Skills, Employability and Student Support

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Skills, Employability and Student Support

• Dr Chris Baldwin
• Head of School

http//www.ncl.ac.uk/biomed/undergrad/
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School of Biomedical SciencesStrategic Plan
2014/15

• The School aims to provide an environment that
  supports all of our students in achieving their
  maximum potential and delivers an excellent
  student experience.

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How we support our students Academic and
Personal

• Each student is assigned a personal tutor
• Meet with tutor at start of course
• First point of contact throughout the degree
  programme for any problems
• Can change tutor on request
• Back-up system of course advisers
• Call in students if there appears to be problems
  (e.g. missing classes or coursework)
• Study skills advice to students having
  difficulties
• Additional specialist help available from a study
  skills adviser

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How we Support our Students Lectures
(Blackboard ReCap)

• Teaching material (lectures, module guides, extra
  reading etc) provided on the University Virtual
  Learning Environment - Blackboard.
• We ask all staff to ReCap their lectures. This is
  an automated event recording and delivery system
  that enables the audio and visual material from
  events such as lectures/seminars to be made
  available online.
• The School has one of the highest proportions of
  lectures recorded in the University with very
  positive student feedback

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How we support our students -Personal and
Wellbeing

• Student advice centre
• Student wellbeing
• Counselling service
• Mental health adviser
• Financial support
• Disability support
• http//www.ncl.ac.uk/students/wellbeing/

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Skills from an Biomedicine Degree

• Critical reasoning and analytical skills,
  including the capacity for solving problems and
  thinking creatively, often through extensive
  reading 
• Computing and statistical skills - gained
  through use of spreadsheets, databases and
  presentation packages found in most workplaces
• The capacity to think objectively and approach
  problems and new
• situations with an open mind
• Organisational skills - acquired, for example,
  through coping with
• lectures, practicals, study, part-time work and
  social activities.

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Vocational choices in final year project

• Research Laboratory
• Clinical
• IT
• Science education/
• communication

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A wide range of opportunities to add value to
your degree

• Placement opportunities
• Vacation studentships
• Year out in Industry
• Overseas exchanges (Europe, Australia, Singapore)
• Links to companies (including spin-offs)
• Student associate scheme
• Laboratory Assistant Posts
• Part time paid work in a research laboratory in
  year 2
• Biomedicine plus
• Optional research lectures
• Mentoring

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Nisha Chana and Kayleigh Goodman final year
students at PRBB research centre University of
Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona (top University in
Spain). Both are completing their final year
projects in Spain on Erasmus funded scholarships.
We have further links with University of
Toulouse (France), Pierre Curie University
(Paris) University of Tubingen (Germany),
Westphalian Wilhelms University in Munster
(Germany) and Lund University (Sweeden). We will
have further opportunities in Singapore,
Australia and New Zealand in 2015.
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Dhiluni Kandage (3rd Year Biomedical Sciences)
was awarded 1st prize at the University
Celebrating Research and Scholarship Exhibitions
2013 event for her poster presentation on white
and grey matter alterations in patients with
depression.
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Brigitte West (Biomedical Sciences) and Rose
Brown (Biomedical Sciences and Medical
Microbiology) have started their own website
which explains the science behind a range of
beauty products http//www.beautybythegeeks.com
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International Genetically Engineered Machines
Competition, MIT, Boston, USA Team 2013 Bare
Cillus
James (Biomedical Sciences), Alina
(Architechture), Justas (Computer Sciences),
Isabelle (Biomedical Sciences), Christopher
(Synthetic Biology), Vivian (Pharmacology),
Vincent (Biomedical Sciences), Robert (Synthetic
Biology), Yana (Biotechnology), Geoffrey
(Biomedical Sciences) and Matthew (computer
Sciences)
See http//2013.igem.org/TeamNewcastle and
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vb0Kk6bKKOQ0
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• Award-winning University Careers Service
• http//www.ncl.ac.uk/careers/
• Large number of employer presentations
• SBMS Employability Ambassadors
• Also sessions tailored for our students
• Postgraduate study
• Applying for Medicine
• Voluntary work with SCAN
• Talks from SBMS alumni

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Graduate success in Biomedicine
Destinations six months after graduation (2012/13) Newcastle Biomedicine Graduates Newcastle University Graduates All UK undergraduates (2011/2012)
Work (full-time/part-time) 51.7 65.0 67.4
Further study/work and further study 43.1 22.9 20.9
Unemployed 5.2 6.1 7.2
Other 4.5
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Careers for Bioscientists

• Graduates are highly employable in a wide range
  of careers including
• Laboratory scientists
• Hospitals
• Universities and research institutes
• Industry
• Science communicators (journalism, medical
  writing, PR work, medical charities,
  museums/science centres etc)
• Teachers
• Other roles in industry e.g. marketing, medical
  sales, brand management
• Patent work
• Science funding, policy and administration

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About 50 of our graduates go on to further study

• Higher science degree Masters MSc/MRes (36.8)
  or a PhD (25)
• Medicine (24)
• Dentistry (9), PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in
  Education)
• A small number of other courses including law,
  accountancy, physiotherapy etc

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• Profiles on the web
• http//www.ncl.ac.uk/biomed/undergrad/profiles/

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Quality Measures

• Teaching Quality
• All Biomedical Sciences degrees scored 24 points
  out of a maximum of 24
• National student survey 2011, 2012, 2013
• 95-100 for overall satisfaction
• Research Quality
• RAE2008 Medical Sciences Units combined ranked
  6th out of 32 in UK
• Times Good University guide 2013
• 6th out of 78 universities
• refers to biomedical sciences/other subjects
  allied to medicine