Reimagining undergraduate genomics education: guiding principles for inclusive, technologically responsive, and experiential learning

Genomics has become increasingly important across healthcare, agriculture, and environmental sustainability, creating new demands on how future scientists and professionals are educated. Yet undergraduate genomics education remains uneven in its responsiveness to the scientific, technological, and societal realities of the field. Persistent limitations in inclusivity, technological adaptation, and authentic engagement continue to weaken the capacity of many programmes to prepare students for contemporary genomic practice. This perspective argues that meaningful reform requires more than incremental curricular revision. It requires a clearer educational orientation capable of making genomics learning more equitable, current, and practically relevant. Accordingly, drawing on established educational scholarship, this perspective advances three guiding principles for future undergraduate genomics education, encompassing inclusivity and relevance, technological responsiveness, and authentic and experiential learning. It further draws on selected examples from current practice to demonstrate the feasibility and educational value of these principles, while acknowledging that their implementation remains uneven and constrained by institutional, pedagogical, and structural realities. By reframing genomics education through these principles, the article offers a focused perspective on how undergraduate programmes can better align with the evolving demands of genomic science and its wider societal implications.