Cardiff Met vs Uni of Surrey - Biomedicine/ Healthcare Science

1

Hello!
I got offers from Cardiff met ( for the Healthcare Science course) and University of Surrey (for the Biomed Course with Placement) and I am soo undecisive and need help!!
Cardiff Met has stronger NHS links and placement is guaranteed but it is also very intense and I don't know if the workload will be too much
On the other hand, Surrey has a broader approach and I have more choice of what I want to study however I am worried that I won't get a good enough placement/ get a placement at all.
These are my concerns/wants:
- I want to be able to park my car at my accommodation as I want to be able to drive home without worrying about public transport.
- I am a bit worried that with Cardiff met's small class size (25 people) I might not meet people I like/get on with.
- Cardiff met is lower in ranking for biomed by a mile (66th vs 18th ish for surrey) so I am worried that the teaching there may not be as good/ I may not enjoy it as much.
- For Cardiff met, I am scared that I don't get as much flexibility for what I would study so I am worried that I may not like the course as much as I would if I chose my modules in Surrey.
- Also, theoretically Cardiff is cheaper than Surrey accommodation wise but I am not sure if everything adds up that way e.g. shopping, transport etc.
- Cardiff has placement guaranteed whereas Surrey does not so I am a bit worried that I won't get placement in Surrey.
- Cardiff's course is shorter than Surrey so I could go to work straight away but with Cardiff, I would have to work in Wales for 2 years after finishing the course.
- Surrey has such a lovely campus compared to Cardiff met, which kind of reminded me of UEA's campus but I don't know what other facilities are like e.g. libraries, gym etc.
- I don't know if Cardiff is as much of a walkable city compared to Surrey

I would appreciate any opinion so if you have been to any of these unis or if you know a bit about the courses, I would be so thankful!!

Reply 1

Scienceisgood

21

Just want to make this clear before starting, I did not attend either uni, I attended UWE but am just throwing my personal opinion out there so I can't verify the quality of either uni.

•

Forget about uni rankings, they don't mean *hit (sorry for being blunt). The course is accredited by the IBMS which is what matters if you want to work in the NHS, the NHS itself and your employers don't care about which uni you went to (especially after 2-3 years of employment) as your experience rings through and what you can prove in interviews.

•

If Cardiff offers a guaranteed placement, I'd take it (if you can afford it as placements are unpaid in the NHS) as experience is worth its' weight in gold (I'm a trainee BMS in clinical biochemistry) and can say getting my first job as a medical laboratory assistant was a mission and a half as I kept being told to come back with more experience.

•

I admit i don't know Cardiff's area but if you're more concerned about walkability and/or transport, look around as if that's your major concern, I would not be too concerned. Cardiff (Wales in general) is miles cheaper to live in so I imagine it would not be overly difficult to find a place to stay with transport connections (please forgive me if I'm wrong). - Also, I personally made it a requirement that, if I absolutely had to, I would walk to campus and so looked for a place within 4km of campus as I could walk it comfortably in an hour if transport was absolutely terrible on a particular day.

•

Truth be told, the flexibility is a bit of a tough one as in Biomed, you're likely going to have to study multiple sections you simply won't like, I absolutely hated studying microbiology (also bled into immunology) and oncology as, to put it bluntly I'm a biochemist through and through as it's what I find most interesting by far. So, you will have to put up with parts of the course you don't like as it's a requirement to become a BMS in the future (getting a BMS degree does not automatically make you a BMS, you must get your registration portfolio done which I imagine you can do in the two years you have to work for the NHS after graduating).

Happy to answer any questions on the BMS course I am able to as well as anything on the job itself though. =)

Reply 2

Yirokii

10

Original post

by Scienceisgood

Just want to make this clear before starting, I did not attend either uni, I attended UWE but am just throwing my personal opinion out there so I can't verify the quality of either uni.

•

Forget about uni rankings, they don't mean *hit (sorry for being blunt). The course is accredited by the IBMS which is what matters if you want to work in the NHS, the NHS itself and your employers don't care about which uni you went to (especially after 2-3 years of employment) as your experience rings through and what you can prove in interviews.

•

If Cardiff offers a guaranteed placement, I'd take it (if you can afford it as placements are unpaid in the NHS) as experience is worth its' weight in gold (I'm a trainee BMS in clinical biochemistry) and can say getting my first job as a medical laboratory assistant was a mission and a half as I kept being told to come back with more experience.

•

I admit i don't know Cardiff's area but if you're more concerned about walkability and/or transport, look around as if that's your major concern, I would not be too concerned. Cardiff (Wales in general) is miles cheaper to live in so I imagine it would not be overly difficult to find a place to stay with transport connections (please forgive me if I'm wrong). - Also, I personally made it a requirement that, if I absolutely had to, I would walk to campus and so looked for a place within 4km of campus as I could walk it comfortably in an hour if transport was absolutely terrible on a particular day.

•

Truth be told, the flexibility is a bit of a tough one as in Biomed, you're likely going to have to study multiple sections you simply won't like, I absolutely hated studying microbiology (also bled into immunology) and oncology as, to put it bluntly I'm a biochemist through and through as it's what I find most interesting by far. So, you will have to put up with parts of the course you don't like as it's a requirement to become a BMS in the future (getting a BMS degree does not automatically make you a BMS, you must get your registration portfolio done which I imagine you can do in the two years you have to work for the NHS after graduating).

Happy to answer any questions on the BMS course I am able to as well as anything on the job itself though. =)

Ah thank you so much!!
I think I might actually do Cardiff then!
Are you certain that all NHS placements are unpaid for? Thats kind of rough but I think I’ll survive it for the process
I’m also very into biochem side of things! What modules did you enjoy the most?
Also could you talk to me about the research project in year 3 as I am unsure what thats all about.
Lastly, hows the job going? What are your daily routines/tasks? Hows the pay like (don’t answer if you don’t want to!!)? When you got the job, was there people in a similar position as you or did you work with a lot of people that have already worked there for a long time?

Reply 3

Scienceisgood

21

Original post

by Yirokii

Ah thank you so much!!
I think I might actually do Cardiff then!
Are you certain that all NHS placements are unpaid for? Thats kind of rough but I think I’ll survive it for the process
I’m also very into biochem side of things! What modules did you enjoy the most?
Also could you talk to me about the research project in year 3 as I am unsure what thats all about.
Lastly, hows the job going? What are your daily routines/tasks? Hows the pay like (don’t answer if you don’t want to!!)? When you got the job, was there people in a similar position as you or did you work with a lot of people that have already worked there for a long time?

HI;

Sorry for the late response (this is actually the second attempt at a response, I was in the middle of responding yesterday but I got a call as a mate of mine asking to pick some things up whilst I was visiting Eden Project).

Are placements actually unpaid?
Yes, at least they are in England, Wales may have a different policy (you will have to check this) but we have a BMS Student in our lab who doesn't get paid anything (except experience) but she is also doing her portfolio which means she may be a fully registered BMS upon graduating, whereas others who did not do the placement year will have to wait to get it (when I was asking in interviews, I was told there would be a 2-3 year wait before I could start it and then however long it takes to finish it).

A lot of people don't take placements on this ground as they simply can't afford to live on their own for a year without any income.

What modules did I enjoy the most?

I really enjoyed anything biochemistry related i.e. hormone deficiencies or excess and liver related (also anything to do with the heart). I will say I never found microbiology, immunology or oncology all that fascinating, so these were more of a case of put up with it, however, my best mate loved microbiology. So don't assume just because I didn't like something, you won't, everyone is different.

An example of a piece of work I can give you is something I was given in my final year as an example exam question. Below is effectively a case of diagnose the patient, differential diagnosis (effectively, why can't it be disease X or Y but instead is likely to be Z) and also, this is the most important part, DO YOUR RESEARCH. If you regergitate what the lecturer has told you in the lectures, you will not graduate with anything higher than a 2.2 (at MSc, we were told the highest we would receive would be a Pass).

BChem Q1.PNG

Projects:
Projects are always interesting as you get to choose who you get to work with as you will be given a list of lecturers and what they are studying and you get to cherry pick who you do it with (at least at UWE) assuming they aren't full, in which case you get your second pick. I will admit my MSc project I absolutely hated but that was because I really wanted to do a project on diabetes (a biochemistry heavy module) but last minute, all three of us were told we couldn't and we were given someone else who gave us a project on paediatric osteosarcoma (children's bone cancer). Which, as you may have read earlier, cancer is one of the driest things I could do and I was stuck doing a Masters project on it for 9 months...

My best mate however was given something he really enjoyed which was effectively asking parents for their children's bath toys, cutting holes in them and then swabbing it to see what bacteria was growing in them. As I'm sure you can imagine, a lot of faecal based bacteria in there.

How's my job?
I'm really enjoying my job tbh, I'm hoping to stay on but officially my contract expires in May (I think I'll be a fuly regsitered BMS by March, ALL GOING WELL), however, me staying on is a matter of money (literally if they can afford to pay me).

The lab has effectively 4 main areas, Clinical Chemistry (so examples being sodium, potassium, liver function tests, glucose, spinal fluid tests etc...), Immunoassays (so things like traponin (heart attack marker), CA199 (cancer markers), Ferratin etc...), authorisation and validation (so looking at patient results, don't get me wrong, if your on other stations, you also get this as you are expected to do this too) and quality management in the lab.

I will say however, a LARGE part of what you do is effectively engineer work (your job I would say 60% of the time is to ensure the machines run correctly, troubleshooting them, making sure reagents are topped up etc...) as you don't want a spinal fluid sample or ammonia sample coming through (both highly time sensitive samples, we're talking have to be run and resulted in 15 minutes of you getting them) and your machines aren't ready for them.

You'll also be expected to make and receive calls, however, I will say one thing. DO NOT let shouting doctors or nurses get to you. Yes you will get them as they have very important jobs but in the end, you have other patients to run and doing your job as best as you can. There will also be cases whereby you will lose an occasional sample (maybe not you exactly but still) but when you're handling hundreds of thousands of samples yearly, a couple dozen will likely get lost, roll under analysers, not sorted properly etc... the point is what you do after this has happened is what matters i.e. you follow policy.

Truth be told, there is A LOT of learning on the job. Every lab has different machines and policies on sample protocol. So, look and learn as you do this.

I will say this though, when you do your portfolio, it is easy for things to get on top of you. So you will VERY likely have to do this in your own time at home or maybe even move away from home to begin it like I did this year (trainee BMS posts are gold dust as they have to give you your portfolio and not wait like a medical laboratory assistant or associate practitioner role).

Regarding pay, NHS pay is made VERY public based on your band (literally Google NHS Agenda For Change) and will detail the NHS pay. Currently right now I'm on NHS Band 5 (Annex 21) which basically means I am paid the top of Band 5, but deduct 25% as I'm not a registered BMS yet. It's not a terrible salary but it's not a great one as BMS staff are paid a VERY average salary.

Any others questions (or if I missed any), please feel free to respond and I'm happy to help!

(edited 4 weeks ago)

Reply 4

Scienceisgood

21

When you got the job, was there people in a similar position as you or did you work with a lot of people that have already worked there for a long time?

Sorry for not putting this in the last response, I just noticed this one.

When I first started, I got my first job right at the begiinning of the pandemic working in a lab (I tried my hand at secondary school teaching for the first two years, absolutely hated the workload, never again). Anyway, When I first started my first lab job in 2021, I was a Medical Laboratory Assistant and to be honest, for a lot of people, it was their first jobs in a lab as during the pandemic (this job was in the Lighthouse Laboatories i.e. the mass testing COVID labs with the swabs you sent off in the post during isolation period), they were taking anyone and everyone with a science or health related job they could, including one person I knew who had a degree in marine biology. Truth be told, it was a great job. I will admit after teaching, it took me almost a full year to get a job in a lab as in interviews, I kept being told to come back with more experience and all the jobs were going to people who already had experience.

In any lab, you will find people who have only just started, been working for a few years or in my case, the longest a person has been working there is one of the specialist BMS people who has been there 26 years total now. So yes, you will get a VERY mixed bag of people who have differing levels of experience, but don't forget or get worried, everyone has to start from Step 1, that's what people are there for, to do their job and train you at the same time.

Hope this answers your question!

Cardiff Met vs Uni of Surrey - Biomedicine/ Healthcare Science

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