Hi there, this is Laia!
I’m a second year Biomedical Science Bsc student at King’s College London. Today I will be talking to you about all things student life other than your degree. Yes, the main thing you will get from going to university is your degree, but if you play your cards right you can learn so much more than your chosen field of study. There are many ways to broaden your university experience, whether you are looking to enhance your CV, meet like-minded people, find a new hobby or artistic outlet… There is something for you. I will mainly provide links to the King’s College London websites for these activities, but the equivalent to your university of choice is only a google search away!
Getting involved with societies
To say that the number of societies at university is overwhelming would be a big understatement. However, this means that there is bound to be at least one that you’re interested in. From societies representing various countries from all over the world, to sports or activity groups or academic associations. You name it, it’s there! I personally joined Musical theatre, Spanish society, Dance society and Biomedical Science Student Association.
January 2020. Cast & Crew Picture of ‘A Chorus Line’ production of GKTMT (Guy’s King’s and St. Thomas’ Musical Theatre Society).
Here you can see the range of societies at KCL: https://www.kclsu.org/groups/
Run for a position
Whether it is on the committee of your favourite society, or as a student representative for your degree or a position on the student’s union or the national student union conference delegate roles. Getting involved in a position of responsibility will not only help you boost your confidence and teamworking skills but also your CV.
Learn more about positions: https://www.kclsu.org/change/elections/positions/
Squeeze the juice out of the careers service.
From CV or LinkedIn profile improvement sessions, interview prep, ‘Discover careers in’ sessions with companies and employers from various sectors or postgraduate information sessions... If you are unsure what to do after your degree or how to get the right skills for what you want to achieve after university the careers service is the place to go. At King’s we are lucky enough to have a platform called King’s Career Connect through which all things careers are centralised, you can get your CV checked or attend a talk about Masters and PhD’s, find an internship, placement or part time job, and even take courses and workshops about whatever skill you are trying to perfect or learn from scratch. No matter where you are on your career journey there is something to learn.
At King’s there is also a platform that allows you to connect with alumni to see what career paths they embarked in after a degree like yours.
Access all of the resources about your career at KCL here: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/careers
Participate in a University award.
King’s provides accreditation for some activities that you might have achieved and completed throughout your degree, there are several options and these can have a duration of one academic year or expand through the course of your degree. Here are some examples:
AKC - Associateship of King’s College London https://www.kcl.ac.uk/aboutkings/principal/dean/akc/Associateship-of-Kings-College
King’s Experience Awards. They are divided into 3 streams: Service, Leadership or Research. The range of experience awards can be consulted here: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/careers/get-experience/work-experiences. I personally completed the King’s Enterprise Award (Part of the Leadership stream) because I wanted to learn more about Entrepreneurship and I thought it would be a good way to enhance my skill set. In addition, my work for the Developmental Neuroscience Academy project is thanks to the KURF (King’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship) which is one of the King’s Experience Award in the Research Stream.
Now it is a lot, and it is hard to balance with your degree if you aren’t very organised. But the best way to go about this, in my opinion, would be to attend the Welcome fair at the beginning of the university year (normally hosted at an enormous pavilion at the Barbican pre-covid but now online, https://www.kclsu.org/welcome/ ). That way you can find the top 5 societies you’d like to go to the first event or that you might be interested in, and you’ll naturally end up choosing 1-4 that you attend events for. That doesn’t mean you can’t attend events for more if you’re interested, but some societies will require membership (can range from £5 to £25 or even higher for sports societies since you might need equipment) and you don’t want to be paying for memberships in societies that you don’t end up being involved in, and also you need to study as well. As for university awards, each requires a different level of dedication and total hours so you’d best check each individual program. Regarding the careers workshops I personally check their events calendar at the beginning of the month and write down which sessions I’d like to attend and book them, if you end up being too busy you can always cancel 24-48hrs prior to the event. But my best advice is to get yourself organised, which for me means using a good planner (physical or digital): this way you can take a note of when societies meet, consult which awards or workshops you’d like to make time for, write down your degree contact hours (i.e. labs and workshops or tutorials) and fit in lots of other fun stuff too! But make sure you have time to relax and schedule afternoons or entire days off to just take care of yourself, sometimes you need to take the fomo away and take time off. I hope this little guide into university extracurriculars will help you fill your schedule so you can meet people from other degrees and enjoy all academic and non-academic things university life can bring to you! Tomorrow Stella will be talking you through the process of getting into university if you want to be a medic! We hope you guys are enjoying these blogs. See you soon! Laia