Our students

Many of our students have participated in our outreach and widening participation activities and programmes before joining our undergraduate programmes. Alongside their studies, many of them support the next generation of students to access university by becoming student ambassadors, mentors, and even running their own events on campus and in local schools and colleges. 

Birmingham Widening Access to Medical Sciences student society

The Birmingham Widening Access to Medical Sciences student society (BWAMS) is a student-run charity and MedSoc society that promotes university courses in the medical and healthcare sciences to students from state schools who may not believe that this path is open to them. 

BWAMS student society members go into schools to talk about our courses and deliver some fun practical-based sessions with stethoscopes and tendon hammers. We find this really enthuses the students who may not have even thought about going to university in the first place. 

The student volunteers are from a variety of our courses including Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Biomedical Science, and Nursing.

BWAMS has a programme of six sessions which can be delivered for free to any state school in Birmingham and Solihull. The six sessions are as follows:

  • Healthy Eating, KS3
  • Asthma Explained, KS3
  • CPR Training, KS3-KS5
  • Clinical Skills, KS3-KS4
  • Diabetes Explained, KS4
  • Evidence Based Medicine, KS5

Get in touch if you are interested in a BWAMS session by emailing mdsoutreach@contacts.bham.ac.uk

Support for students from widening participation backgrounds during their time studying

Our work on widening participation does not end when students arrive at university. All students in the College of Medicine and Health who complete a widening access programme (Pathways to Birmingham or Realising Opportunities) are automatically enrolled onto our “MDS Pathways” programme.

First year Medicine and Health Pathways students are matched with a higher year student studying the same subject (and who has also usually completed a widening access programme). This peer mentoring is in addition to professional development and careers support provided by the College to ensure that students from the widest variety of backgrounds can not only study with us but thrive while they are here and go on to have fulfilling and rewarding careers once they graduate.