扒哥吃瓜

Teaching will primarily be oriented around the cohort of students on the course. Building cohort affinities among students provides a safe peer-group space that promotes formation of trusted relationships important for peer-to-peer learning and support (e.g., as critical friends and, ultimately, long term professional contacts).

Taught material will take a mixture of formats, including traditional lectures and interactive, discussion-based workshops, blending elements of lecturing with interactive discussions to stimulate active, critical thinking among students.

Student-directed elements (in which students will contribute towards the selection of topic) will include journal club presentations and discussions, each focused on a research paper, controversial topic or state of the art technique. These will be supported by more experienced researchers from the host department, who will act as facilitators to provide guidance, structure and assurance of integrity, accuracy and quality of discussions.

Transferable skills and researcher development training will be including sessions delivered by the university’s Researcher Development Programme, covering topics such as research integrity, how to prepare a poster, time management and writing skills. Students will be invited to assess their own transferable skills needs, and enrol on additional courses according to their individual need.

All students will take a course in biostatistics and bioinformatics covering material including basic programming skills and biostatistics, delivered to the cohort as a whole to promote skills and cohort integration. Bioinformatic skills training will be delivered by dedicated expert staff, e.g., from the Bioinformatics Training facility () currently managed by Dr Matt Castle and supported by his team of biostatistics and bioinformatics instructors. This ensures high quality, pedagogically excellent delivery of important core and transferable skills, as well as formative assessment through problem solving tasks and tests.

In addition to the above mandatory teaching and training provisions, students will be encouraged to attend relevant seminars within the Department, School and wider University. Seminars are central to our professional community, disseminating ideas and findings, and inviting critical discussion. They are also important social events, as meeting points and facilitating spontaneous exchange of ideas through discussion.

During the research project, students will be fully embedded in the research group of their selected supervisor and will receive ongoing training and research support according to the needs of the student and the project. They will participate in meetings of the research group, and have regular meetings with the research project supervisor and other lab members supporting the project. In many cases they will receive ongoing project-specific skills training from post docs and PhD students who have expertise in the selected field of study. They will have a termly meeting with one of the course leaders to discuss progress of the research and engagement with the course and teaching material.