To Academia & Beyond

To Academia & Beyond

Previous Events

To Academia and Beyond, 2024

This year edition of “To Academia and Beyond” event, led by Dr Adnan Levent with the help of the THESIS team and a group of dedicated student volunteers, namely Maitri Sanghvi, Seyda Bicaco, Rawand Al Hroup, Suhani Verma, Ashna Salman, Nusayba Saeed, and Matilde CostadaSilva, took place on March 20th with approximately 60 attendees.

The event featured Q&A sessions for academic and career guidance, revision workshops offering essay writing tips and statistics games with prizes.

Students also had opportunities to present their research projects through poster presentation and participate in a multimedia art competition. Nina Ryan was awarded the best poster prize, while Norielyn Due received the best artwork prize. The event concluded with a staff and student fun quiz which was enjoyed by all participants. The feedback was highly positive, with students strongly agreeing on its potential impact on future studies and careers, and expressing a strong likelihood to recommend it to peers.

 


To Academia and Beyond, 2023

The THESIS team is excited to announce a brand-new event series “To Academia and Beyond” that was held in two parts over two terms. The event was led by Dr Adnan Levent with the help of the THESIS team and a group of dedicated student volunteers, namely Arooj Yousaf, Faryal Haye, Hildie Leyser, Aaron Kim, and Tobi Adeladan.

The first part of the event which consisted of the 2nd/3rd year Q&A and revision sessions took place on 8th March with around 40 attendees. During the Q&A session, first and second-year psychology students had the opportunity to ask questions regarding the following year’s modules and got hints and tips from second and third-year students who had first-hand experience, namely Isabella Neergaard, Karl Klakegg, Gauresh Kuradia, Alaz Bicaco, Elizabeth Evans, Abel Nagy, and Aaron Kim. Some questions that were asked during the session are listed below;

  • What is the timetable like in year 3?
  • What is needed to get into İAPT?
  • What do lab reports in the second year involve that is different from the first-year lab reports?
  • For 3rd year, do you recommend taking more modules in term 1 or term 2 (considering the  workload for the research project)?
  • Thoughts on the 3rd year Equality Diversity module?
  • Are the advanced developmental topics similar to the topics in 1st and 2nd year?

In the revision session, students practised useful revision strategies (i.e., creating mind maps) and participated in various statistics games, such as a statistics board game and a regression crossword. Students received points for completing each game and won prizes.

The second part of the event took place on 10th May. The event featured a range of sessions. The postgraduates/research staff Q&A session was one of the main highlights of the event, allowing students to ask questions about further education in psychology and receive insightful advice from experienced individual (Ritika Bajaj, Hildie Leyser, Swarnamanjari Mundhra, Timothy Meiers, Francesco Scaramozzino, Isabelle Verhulst, and Maber Muhinyi). The session was highly enlightening and provided students with a great deal of invaluable information.

The poster competition was another key feature of the event, with students showcasing their research projects in a visually engaging format to win the best poster prizes. The posters were evaluated by Dr Sam Fairlamb and Dr Beatrice Hayes. There were two winners of the competition, with first place going to Megan Stockford for her outstanding work on neurodiversity in the criminal justice system, and second place going to Sarah for her innovative research proposal on the association between trauma exposure and mental health in Indian Muslims.

The career advice drop-in session was also popular with attendees. It provided an opportunity for students to discuss their career aspirations with Siobhan, the Psychology Dept’s aligned Careers Consultant. Many attendees expressed their gratitude for the guidance received during this session.

The event ended with the staff and student fun quiz which added a playful element to the event and proved to be a great success, thanks to our quizmaster, Dr Aysha Bellamy. The quiz consisted of several rounds of questions covering a range of academic topics, as well as general knowledge. The matching staff’s baby pictures and strange facts were the most popular rounds. The atmosphere was cheerful, and the quiz was enjoyed by all participants.

Overall, the event was a great success. The feedback from attendees for both parts of the event was overwhelmingly positive. Most attendees found the event extremely helpful and indicated they would highly recommend it to other students.