Dan Lloyd - Employability

There's a range of careers. A lot of our students who have done master's programs move on to PhD level study, and that really is the reason that they're doing a master's. They want to gain that additional experience and perhaps some real insight into what is out there for them when they're moving on into a research career. So, we have a number of students who progress onto PhD programs here at Kent or indeed elsewhere in the UK and around the world.

We have students who move into a range of careers. We have those who move into medical writing, having gained skills in writing about science in both a technical and a publicly accessible way. We have students who've moved into industry, laboratories in the pharmaceutical industry, for instance, in technician or research assistant roles. We've had those who have taken their science training and moved that outside the laboratory and used all of the transferable skills that they gained through a rigorous science training and moved that into careers in publishing, other areas where scientists are truly in demand.

We're looking for people who are enthusiastic, who have an enthusiasm for science, and want to build some experience in science. We're looking for excellence in academia, but at postgraduate level we're looking for people who are also able to contribute. It's a very different style of education. If you're doing a PhD or a research program it really is about dialog where you are providing solutions to potential problems that you inevitably face within a scientific career. And in taught programs we want people who will bring their own ideas to group discussions, to class discussions, and to think carefully about what their place is in society as a scientist.

We want people as much as possible who also have research experience, technical skills. They're not essential, but they all add up to a very sort of attractive package in terms of looking at an application and looking to see how well suited they are to the various programs that we have. But, we want people to have done their research as well. That's important for the student in terms of their course choice, too.