List of Activity Groups

Our aims

• Creating a community at KCL for Bioscience placement students to network, socialise, and stay connected with the university students, staff, amenities during their placement to reduce feelings of isolation.
• Provide a space to enrich and develop the students’ research and communication skills by sharing new findings between their peers and tutors, and receiving guidance from current Bioscience staff at KCL.
• Targeting both potential and current Bioscience placement year students through our interactive and consistent academic workshops, social events, and well-being activities.

Our events

Academic workshops

Earlier introduction to Bioscience placement opportunities and applications, CV-building and interview prep for industry, panel event with potential employers and current/alumni placement students, journal club and focussed group discussion, and final student scientific conference.

Social events

Student-Staff mixers, scientific quiz nights, 21 questions about pharmacological scientists who discovered drugs, campus treasure hunt, and board game nights in association with KCL Board Games and Tabletop Society.

Well-being activities

Hikes in collaboration with KCL Hiking Club (can vary location regarding placement locations e.g. Sandwich), personal or purposeful sessions (e.g. learning an instrument or how to knit has been shown to reduce stress levels and create a healthy work-life balance), and yoga.

What is different about KCL BPSA?

No societies currently cater specifically towards Bioscience Placement Students. Even though it is a great academic and professional activity, it is often isolating and it is easy to lose touch with your classmates also completing a placement. Placement students also have a very different and less flexible schedule compared to their non-placement counterparts, preventing them from being able to attend other KCLSU society events. After experiencing a work-year, students often lose motivation to come back to university and teaching, making it difficult to assimilate back to the academic environment when they begin their MSci year.

Our solution to these problems include consistent events and communications not only between students on placement but also with KCL staff to ensure placement students do not begin to feel distanced from KCL. We also aim to place an emphasis on well-being and time-management as students will have to complete both their placement year work and third year modules in tandem. This includes student study groups, dissertation support, scheduled time away from work/ academics to prevent burnout. All our events will be aligned with common placement working hours.