After my undergraduate degree, I took an internship position at the University where I developed projects to boost student and public engagement. I worked in a very supportive team who allowed me to develop my own interests in scientific communication and research. During that time, I realised that I missed researching animal behaviour and welfare, and decided I would do a postgraduate course when that contract ended. 

I chose to stay at Manchester Met for my masters degree because, having studied here for four years as an undergraduate, I knew the academic team and facilities well. I was confident that they would support my interests and development, and that all of the resources I required were available.

The postgraduate degree was mostly taught in the evenings which meant I was able to work during the day, grab a quick dinner at 5pm, and dash to my evening classes at 6pm. I really liked that it was possible for me to have a professional 9-5 day job whilst studying, and it obviously helped financially. I chose to do my MSc part time to also make sure that I could spread the work out in a manageable way.

The teaching style changed during my MSc, too. It was much more in-depth, and gave me more scope to really take a ‘deep dive’ into topics I enjoyed. There was more freedom when it came to choosing which topics we wanted to focus on during our coursework. I was also able to take advantage of the self-managed study module which allowed me to set up my own research project. It was a great opportunity and I was lucky to be allowed to continue developing my interests in student engagement and pedagogy as part of an Animal Behaviour degree, as well as make headway in such a large research project.

At no stage did I feel unsupported and I’m still in touch with many of my tutors. I felt confident approaching them with different ideas and getting advice on how to tackle novel projects. They put quite a lot of trust in me, which really helped me develop my confidence. My MSc dissertation supervisor even took the time to train me to use the specialist equipment involved in my project, which I was then able to borrow and take off site for field work. 

I absolutely loved the course and I wish I could do it all over again. I think the best thing was really being able to develop my own specialisms and skills, and being treated as if I’m a ‘real’ scientific researcher.

I’m now a university lecturer and course manager in animal health and welfare. Before this, I was a Scientific Officer at the RSPCA with a specialism in companion animals — in particular cats.

I use the skills developed in my masters degree every day. The postgraduate qualification was an essential pre-requisite for getting my jobs at both the RSPCA and as a lecturer. There are even things I studied during my masters that I now teach my own students. Crucially, the level of self-study we were trained for helps me day-to-day — no scientist is an expert on everything and there is always new information to critically assess and use.

Find out about the course.