Yousuf Iqbal

What are your career goals after graduating?

I am in higher training and would continue my career in Forensic Psychiatry as a consultant with special interest in Clinical Neuropsychiatry.

Tell us about the teaching environment and lecturers on your course.

It's friendly and supportive and the administration staff are responsive. They respond to your queries quickly and support students to the best of their ability. I have no issues with their response and support.

Teaching is delivered through various means including face-to-face and online. The lecturers and course lead has taken into consideration requests from students to arrange an online session when a face-to-face attendance was proving difficult. Some of the sessions were delivered as hybrid (both face-to-face and online) which again was very reasonable and helpful.

The PowerPoint presentations for the Lectures are available well in advance of the module start which is great and also some of the lectures are recorded for easy reference at a later date.

Tell us how the course has helped you to develop your skills for your current/future career.

The first year of MSc has been very useful. During my first year, I have developed my knowledge in various areas including FND, other common neuropsychiatric disorders, epilepsy, brain and mind, and research methodology.

I have developed skills in conducting a literature review and has been able to critically analyse literature, which was something I wasn’t as good at before starting the course.

The course, so far, has also been very useful for my clinical knowledge and helped my clinical practice. It has broadened my understanding of the neuropsychiatric aspects of psychiatric presentations.

What are the best things about your course?

• The teaching faculty are experts in their field.
• The range of topics covered during the first year of the course (I am part time).
  Friendly and supportive learning environment.
• Findit@bham is a wonderful and easy to use app and has helped me a lot in writing my assignments and literature review.
• For part timers, the course is well structured and designed to accommodate.
• Face-to-face lectures on most Fridays is very useful.
• Time table is shared is well in advanced so planning lectures and having a regular job has been very useful.

Why did you choose to study at the University of Birmingham?

I am a Forensic Psychiatry trainee and have special interest in Clinical Neuropsychiatry. The University of Birmingham is one the few Universities in the UK that offers this course. Additionally, the teaching faculty that delivers the course are experts in their field. I also live in Birmingham and this was also one of the reasons why I chose to study at the University of Birmingham.