Undergraduate students at the University of Birmingham talk about studying Medicine and living in Birmingham
Duration: 3:33
Speakers
S1 Male student, no name given
Transcript
Why choose Birmingham?
S1 The reason I chose Birmingham as my first choice to study Medicine was because both my brothers had been to university here before so I knew the city fairly well and if you think of spending five years in one place, it’s quite a long time and you want to make sure that you’re going to enjoy yourself. As a consequence of them having been here before, I knew that Birmingham was a place I’d enjoy studying. Also the course was quite attractive to me. They’ve got a good mix of sort of traditional teaching styles and their anatomy, you do get to see dissected specimens and then also they bring in the more modern teaching elements such as problem based learning and I liked that sort of balance. I didn’t want to go extreme down one route or the other and I enjoyed the early clinical exposure you get through the GP attachment scheme here.
Study
S1 Whilst I’ve been here over the four years obviously my learning style’s changed quite a bit. The first two years is predominantly lecture based things, quite an emphasis on teaching yourself at home and finishing off a few things there. And then in the last three years of the course it’s fairly much universally hospital based learning, which for me is something I’ve really really enjoyed. I find learning in a sort of apprentice style very much suits me and also I love any opportunity to sort of get into the operating theatre and assist with the surgeons in any operation. I find that I really remember things that way. And I’ve gained a huge amount, a lot of exposure to all the different fields of medicine and sort of really setting me up for a future career in any path that I choose really.
Clubs and Societies
S1 I’m a member of the Birmingham Medics Rugby Club. We train twice ea week and play every Saturday. We’ve got a good mix of talent, we play at a fairly high level and I really enjoy every aspect of it. I can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone coming into the university. We’re always on the look-out for new members and we play at a fairly high level, we compete against other medical schools throughout the country and also local means sides and we have a great social scene on the side of that, including our Christmas Dinner this evening.
The City
S1 Birmingham’s a great city to be a student in. You get a great combination of Selly Oak being sort of where the campus is. It’s a very student friendly area, a lot of bars, the odd shop, enough to sort of survive on and then literally five minutes down the road you’ve got the whole city centre itself, which is full of shops, so much entertainment in terms of cinemas, nightclubs, bowling, the odd theatre, probably a museum – I’m not entirely sure myself – and then just because of how cultural the area is you get some great food and the Christmas market that’s open at the moment is I’d say one of the best I’ve ever been to. So yeah, it is a really nice place to be. And then also in the summer, not many of the students get to be here in the summer, but you can go along to the local cricket club, watch them play, have a few beers in the sun. Yeah, I’m really enjoying it.
End of recording