I am an international student studying an MSc in Biosciences. Being educated in a different education system and country, I have realised a few things that I believe prospective students should know if they are considering postgraduate study in the UK.

Rodhan outside Aston Webb building
Me outside the Aston Webb building – Edgbaston campus

Flipped Classrooms

Masters courses follow a flipped classroom teaching style wherein the lecturers make entire lecture material available to the students before an upcoming teaching session/workshop. This allows students to go through the material and draft questions related to it. This helps to make the teaching session more interactive and question and answer based. Personally, it was something new for me, but I really liked this approach as it encouraged me to do a lot of background reading and read research papers before the sessions.

Self-oriented learning

Masters courses involve a lot of studying on your own initiative. The teaching sessions generally introduce students to a topic. We must take efforts to go through the essential reading material suggested by the lecturers, and personally ask questions during teaching sessions or via email. It took me a while to be accustomed to this approach as during my Bachelors we were provided complete notes by the academics. However, the advantage of this method was that I developed the transferable skills of time management and working on own initiative. Through these activities, I developed the skills of critically reviewing literature which helped me during various aspects of assessments.

Rodhan at a careers fair

Courage

I believe gaining courage was one of the most important things during the initial days of my Masters. Coming from a different country and English being my third language, I was a but intimidated. However, the University of Birmingham has an excellent wellbeing service, and the staff is really helpful. Based on my personal experience, I would advise new students to gather courage, ask questions and take part in competitions. It really helps in networking, making connections with the staff and increases your self-confidence. UoB has a lot of exciting events throughout the year, so never feel intimidated to miss any event just because of language barrier. The people are very kind in the city and going to events will help you to mix with the wider community of the University and help you get a great student experience.

Extra-curricular life

You may think that being a Masters student means not having a life and just studying all day long. Honestly, you should never do that. Masters students can have a lot of assignments, work part-time and it can feel overwhelming. To improve your wellbeing, make sure you indulge in student societies and travel around. The University’s Student Union, the Guild of Students, has over 300 student societies affiliated to it. No matter what your interests you will surely find your own community at the Guild. Personally, I am interested in film making and giving back to the society. The Guild already had two perfect societies for me and I had a great fun and made some friends for life.

Transferable Skills

The University offers a lot of opportunities to gain transferrable skills, but it is up to you to take advantage of them. To be honest, the word ‘transferrable skills’ itself was very new to me, as during my Bachelor degree my whole focus was to gain academic knowledge. However, coming to UoB I understood the importance of transferrable skills and how important they are during interviews. I would encourage students to volunteer to stand for course representative positions and student society committee positions. Based on my experience, you get insights into how a global University works and get a chance to form connections with the staff. Moreover, you get to sit on various forums and get a chance to input into the University’s future directions.

Sports:

Rodhan at the gym
Training at the gym
Rodhan after running a race

Being a Masters student, you tend to spend a lot of time sitting in your chair and staring at a screen. Whilst you cannot change this, you can add sport and activities into your daily schedule to maintain your physical and mental wellbeing. Be it meditation, going to the gym, swimming or sports, the University’s £50 million Sport Centre has got you covered. I am a member of the sports centre and from my experience I believe every student should be. It’s a place were I can have non-academic conversations with students from various parts of the University. There are various classes and group training sessions which you could attend to relax and refresh.

Opportunities

Rodhan projected onto Old Joe

Throughout your course, you will get a lot of opportunities, be it part-time jobs in the Uni, bursaries, or volunteering positions. I would recommend keeping an eye out and applying to various opportunities. You may not be successful for them all, but have courage that you are the best candidate and apply. Lastly, be enthusiastic about the University and be involved with various activities happening here, because just like me you may also get a chance to have a lunch with the Vice Chancellor of the University.

To conclude I would say Birmingham provides its students with a great student experience, but it’s up to us to take advantage of the opportunities to succeed.