• Question: How long did you have to study for to be where you are now?

    Asked by anon-220171 to Thiloka, Rebecca, Matthew, Ettie, Aina, Ross on 6 Jun 2019. This question was also asked by anon-221030.
    • Photo: Matthew Bareford

      Matthew Bareford answered on 6 Jun 2019:

      I completed A-levels (2 years) and then an undergraduate degree (3 years) and a year of portfolio completion (1 year). So a total of 6 years (4 not including A-levels). However I also took a year out to complete a PGCE (1 year) but that wasn’t compulsory for my position I’m in now… but it does help when I have students with me!

    • Photo: Rebecca Moon

      Rebecca Moon answered on 6 Jun 2019:

      After school:
      University – 6 years (I did medicine with an intercalated degree in biomedical sciences so that took an extra year)
      After uni – I have been training as a junior doctor for 13 years, this is on the job training so you get paid during this. Whilst training there are exams depending on which specialty you want to do. I also did a PhD which is a research degree which took me 3 years, and I’ve twice been on maternity leave for a year.
      Being a scientist is definitely a journey!

    • Photo: Ettie Unwin

      Ettie Unwin answered on 6 Jun 2019:

      After school I did a four years combined masters and undergraduate engineering degree. That led me to do a 3 1/2 year PhD in statistical methods for predicting how a design will behave once it has been made.

      Before I went to university I did a gap year because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to study. I did a Year in Industry and found it very useful seeing how science is used in the real world. That helped me when I found bits of my degree less interesting.

    • Photo: Thiloka Ratnaike

      Thiloka Ratnaike answered on 6 Jun 2019:

      Thanks for this question- I feel like I am still studying so it hasn’t ended! I was in uni for 8 years while I did the MBBS PhD, then after graduating, I continued to study for my MRCPCH exams which I completed in 2017. So I guess I have been studying for at least 26 years (counting school) to get to a place where I have now completed all my exams!

Comments

  • Photo: Anabel

    Anabel commented on :

    Hi – traditionally for academic research positions, the progression is a Bachelors of Science undergraduate degree (3 years), a Masters postgraduate degree (1 year) and a PhD (4 years), so 8 years of study after A levels/high school (this is what I have done), but that isn’t the only way by any means! For example, I work with some fantastic researchers who completed science-related bachelors and masters degrees, but no PhD, and others that jumped straight from a bachelors to a PhD without a masters degree in between. I also know some excellent scientists that used to study completely different subjects and ‘switched’ to science later on! But traditionally it would be a minimum of 4 years undergraduate and postgraduate study (and often more) following A levels.

  • Photo: Alex

    Alex commented on :

    I studied 3 years for my undergraduate degree in Maths, 1 year for my masters in Medical Statistics and 3 years for my PhD in Medical Statistics. 7 years might seem like a long time, but you will be working for the rest of your life so why rush into it?! Doing a PhD has been way more fun than I expected it to be – you get to decide exactly what you study and how you do it so it feels very different from school. They also pay you to do it so it’s like having a job you really love where you’re the boss 🙂