I’m sure you will all agree that this academic year has been like no other and that students and staff have had to work harder than ever before. Many of you would have faced difficult personal circumstances this year, but despite these setbacks you have persevered and shown an unbelievable level of resilience. So, first of all well done! The very fact that you have remained committed to your studies and have tried to make the best of a difficult situation shows you have some excellent qualities!
Despite the pandemic, this year has been one of many successes. First and foremost, students have shown great engagement with their studies and we are looking forward to brilliant results from all of you. In addition to us all working hard to adapt to the new ways of working, there have been some exciting developments across Biomedicine. As you already know, the academic team are extremely passionate about graduate employability. The Biomedicine Careers hub now hosts more than 800 students, whilst careers working groups each hold up to 170 students! There have been at least 30 careers events/meetings this academic year. Given the popularity of these smaller scale events, the academic team have decided to go one step further! We are delighted to announce there will be a Biomedicine careers festival this summer – 23rd – 25th June in collaboration with the Careers and Enterprise Team. Save the date and look out for further announcements.
Many of you have been extremely proactive about your career management, actively seeking placements and taking up voluntary work experience through the student’s union, NHS or charities. Many of you have also actively engaged with extracurricular activities to build your CVs. We are already hearing good news that students are securing interviews,
placements, and graduate positions – keep up the good work and keep us posted with your good news stories!
It has been a real privilege collaborating with students on a range of extracurricular activities this year. The magazine speaks for itself and the students driving and contributing to this project, including editors, designers, website developers, referencing manager, writers etc… should be extremely proud of this achievement.
You are all excellent ambassadors for the university, attracting attention from the IBMS, the university library and reporters writing about British Science week! Students are strongly encouraged to contact the magazine team and get involved with future issues.
In addition to the excellent university- wide wellbeing support on offer, Biomedicine students and staff have worked together to develop opportunities ranging from coffee to exercise groups! These have been a real lifeline and helped keep a sense of community during the pandemic. We hope that many more students will come forward and take part in these activities.
I will finish up with wishing you the very best of luck in your summer exams. Keep an eye on the Teams sites over summer for additional opportunities. I look forward to working with all of you in the new academic year.