• Question: how many years did you spend at university to become a scientist?

    Asked by jorjahh to Alastair, Emma, Hywel, Keith, Vicki on 25 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Alastair Sloan

      Alastair Sloan answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Hi

      I spent a total of 6 and half years at university before I completed my qualifications to become a scientist. 3 years for my degree which is a BSc in Biomedical Sciences and 3 and half years for my PhD

    • Photo: Vicki Stevenson

      Vicki Stevenson answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      I spent four years at university for my first degree (BSc) which included an industrial placement but many university BSc courses which don’t include an industrial placement are three years.
      After this I started working as a scientist in a research laboratory and didn’t really need to get more qualifications. However, my boss offered to pay the fees for me to do a Masters degree. I did it part time because I was working, so it took three years, but a full time Masters degree only takes one year (as long as you have a bachelor’s degree first).
      The research laboratory closed down, so I wanted to change direction from researching materials to energy. I managed to get funding to study for a doctorate which took four years full time – the funding covered my fees and also gave me some mone to live on. I started working as an energy researcher as soon as I completed my doctorate, so it worked out well for me!

    • Photo: Keith Brain

      Keith Brain answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Too many years at University …
      However, I think that the first 3 years were good preparation, and the next 3 were good on-the-job training.

    • Photo: Emma Carter

      Emma Carter answered on 25 Jun 2010:

      I spent 4 years studying for an MEng in Mechanical Engineering to become an engineer – then after working in industry for several years I went back to uni to spend 4 more years researching for a PhD – so I suppose to get where I am now it took a total of 8 years at university. If that sounds a bit long, you can just do a 3-year batchelors degree and PhDs generally take between 3 and 4 years (I was working as a crash investigator at the same time so it took me a bit longer).

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