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I decided to study this course because it was very unique, it’s one of
the only ones in the country that gets done. It’s an intimate course,
there’s only four of us on it. They cover a whole range of techniques
applicable to biomedical research, especially the in-vivo surgical
techniques are very important because in-vivo is a unique area of
research and there’s only a few places that you can actually get these
techniques. In additional it’s fully funded which means I received a
stipend so I actually get money to do this course, which was quite an
attractive feature.
I chose Birmingham University because the course was excellent, the
reputation of the Medical School was very highly spoken of and
speaking to students they really enjoyed the atmosphere and I’m from
Birmingham myself so location wise it was very convenient.
I’m enjoying this course very much. It’s very intensive so it’s very
challenging and I get tested daily. It takes up a lot of my time but I
don’t mind that because I really enjoy the course and there’s only four
of us so it’s very intimate and we all get on very well and our
supervisors are really great, it's a very open-door policy and I just really
enjoy getting hands on with the techniques of in-vivo and learning the
ethics behind what in-vivo means.
I’m going to be honest, the workload of this course is very high and I
was warned when I applied for this course that there’s a very high
workload. On a Monday we have a seminar, a two hour seminar in the
morning, and then we present on the Friday afternoon our feedback
from that seminar, and that could be on anything. We get different
researchers from the Medical School each Monday showing us their
research and then we tend to work every day in – we have our own lab
that we work in from usually around 9 to 6, just doing lab techniques
and running protocols that we’ve designed ourselves. So it’s very long
hours but you do get the evenings to yourself.
Our lectures and tutors are very very supportive. Because there are
only four of us on the course it’s very one-to-one teaching and like I
said, it is an open-door policy so if we ever get stuck on anything we
can just go straight to them. But then they do expect us to do a lot of
self-directed learning which I think is very useful because later on if I
choose to do a PhD that would be very much self-directed learning and
the idea is that we can use the techniques that we learn on this course
and hit the ground running if we apply to a PhD.
Birmingham is a great place to live and study. It’s got every amenity
that you could think of, a great night life if that’s what you enjoy,
shopping, the Bullring and then the university itself is like a little village
in its own right. It’s got the Student Union, it’s got shop, it’s a beautiful
campus, green grass to sit out on in the summer and it’s got such an
amazing history so it’s got everything you could really look for in a
university.
This course will set me up beautifully in my future career if I did want to
do either work in industry, I could go straight in with this Masters, which
at the moment with the recession is very important that you have
something extra because there’s so many people competing for the
same jobs but also the techniques I’ve been taught and the skills I’ve
learnt on this course mean that I could apply for a PhD, I would be
almost guaranteed to get it and I could hit the ground running from this
course because the level of workload I’m already at, I will be able to go
straight in.