Master of Bioscience Engineering: Human Health Engineering (Leuven)

The HHE curriculum is comprised of 120 ECTS (four semesters). The programme is organised into a two-module major, a minor, a master’s thesis and elective courses.

The first module (16 ECTS) contains four courses that will allow you to gain insight in the working of the different physiological systems of the human body as well as in the psychology of the healthy human.

The second module (41 ECTS) consists of eight engineering courses. In this module, you are challenged to gain insight in technology and apply your technological knowledge to solve real-life problems in a creative way via practical exercises and project work.

The major also includes a broadening course on religion and society (3 ECTS).

The 20 ECTS minor is comprised of courses chosen to either strengthen your major or to broaden your expertise in another domain.

In the master’s thesis (30 ECTS), you will further develop your ‘hands-on’ experience and learn to solve problems using the acquired skills.

The curriculum is rounded off with 10 ECTS of elective courses aimed at broadening your academic education. These credits may also be used to take strengthening elective courses to fill any gaps in educational background.

This programme structure allows for a high degree of personalisation, which, in turn, ensures the best possible match for your interests or future career ambitions.


1. Advanced knowledge, insight and skills with respect to the interaction processes between living organisms as biological systems with complex dynamic processes, and their biotic and abiotic environment, both at the fundamental and applied level, with attention for the actual developments and evolutions on the long term.

2. Advanced system and application oriented insight in multiscale concepts (nano-, micro- and macroscale), which allows to structure and model processes and systems, or can be applied to solve problems in a number of focus domains.

3. System thinking: Ability to differentiate the interactions among different processes within an assignment, to define subprocesses and formulate a technical definition for these, and to enable a further detailed technical study.

4. Independent integration and extension of acquired knowledge, aware of the personal competences, aiming at new concepts and innovation of the application possibilities.

5. Problem-oriented formulation and analysis of complex problems within the expertise domain, by dividing these into manageable subproblems and designing solutions for specific cases with attention for the application possibilities and broader conceptual impact.

6. Independently conceive, plan and execute an engineering project at the level of a starting investigating professional. Conduct and critically interpret a literature search according to scientific standards, with attention for the conceptual context and the application potential.

7. Use intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary insights to select, adapt or eventually develop advanced research, design and solution methods, and adequately apply these and scientifically process the obtained results; motivate the choices made based on the foundations of the discipline and the requirements of the application and business context.

8. Act from a research attitude: creativity, accuracy, critical reflection, motivation of choices on scientific grounds.

9. Groundbreaking, innovative and application-oriented development of systems, products, services and processes; extrapolation with attention for the business context. Extract new research questions from design problems.

10. Control system complexity using quantitative methods. Have sufficient knowledge, insight and experience in scientific research to critically evaluate the results.

11. Act from an engineering attitude within a generic and discipline-specific context: result-oriented attitude, attention for planning and technical, economical and societal boundary conditions like sustainability, risk and feasibility assessment of the proposed approach or solution, focus on results and achievement of effective solutions, innovative and transdisciplinary thinking.

12. Work using a project-based approach from a generic and disciplinary context: formulate goals, keep focus on specific objectives and development route, operate as a member of an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary team, develop leadership, operate in an international or intercultural environment, report effectively.

13. Have the economic and business insight to place the contribution to a process or the solution of a problem in a wider context.

14. Weigh specifications and boundary conditions and transform them into a high quality system, product or process. Extract useful information from incomplete, conflicting or redundant data.

15. Communicate written and verbally about the own field in the language of instruction and in the languages that are relevant for the specialism.

16. Communicate and present subject matters in fluent language and graphically to colleagues and laypersons.

17. Act ethically, professionally and with social responsibility, with attention for technical, economical, human and sustainability aspects.