Undergraduate research experience in Manchester's biology program

I'm going to apply for American grad program after getting BSc in the UK. Since the research experience in the undergrad is the most important factor in the admission, I'm strongly being attracted by the strength in research and international competitiveness of Manchester over those of York and Durham. However, I don't know how much research experience I can get in Manchester compared with American unis.
- Do profs and graduates help undergrads conduct their own research? How much support can I get?
- Does publishing research paper of undergrads sometimes happen?
- Is Manchester successful in sending its graduates to competitive American grad schools?
- Why is Manchester ranked low nationally, but high internationally?

Reply 1

Origami Bullets

I'll quote in Strangey for you, who recently graduate from UoM in a life sciences discipline, and is now doing his PhD

Strangey

However, on the subject of rankings, it's because they're measured based on other things, and generally aren't of much use anyway. Read this http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1096372 . One of the areas where Manchester has traditionally fallen down is student satisfaction, which is only used in domestic league tables. However, it's measured by the National Student Survey, which is highly problematic http://www.theguardian.com/education/2009/may/19/national-student-survey-university-guide

University of Manchester

Manchester

Reply 2

Strangey

Original post by worry123

Generally in the UK, any research is focused on the final year project (dissertation) that science students will undertake. I'm not sure what degree you want to study, but when I did my dissertation it was a unique subject, and I had a post-doc researcher and a reader (a senior rank of lecturer) helping me with my project. That was pretty much the only research I needed to do to have a competitive application for my Master's, and then for my PhD at UCL (my offer for my PhD was based on my BSc). Publishing papers would be quite rare, and it would depend a lot on the project you're assigned. In the UK it would be considered perfectly normal for a student to not have published anything, and no one would think twice about it - it doesn't matter about the quality of research, it might be that the topic isn't very publishable. I'm not sure what American unis would think about a student who didn't publish, but it wouldn't hold you back whatsoever in the UK. I don't have any figures for postgrad destinations, but I would imagine that some students would go to competitive places in America, yes. However, given that funding is extremely difficult to come by for internationals in America (and the fact that the best places would probably want a US Master's), most people would focus on the UK. In that sense, Manchester is a very good platform from which to launch a postgrad application. It's also important to remember that ultimately the destination of the students is for the students themselves to decide - Manchester has no control over who applies where!

Original post by Origami Bullets

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 3

worry123

I agree with you that the fact that student satisfaction has too much weigh makes the domestic ranking underevaluate Manchester as well as some other excellent research institute in the UK.

Since mandatory senior thesis isn't so common in US, it's a big attraction and opportunity for int'l students who are really dedicated to research. I want to work on the research as soon as possible, at latest, from the second year, so that I will not be disadvantageous compared with other American applicants who have one extra year to stay in undergrad. IMO, publication of thesis may not be so important, but I'm sure the quality of the content matters a lot. My field of interest is stem cell and regenerative medicine, so I thought I should go back to the U.S., where extraordinary amount of research budget is spent for these fields. But since top UK unis are also good at these fields, I will stay in the UK if I will be accepted to better grad program there. I understand that it is always a hard task for a student to apply for a school in different country, but I think it will be fine, since I'm not so picky about university.

Thanks for your great help!