Sophie Metcalf, a postgraduate student studying an MSc in Environmental Consultancy, writes about the research aspects of her degree and how she has benefited because of it.

Research plays an important part of the Geosciences MSc courses here at Newcastle. Not only are students required to undertake their own research project, our studies are complimented and enhanced by the research active staff teaching the taught components of the course.

Newcastle University is renowned for the high quality research undertaken both university wide and within the School. This ultimately means that as MSc students here, we are being taught by some of the country’s top academics. Being part of a department has so many research active staff means that there are a multitude of exciting opportunities made available to students for their research dissertations. This is one of the most exciting aspects of being an MSc student here and is what drew me to applying. It is an exciting challenge to develop a research project alongside my academic supervisors that is at the cutting edge of the field. Having the opportunity to work so closely with research staff here has been an amazing opportunity for gaining knowledge and experience.

Not only does research play an integral role as part of the MSc research dissertations but it also plays a role in enhancing the lecture content. Not only do the lectures cover standard course content and skills, our lectures often incorporate the cutting edge research of the teaching staff. This is often in the form of case studies and field visits. As students it is so important to see how the theory we are learning is applied not only to research but also to industry and real world applications.