What do you like about the programme and why?
Biomedical Science is an interdisciplinary field and hence has a wide variety of sub-fields. This factor has been well taken care of in the programme designed by the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Radboud University. I love the idea of having the freedom to choose your own track with minimal obligations.
There is a huge variety of subjects to choose from, and we can plan and design our track for two years on our own. It has been especially beneficial for me because I wish to work in the pharmaceutical arena in the future as a medicinal biologist. Even though I have an extensive foundation of my biological concepts from my previous Bachelor's studies, I wanted to learn more chemistry and also gain practical experience.
This course gave me the independence to reduce my number of theory credits and convert them into internship credits. Also, the program allowed me to do an internship at a chemistry lab in the Faculty of Science, instead of the medical faculty.
To sum up I would say, I am 100% happy with my decision to join the program. I had my two most important expectations fulfilled.
What do you think about the atmosphere in class?
The atmosphere within the class is quite warm and comfortable. The teachers give an open space to pursue personal learning goals and also try to make communication a lot easier.
Each course that I took till now had at least one working group assignment along with individual assignments. This helped me get to know other students from different backgrounds and build the spirit of working in a collective manner.
Due to freedom in choosing courses, different courses had different sets of students, which helped even more in knowing more people and working with them.
Are you currently doing an internship?
Yes, I am doing an internship. As I mentioned before, my interests lie in medicinal biology and pharmaceutical sciences So, I took an internship at the Organic Synthetic Chemistry laboratory. My project deals with synthesizing novel compounds, which are analogs of statins, and thus help in treating high cholesterol. Statins have side effects in a few patients. So, scientists are looking for alternatives. I am working on synthesizing a few of those alternatives which would later be tested for their biological activity in collaboration with RIMLS.
Why do you think is it important that there are people out there with this degree? What are your plans once have received your Master's degree?
As I discussed before, Biomedical science is an interdisciplinary field. Therefore the Bachelor's curriculum is usually very broad and it's often difficult to choose a specialised stream for a job perspective right after a Bachelor's. One needs more experience to make a sound decision about his/her interests.
I would like to do my PhD after I finish my Master's studies to get more exposure to the research arena and increase my experience in this field.