{"id":638,"date":"2019-10-29T11:50:05","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T11:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/?p=638"},"modified":"2022-03-21T20:40:53","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T20:40:53","slug":"uniq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/uniq\/","title":{"rendered":"A summer placement at Oxford University \u2013 yes please!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Fahiza\nBegum \u2013 Physiological Sciences<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s that\ntime of year when uni is out and you\u2019re not quite sure what to do with your 3\nmonths of freedom. Does the phrase \u2018unpaid internship\u2019 fill you with dread?\nWell, let me introduce you to UNIQ+\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

So what is\nUNIQ+?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

UNIQ+ is a 6-week summer school at the University of Oxford designed to give students a flavour for postgraduate study. This was the first year of launching the summer school, which makes me one of the pioneers! The programme specifically aims at students from \u2018non-traditional backgrounds\u2019 including students who are the first generation in their family to attend university, or who are from a lower socio-economic background, in order to widen access to Oxford at a postgraduate level.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only is the idea of making Oxford more accessible brilliant, we were all given a \u00a32500 stipend and free accommodation at one of the Oxford colleges too!<\/strong> My 6 weeks were spent living at Magdalen College with a deer park for my back garden \u2013 it doesn\u2019t get much more prestigious than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Deer park at Magdalen College, Oxford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My project \u2013\nlooking at premature babies\u2019 eyes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Babies. Who doesn\u2019t love them, right? Especially when they kick out of the womb early so that their adorable faces are only the size of your palm. However, this also means that the blood vessels in their eyes haven\u2019t yet developed properly which can lead to abnormal retinas (back of their eyes).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My project\ninvolved analysing data from premature babies who were tested for this eye\nabnormality called Retinopathy of Prematurity<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to see whether the testing process itself caused periods of instability such as pauses in breathing (apnoea) which can lead to other health problems later on in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Premature baby. Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash]<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The exciting\nnews is that hopefully my research will contribute towards a way to quickly and\neasily identify pauses in breathing in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life at\nOxford<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The majority\nof my time was spent at the John Radcliffe Hospital<\/a>\nwith a fantastic research group who were extremely supportive. Day to day\nactivities varied from analysing data from babies to watching them have their\neyes examined in clinic, so there was never a dull moment to say the least!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from the\nplacement, I was fully immersed into life at Oxford by the wonderful graduate\nteam and academics who organised talks and dinners at different colleges for us\nevery week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Formal dinner at Jesus College, Oxford<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Of course,\nbeing able to roam around the grounds of different colleges to get a feel for\nthem is great, but more importantly, everyone loves a free meal! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Formal dinner of meat, veg and gravy – tasty! <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The talks we\nhad from the academics that were from a \u2018non-traditional background\u2019 about\ntheir journey to Oxford were inspiring and opened my eyes to the possibility of\ngraduate study at Oxford, and that its doors are open to all people of all\nbackgrounds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t\nall just formalities though. For me, the highlight of the socials organised for\nus was punting at Magdalen College<\/a> with a pizza party to end\nthe night. I really enjoyed being punted down the river and networking with\nlots of different people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Punting at Magdalen College. Photo by Phil Brooks \/ University of Oxford<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Me and Lauren Atha punting at Magdalen College. Photo by Phil Brooks \/ University of Oxford<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Plans for\nthe future<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Spending the\nsummer surrounded by PhD students and post docs from all walks of life was\nincredibly inspiring and gave me a sense of reward for having been a part of\ntheir fundamental bench-side work. I\u2019ve learnt that I find research interesting,\nin particular educating myself with the vast literature that is out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\njust as I opened the door to explore possibilities other than Medicine, luck\nfound me an Ophthalmologist as my summer supervisor. So I spent the summer in\nawe at her expertise and solidified my decision to apply for Graduate Entry\nMedicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve learnt\nthat I truly enjoy clinical research and perhaps someday I will find myself\nworking as a medic within an interdisciplinary research group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My summer at\nOxford has been mesmerising and I fully recommend this summer school to anyone\nwho is considering postgraduate study. I\u2019m indebted to UNIQ+ for this fantastic\nexperience and I can\u2019t wait to see what opportunities await me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
UNIQ+ cohort 2019. Photo by Phil Brooks \/ University of Oxford<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Read about Sam’s experience of a summer placement doing research at Newcastle University here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find out more about the fantastic UNIQ+<\/a> here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Info about our School of Biomedical, Nutritional and Sport Sciences degrees here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch out for further news on our Facebook<\/a> & Twitter<\/a> feeds and future blog<\/a> posts!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Fahiza Begum \u2013 Physiological Sciences It\u2019s that time of year when uni is out and you\u2019re not quite sure what to do with your 3 months of freedom. Does the phrase \u2018unpaid internship\u2019 fill you with dread? Well, let me introduce you to UNIQ+\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2915,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[168,82,86],"tags":[127,128,17,73,126,93],"class_list":["post-638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-placements","category-summer-placements","tag-enhance-cv","tag-final-year-prep","tag-research","tag-student-voice","tag-summer-placement","tag-work-experience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2915"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1428,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638\/revisions\/1428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}