You will develop a breadth of knowledge during your course, which will make you understand your subject’s principles, methods, and limitations. You will become a subject specialist.
How will my degree develop it?
During your time at the University of Glasgow, you will become a subject specialist in your chosen degree discipline. From an academic viewpoint, this skill will enable you to understand and respect your subject's values, principles, methods, as well as limitations and how you can take advantage of this knowledge to improve the quality of your coursework.
From a personal perspective, you will develop a breadth and depth of knowledge within your disciplinary area(s), which you can take advantage of in your everyday life. In addition to this, being a subject specialist is a transferable skill since you will possess professional competencies and knowledge relevant for your future career that prospective employers will highly value. Furthermore, you will also have the ability to link your degree discipline to local, national, and global issues to develop sustainable solutions within your area of expertise.
Sometimes, you might be unsure how to formulate and put into words everything you learned throughout your studies at the University of Glasgow. Due to this, when you go to job interviews post-graduation, you might miss out on sharing many relevant skills that you acquired through your course with your potential employer. An excellent way to tackle this is to make notes about your activities during courses, lectures, workshops, and seminars. Another helpful thing to do is to look at the course information document of your subject, which also details some of the skills you acquired throughout the module.
How else can I develop it?
There are numerous opportunities on campus to become a subject specialist in your field beyond the classroom. For example, you can become a member of various societies which are focused on specific subject-related topics, few examples include:
- The Pyschology Society, which welcomes anyone who is studying or is interested in Psychology. Their main aim is to raise awareness about important psychology related issues by holding events and talks. Most subjects have their own society on campus.
- Glasgow University Cardiocascular Society is a student-led society, founded in 2006, that aims to promote interest amongst students in Cardiology and Cardiothoracic Surgery. It runs various events throughout the year, such as evening lectures, clinical skills nights and monthly shadowing sessions in Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Surgery and Cardiac Catheterization.
The societies mentioned above are just a few examples of the numerous interesting subject-specific student clubs you will have the opportunity to join. For more detailed information about clubs and societies, please follow this link.
In addition to joining a society, you will have other options on campus to become a subject specialist. For example, the Internship Hub offers a wide range of on campus roles which might be helpful for you to become a subject specialist in your area of expertise.
Most of these roles are part time during the academic year, however roles are also available throughout the summer. Internships typically fall into 4 categories:
Student Support
Peer support is an important part in ensuring an excellent student experience at the University of Glasgow. The internship hub facilitates a variety of roles for support services such as:
- Recruiting Law students to provide Tier 4 Visa Application support with the International Student Support Service
- Facilitating a student-run Pre-Sessional Social Programme with the English for Academic Study Unit
- Working with two Student Enterprise interns to enhance the delivery of Enterprise support within the Careers Service
Research Support
These roles are an excellent opportunity to gain professional experience in a research environment. The interns work alongside academics, often within their own area of study, providing support on key research-related projects. These roles are especially relevant to students considering a career in academia.
Marketing and Communications
Many departments across the university understand the value, insight and support current students can provide to their marketing and communications activities. Roles in the field include:
- undertaking digital media and marketing activity on Chinese channels for the Communications and Public Affairs Office.
- supporting Marketing and Conversion for student recruitment within the College of Arts.
- creating content for the University's Alumni Magazine, Avenue
Project Support
These internships support projects within the university. These are often one-off but strategically important roles and have previously included:
- assisting a university-wide project team working on embedding LGBT equality in the curriculum
- supporting Moodle Active Learning with the Learning Enhancement and Academic Development Service
- developing and supporting an outreach programme for the Olive Tree Initiative to facilitate student and community engagement
Why is this attribute valuable to me?
Being a specialist in a subject area is clearly going to valuable for many careers. Beyond this, even if you do not end up in a career field directly linked to your degree, by graduating and completing a dissertation you will have proven that you can study an area intensely and are motivated enough to learn and train yourself in a new discipline. This is a highly attractive quality for employers.