Biology departments at campuses across the country are not keeping pace with research advances, according to a report by the National Academies’ National Research Council.

However, professors at the University of Wisconsin refute the report’s claim and say UW’s biology program is cutting-edge.

The report did not single out UW specifically, but said biology departments at campuses nationwide are not up to par.

Andrew Bent, a professor of pathology at UW, said the university is “definitely” keeping pace with cutting edge research.

“It depends on what level of class you are teaching,” Bent said. “If you have an intro course and you want to cover introductory material, at some point you have to cover the basics and things that were discovered 80 years ago.”

He continued, “Most professors will work present-day examples into their lectures, and as you move up into the more advanced-level classes, the 300 level and 500 level classes that undergrads take, then by all means you go into the current stuff.”

The report also said biology majors need a stronger foundation in math and engineering skills.

“I think that for some biological disciplines you will need some people who are conversive in engineering,” Bent said. “But there are some branches of biology where engineering is no more important than any other branch.”

Students at UW have the option of enrolling in the biology core curriculum — an intercollegiate honors program spanning four semesters. Biocore’s website describes the program as an “introductory biology sequence that provides a broad, in-depth and integrated background for students interested in any area of biological science.”

Students wishing to enter the Biocore program are encouraged to take calculus and chemistry during their freshman year. Yet math is one area the report said colleges aren’t stressing enough in biology departments.

Michelle Harris, faculty associate and instructor for the Biocore program, said the nature of Biocore and undergraduate biology education is to stress biology basics, not cutting-edge research.

“We’re an honors biology curriculum, and all of our courses are designed to be introductory,” Harris said. “We work hard to update labs. The trouble of intro biology is that if you just focus on the latest, then you also have to teach them the basics as well. If you don’t have a good grounding in many basic concepts, then you can’t grasp the newest concepts.”

The report did say the University of Arizona was ahead of the curve. Arizona offers a program called “Bravo!” where undergraduate students conduct research in other countries.

But despite criticism, professors at UW remain convinced their biology program is top-notch.