Can’t decide which uni to pick

I have 4 offers:

• Pathway to science at St Andrews
• Biomedical science at Caledonian (IBMS accredited)
• Biomedical science at Edinburgh (not IBMS accredited)
• Biomedical science physiology with year in industry at Aberdeen (not IBMS accredited)

I’m still waiting to hear back from Strathclyde for Biomedical Science.

My head is all over the place. I’m torn between picking an IBMS accredited Biomed course, which would mean I’d have a possible career with the NHS, or going for one of the more prestigious uni’s such as Edinburgh or St Andrews but not having any kind of career plan in mind. I’d really appreciate some advice. How important are IBMS accredited courses? Would it open more doors career wise?

Reply 1

McGinger

IBMS isnt actually that important - its just one of those 'badges' that Unis pay for and think it makes them look good.
Edinburgh and Aberdeen are probably the 'better' two Unis simply because they have larger Biomed departments - and any course with any sort of work experience is a big bonus.

Reply 2

HealthcareSci

The importance depends on what you want to do with your career - it's not about the NHS.

Biomedical Scientist is a protected title in the UK. This means to work as Biomedical Scientist you must be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). To get HCPC registration you need a Certificate of Competence from the IBMS.

For that, you need either an IBMS accredited degree or a degree that the IBMS have assessed and said is equivalent. The assessment costs about £350 (I can't remember current price) and then any required topup modules can easily cost £1500 each - and you cannot use a student loan for them.

If you don't want to be a BMS and want to use the degree in academia, non-registered industry or in a non-science graduate scheme, then it doesn't matter. In that case pick the university based on your course and career interests.

If you want to be a BMS, or think you might want to be a BMS, then I would pick an accredited university so you don't risk spending £10k and an extra year converting later.

It ultimately depends on what you want to do in the future, and only you can answer that question.

Reply 3

UoA Enquiry Team

Official Rep

Hi, this is the University of Aberdeen rep account. I think the above posters have provided some really great advice on the IBMS and career routes you would be looking at. I just wanted to come in with some general advice that I feel is useful when looking at making your university choices.

I would first of all recommend having a look around this site for students of each of the unis you have offers from to see what the general consensus is.
It's also worth thinking about the cities and what appeals to you. Do you want to be close to or far away from home, do you want to be in a big or small city, are there things/places in that city that you're interested in or will be good for any hobbies you have; those sorts of factors should definitely be on your mind as well as the actual courses of each of the universities.
Then it would be worth having a look on each of our websites to see what appeals to you about the courses eg. course content, projects you will get to do through your degree, prospects upon graduation, that sort of thing.

I think bearing in mind these more personal factors and your experience at uni can be important, so finding a balance between this and your career plans is what you should try to aim for. I hope this information has been useful and all the best with coming to a decision!

- Matthew, Enquiry Team