Home Country: Malaysia
Course: MEng Chemical Engineering
Department: Chemical Engineering
"The interesting, challenging, and wider scope of modules available in my course and high graduate employability rate influenced me to transfer to Birmingham."
Why did you originally apply to do your chosen course at Birmingham?
I applied to Birmingham after completing my second year in my home university, Taylor's University, Malaysia. My parents influenced me to apply as I have always wanted to study abroad especially at a prestigious Russell Group University. Birmingham is a partner university for my home university and is one of the most highly regarded in the UK especially for Chemical Engineering. As my programme is an integrated Master's degree course, I will complete it within two years as compared to Malaysia whereby a four year degree only awards a Bachelor degree. The interesting, challenging, and wider scope of modules available on my course and high graduate employability rate influenced me to transfer to Birmingham providing me positive prospects for the future.
What do you think are the best points of your course?
The high standards of this integrated course compared to other countries represents one of the greatly deemed points of this programme along with it being ranked the top five best universities for Chemical Engineering in the UK. The knowledge gained within a short period of time is massive and the in-depth knowledge taught is necessarily required to become a young engineer. Despite the differences in study culture, environment and complexity of this course, I can confidently say I have learned the significant value of essential elemental and software skills which have helped me to understand and know the context of what chemical engineers do. Many chemical engineering students are both unaware and intrigued on what chemical engineers do in industry, but the independent learning and research carried out based on the modules taught has resulted otherwise. It is a highly challenging and complex course but with additional materials and resources such as lecture recordings alot of support is available. In addition supervisors and lecturers are helpful and always engaging. I also like most lectures are often related to industry whereby the applications taught relates to what is utilised in the real world.
What’s the best thing about studying at the University of Birmingham?
Firstly, being a student in one of the most prestigious universities in England, the campus-based life is very beautiful, scenic giving a sense of fictional movie ambience. I enjoy the walks around the large university campus despite. As a campus-based university the lecture buildings and facilities are all walking distance and not located at different locations in the city. There is a variety of different types of buildings on campus, some are antique, classic and there are new buildings including the very beautiful 24-hour library for students to study in with a nice view and peaceful environment. In addition, the balanced student life is widely encouraged amongst students and there are a variety of societies, clubs and weekly events on campus. A good way to interact and mingle with other students on different courses.
What’s your highlight of your time at the University?
During my time here but I have experienced countless enjoyable experiences with people on my course and with friends in the different societies. My highlight so far is simply just being lucky enough to be a student at this renowned university. As a direct entry international student, it has always been my dream to be living abroad and studying a STEM course at one of the country’s highly ranked universities for Chemical Engineering. I have also been able to meet and socialise with a diverse group of friends from different countries and cultures who have helped me throughout my period of study at this university. Overall, it is truly an enjoyable student experience at UoB.
What advice would you give to students thinking about studying on the course?
As chemical engineering represents one of the toughest STEM courses in the world, it really requires a lot of understanding and application of knowledge gained prior to starting the course at Birmingham. Many students often confuse this course with it just being simply Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics or Calculus but it is more of an integrated application of these subjects. Just like any other science related profession, Chemical Engineering is rather challenging, and it is not only limited to oil and gas but it also covers other important fields widely branched out into different sectors which involves useful necessities in our daily lives such food, healthcare, energy, process formulation and many more. Thus, this is a highly recommended course and the fundamentals of this course allows for a diversified career.
Is there anything extra students thinking about studying on the course should know?
Different countries have different learning standards, my advice for international students is be prepared to expect there will be differences in study environment and culture as the UK has an independent learning system. As chemical engineering represents one of the toughest STEM courses in the world, it requires a lot of understanding and application especially from the first 2 years of university therefore if you are a direct entry student prior revision is essential and very beneficial to ensure you have the knowledge you require. I also suggest that if there is an earlier year intake, it is beneficial to join in second year rather than in the of third year as I struggled with some projects in with my first semester because some modules and information were not taught back in my home university. An alternative is to make friends with the current students in UoB to get help as more reading and studying through the progressing years are required especially for direct entry students.
The University of Birmingham has a Chemical Engineering programme that is placed highly in university rankings. It was a clear choice of university for me as it is a reputable and very well-established university within the UK.