Working or studying in the EBRG

Any research vacancies will be advertised on jobs.ac.uk. If you are interested in a research internship or PhD studentship with us please contact Professor Suzanne Higgs (s.higgs.1@bham.ac.uk).

Also see FindaPhD for PhD opportunities. For further information about postgraduate opportunities in the School please see the Psychology PhD/MSc programme page.

Internship opportunities within the Eating Behaviour Research Group may be available from time to time. Current undergraduates in the School of Psychology can apply for internships through the research assistant volunteer scheme.

We also welcome MSc students, PhD students and students from BSc courses with a placement scheme.

Lizzy Fadden, Olivia Young and Isabelle Krol talk about their internship experiences within our group:

Lizzy Fadden: "I have thoroughly enjoyed working in the Eating Behaviour Research Unit (EBRU) and particularly the experience of actually working with the participants to collect their data.

"I found it interesting and a valuable experience talking issues when things went wrong, and especially liked the topic of the research, as I am interested in the psychology of eating habits and particularly the formation of bad eating habits."

Olivia Young: "I have particularly enjoyed my time in the Eating Behaviour Research Unit (EBRU) because I find eating behaviour such an interesting topic. I found it very interesting working in the food lab and I enjoyed working alongside others in the lab.

"My experience as a research assistant also highlighted possible difficulties that can occur in research, such as participants taking longer than expected. I'm aiming to have a career in psychological research and so working as a research assistant in the EBRU helped me to gain real experience in research and to decide what area I would  like to go into myself.’"

Isabelle Krol: ''I am a Psychology Masters student from Vienna and I decided to make an internship at the University of Birmingham in the department of Psychology. I got the opportunity to work with the research group of Dr Higgs that deals with a social norm approach to encourage healthier eating.

"I was directly involved in the recruitment of participants as well as the testing process itself, so I could gain a lot of experience. I had the chance to be involved in 3 different studies and got a very good insight in the whole research procedure, the challenges and difficulties and how they can be solved.

"Every 2 weeks there were meetings at which Phd students presented their own research or current topics. There they had the chance to get feedback and discuss their work. Summarizing, it was a very good experience and a good insight in the everyday work of a researcher, which I can now imagine to be my future profession.''