07, was pioneering throughout Spain, highlighting its adaptation to the current needs of optimisation of resources, both material and human, and of collaboration between research teams to promote doctoral studies. These studies will lead to the training of researchers in both biomedical and physical (optical) and neurophysiological aspects of the visual process, from a multidisciplinary, applied and quality perspective.
Its specific objectives would be:
- to enhance the quality of research in Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences, bringing together the efforts of different University Departments and Institutes with research programmes related to this topic
- to promote scientific cooperation between the different research groups participating in the programme, both national and foreign, and exchange for a more complete approach to training students in research and teaching techniques.
- to promote the mobility of students between the participating research centres and other international centres in order to favour their future incorporation into research teams other than the one they come from
- to promote collaboration with companies in order to achieve research training that is not only specific but also useful to society
Competencies and skills
The generic transversal competences analysed are those defined in the Tuning Project (http://www.unideusto.org/tuning), which are structured in three fields:
- instrumental (cognitive, methodological, technological and linguistic skills)
- personal (individual skills, social skills)
- systemic (capacities related to global systems which combine knowledge, understanding and sensitivity and require the prior acquisition of instrumental and personal competences).
Considering these three aspects, the generic competences of the Master are the following:
CG.1. Knowledge of the scientific method: to know what is necessary to know how to plan and carry out experiments, develop the appropriate methodology for each context, interpret the results and draw up conclusions that allow knowledge to be expanded in the area of biomedical research and contribute to the resolution of problems of interest in the field of vision sciences.
GC.2. Technical knowledge: knowing how to apply the appropriate techniques to solve a specific experimental problem in vision science research.
GC.3. Capacity for integration and autonomy: ability to carry out a research project in the field, not only in the subjects covered by the subjects, but also in multidisciplinary contexts.
CG.4. Critical reasoning and capacity for analysis, synthesis and interpretation: ability to make judgements on hypotheses, experimental proposals or experiments already carried out in the field of biomedical research in the field of vision, both on the scientific validity and on the ethical and social aspects of what is being judged.
GC.5. Relationship and collaboration skills: ability to work as part of a team in a multidisciplinary research environment to achieve common objectives from different perspectives oriented towards solving problems in vision research.
GC.6. Communication skills: ability to communicate proposals, experiments, results, conclusions and criticisms in the field of vision sciences, both to specialised and non-specialised audiences.
GC.7. Self-learning ability: to develop the necessary learning skills to keep up to date in the field of biomedical vision research and its techniques in an autonomous and lifelong way.
GC.8. Ability to use at least one foreign language, preferably English, as a means of oral and written communication within their participation in the international scientific-technological community.
GC.9. Ability to be creative in the conception, formulation and resolution of research questions.
CE.1. Ability to carry out research tasks in the field of vision sciences. Ability to design experiments applying the appropriate techniques to answer the relevant question.
CE.2. Knowledge of the legal framework in which current biomedical research is carried out and ability to make autonomous judgements on the ethical implications of this research in the context of what is related to vision.
CE.3. Ability to understand the ethical and social implications of the decisions adopted during the exercise of clinical and pre-clinical vision research work.
CE.4. Ability to understand the global R+D+i system, as well as its mechanisms (programmes, projects and other instruments) at both national and international level, with special emphasis on the European level.
CE.5. Knowledge of the molecular and physical bases of the essential biological processes involved in the phenomenon of vision and which are altered in animal and human ocular pathology.
CE.6. Knowledge of the alterations underlying the most important and socially relevant human eye diseases. Ability to predict how these alterations can produce the disease and identify possible points of therapeutic intervention.
CE.7. Knowledge of the study models of the most important human eye diseases, both in vitro and in vivo, with their advantages and limitations. Knowledge of the most important criteria for the selection of a model for the study of these diseases.
CE.8. Knowledge of the most current advances in the diagnostic techniques of ocular diseases and the related research background.
CE.9. Knowledge of the most current therapeutic advances for eye diseases and the related research background.
CE.10. Ability to develop a critical work in the field of vision research, as well as its discussion.