The Spanish Ministry of Education has included the Biological Sciences Degree in the branch of "Science". This Degree will have 240 credits, 60 of which should be taken from basic subjects (36 of them belonging to the "Science" branch). Noticeably, Physiology is one of the few matters included among the basic subjects in both the "Science" and "Health Sciences" branches, reflecting in relevance of this discipline in any Life Sciences Degree. According to the Bologna Processs each Degree has to define their professional competences including both transversal (attitude and values) and specific (knowledge and skills) objectives. The professional competences of Biologists are well defined both in the Statutes of the Professional Association of Biologists (R.D. 693/1996, published in the Spanish BOE of 23^th of May, 2006) and in the White Book of the Degree of Biological Sciences, prepared by the Deans of the Biological Sciences Schools. To achieve these competences, Physiology plays a key role, not only because of its relevance for the specific learning objectives, mainly related to the mechanisms involved in life processes and the adaptations of animals to their environment, but also because of its contribution to the transversal objectives. These latter objectives include learning and using the scientific method, getting use to teamwork and developing abilities of synthesis and analysis, among others. Besides, the Biological Sciences Degree has a special relevance for us, since these students constitute our main pool of future physiologists and so, they should become familiar with, at least, some of the modern experimental approaches used in our discipline.

This work was partially supported by the Spanish DGU (MEC).