Foreign Perspectives

Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

As well as the molecular biology masters at Queen’s, there’s also the medicinal chemistry masters at the Open University to think about.

I’ve been toying with that off and on for the past couple of years as a possible next step. In practical terms, it’s just over the fence from molecular biology, looking at similar topics but from the chemistry angle.

As always, there’s a research skills module Developing research skills in science (S825) which is used by many of the OU science masters qualifications ie isn’t really directly related to medicinal chemistry.

Molecules in medicine (S807) is the main taught module and covers infectious diseases (bacterial and viral), cancer, heart disease, inflammation and neuropharmacology which reads like a biology module but presumably looks at things from the chemistry angle.

Concept to clinic (S827) is a smaller module which looks at the drug discovery and development process from a modern and historical perspective and introduces you to a range of issues in drug discovery. So it’s got some similarities to my current Drug Design (S346) module but with more of an emphasis on the design rather than synthesis.

Finally, there’s the MSc project module for MSc in Medicinal Chemistry (SXM810) which is based in the areas of the Molecules in Medicine and/or Concept to Clinic modules.

Plus points of the medicinal chemistry masters are that it’s going to be easy to fit around real life and it seems a lot simpler to get into (no need to gather together references etc.). On the downside, it doesn’t seem to offer quite such an easy route into the doctorate and has none of the lab work either.

A few weeks back when I was at the Queen’s open day the course director for the molecular biology masters kindly offered to send me the course calendar and research topics. I finally got around to dropping him a line yesterday and received a really rapid reply which is encouraging in itself and the content just as much.

The first semester has six hours a week starting with Protein structure & function in the first month and moving on to Advanced molecular biology (Nucleic Acid Structure and Function) in the second. Alongside that is a couple of hours a week of  Foundations for research in the biosciences (including literature review). The second semester has three hours a week of Biotechnology (a certificate course linked with the MSc) and four of Bio-entrepreneurship and Advanced Skills. That doesn’t include lab time or the project but seems almost doable full-time alongside work. Naturally, there’d also be additional study time required in addition to that ie it’s not just 12 hours a week work.

The final semester is taken up entirely with the research project of which the topics cover quite a range with some sounding quite fascinating (eg “Characterisation of macromolecular biosignatures for life detection in hostile environments such as those on Mars”) and others a big yuck (eg “Recovery and recycling of phosphorus from waste”) but with a “something for everyone” feel about the list.

Now “all” I need to do is to a) get a decent mark from my final life sciences course and b) work out how to fit the masters in with real life.

The workload on S346 seems to be over the hump now with no more tutorials scheduled and only the end of module assessment (EMA) to be done.

For a change, the EMA is pretty much the same format as the normal assessments albeit with more, but shorter, questions. The nine questions cover pretty much all of the course in sequence so the first three questions are on the first, mainly biological, book, then there are several on the various chemical syntheses, one on retrosynthetic analysis and it finishes off with a question on a protein synthesis and one to get you to analyse a research paper.

The net effect of that is that some are more difficult than others. For me the first three biological questions and the research paper seem particularly easy so I’ve those completed. The fourth question seems to have been one that’s floored a number of people but, once the method is found, it seems relatively doable.

Easy doesn’t mean quick to do though. As usual for me, chemistry questions take me ages to do – for the EMA something like an hour or two seems about right for me.

Up until last week, the “improvements” to student funding had only affected Open University students in England but the changes arrive in Wales with courses starting from September 2014.

Although the “improvements” had resulted in parity with the full-time students in terms of being able to get student loans, what nobody pushing for this parity seems to have realised that few of the part-time students would be eligible for the funding as it was quite frequently their second qualification and moreover the cost of the courses would rocket when this change was introduced. Thus in England modules went from a typical £700 to £2500 and the concept of transitional arrangements came in to ensure that those who’d already started qualifications would be able to continue them on the same financial basis. Thus the jump in costs only applied to new students or those starting new qualifications.

Sadly, the new arrangements are now being applied in Wales so we can look forward to a substantial drop in Welsh OU students similar to the massive drop that’s already been seen in England.

Will Northern Ireland and Scotland follow the trend? Somehow, I can’t see the Scottish politicians doing likewise this year with the vote coming up but who knows about next  year or for Northern Ireland?

When I kicked off my planned degree with the OU back in 2009, the intention was to do a psychology degree. Snag was that with end in sight of the named science degrees, and me finding biology absolutely fascinating, I ended up taking a slight diversion into what’s shortly going to become my Life Sciences degree.

However, I’ve not forgotten about psychology. In fact, I’ve been a student member of the BPS since back in 2009 and have been going to various events over the years. This year is turning into something of a bumper crop of events with the taster of clinical psychology day a few weeks ago, the annual taster of psychology day today and several more events courtesy of the 55 year psychology anniversary that Queen’s are running this year.

My problem is that I find both biology and psychology fascinating and I don’t know what to do when the life sciences degree is completed later this year.

The clinical psychology event clearly shows that getting into professional psychology is almost certainly not an option so long term it would appear that psychology, whilst fascinating, is a dead-end for me. On the other hand, I’ve not had the opportunity to go to a similar event for biology so it could be that it would be a dead-end too. That said, at the moment, it looks like the path to more advanced biology is doable with, seemingly, no insurmountable obstacles to get into the masters and then doctoral programmes. Apparently, getting into a psychological doctoral programme is a major undertaking requiring the masters but also a whole heap of relevant experience (which you can get via volunteering) that would take some years all by itself.