Health and Life Sciences courses go 'above and beyond' to provide students with best experience


High levels of support and amazing opportunities are keeping students happy on a number of Health and Life Sciences courses.

Speech and Language Therapy (SALT), Midwifery, Psychology and Youth Work and Community Development have all scored particularly well for overall satisfaction in the National Student Survey (NSS) 2016.

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Dr Adam Brown, Acting Programme Leader, believes strong communication is the reason SALT students at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) are 100 per cent satisfied.

He said: "Staff make themselves approachable and treat students as colleagues within a close-knit community, which allows students to flourish and develop both personally and professionally.

"A key to the success is listening to the students and communicating well with them."

Recording a 95 per cent overall satisfaction rate in the NSS - based on data collected from hundreds of thousands of students in their final year at UK universities - is DMU's professionally-accredited Midwifery course.

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Dr Chris Whitney-Cooper, Head of School, said having access to the latest resources, including a plumbed-in birthing pool, is one of the reasons behind this positive result.

She added: "The team are highly-skilled practitioners and academics who take pride in ensuring students have an excellent experience.

"We also have very close working relationships with our local hospital trusts, so students have good support and staff can continue to keep their midwifery skills relevant and up to date."

Midwifery students praised the support, modules and opportunities such as elective placements.

Sophie Shea said: "One of the biggest things that stands out for me is the constant support available both from lecturers, mentors and other members of staff at the university.

"I'm now in my third year and the one thing I have been most excited about is the case holding module, where I will help provide care for a woman throughout her pregnancy, which I will complete this year. It helps boost your confidence and brings together all the information from the three years."

Fellow third year Chloe Hings added: "The opening of a breastfeeding clinic for mothers, run by students and supported by lecturing midwives, is just another great way this course goes above and beyond to provide students with the best education."

Also scoring highly for overall student satisfaction was Youth Work and Community Development, at 94 per cent, along with three Psychology courses, which achieved 92 per cent-plus.

The NSS results are the latest in a series of national successes for the faculty. DMU's Nursing courses were ranked first for graduate prospects in The Times and Sunday Times University Guide 2017, with Psychology securing top 10 spots for teaching quality and student experience in the same influential league tables.

In addition, the 2017 Complete University Guide ranked DMU in the top 25 UK universities to study Social Work.

Posted on Friday 25 November 2016

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