Today, May 7th, we had our first day at Birmingham City University! We started our day with welcome drinks where we had coffee and tea while the BCU staff introduced themselves. I was very interested in the Dean’s Deputy for the school of nursing who is specialized in midwifery. I found it very interesting that in the UK, nursing students have to pick a specialty in their second year and they only focus their clinical rotations on that specialty. For example, midwives will only focus on maternal health and clinicals with birthing people. After 3 years of nursing school, they are officially midwives. For nursing students in the UK, university is only 3 years long but they do not have summer breaks. Each year of nursing school, the students only have 6 total weeks off from school, 2 between each term. However, the school of education follows the same school schedule as the primary and secondary school systems. This means they get a summer break when all other university students do not. I also learned that if nurses want to change specialties in the UK, they have to go back to school to specialize in a new specialty. They can also go back to school to get a certificate such as a prescription certificate which will allow the nurse to write prescriptions.
After our introduction drinks, we then took a tour of the Seacole building which is for all nursing, social work, and education majors at BCU. Our amazing tour guide was Gemma, a second year nursing student at BCU, who was very nice and informative! It was a really great experience to compare nursing school in the UK to the US. The biggest difference I learned is that in the UK, Gemma has 13 hour clinical shifts in addition to a full nursing course load. At Pitt, we have one 4 hour clinical shift during fall semester and two 8 hour clinical shifts in the spring. Having less clinical hours allows American students to find jobs during school more easily in order to have money for every day living expenses. Gemma pointed out that she is funding her entire education, so having four 13 hour shifts in a week makes finding a job very difficult, especially because clinicals are not compensated for. After the tour, we returned back to the lecture room where we listened to many presentations from professors and headmasters in the school of education.
This is a picture from our lecture! We were all so excited to learn from the BCU professors.
On the tour of the Seacole building, we went to the midwifery skills lab where we saw a birthing tub.
Research & Secondary Education Presentations
Our first presentation was from Professor Grant Huddleston, who gave a very engaging presentation on the education system in England and research. We did multiple interactive activities, one of which involved creating good research topics. Grant Huddleston had us come up with a broad question that he called the “forest” which we then specified into “wood,” “tree,” “branch,” and “leaf.” This was so helpful because I practiced with the research topic I plan to write my research paper on, and I was able to ask questions and participate in the small group discussion. Next, we had two professors from the education department discuss the English education system, specifically for primary and secondary education. I learned that in England, preschool is incentivized and covid created issues with sharing and taking turns in young children due to the lack of socialization. In the UK, personal, social, and emotional development are seen as the foundation for all future education. Also, in primary school, teachers in the UK prioritize outside time because it allows them to use their space creatively and make the children happy. I found it interesting that both the US and the UK have adopted mixed ability classrooms where all children are taught together, and then smaller groups are broken down as needed to review material rather than segregating students based on their academic abilities. I also found it very interesting that healthcare plans can be made for students who struggle with mental health issues, and school psychologists are available to help as needed since there is a severe mental health crisis in the UK just like there is in the states.
A difference between the US and UK is where money is allocated to when it comes to children of low socioeconomic status. In the US, schools receive funding based on local taxes so poor towns receive little funding. In the UK, money is allocated to the children themselves and is viewed as the “people premium.” This means the government takes a census of different areas and the child takes the money allocated to them and brings it to their school. There are meetings within the school that take place regularly to prove that the money is being given to the right child for the right reasons. The presentation on secondary education was very helpful in understanding how the English school system works when it comes to “high school” and preparing for college. Those in the UK have to take A-levels on specific subjects that interest them in order to go to college for those subjects. If a student does not do well on these exams, then the trajectory of their future career can be completely altered. This contributes to the severe mental health crisis in students of this age group. A very cool fact about BCU is that they allow students to go back to university later in life if they did not take the A-levels or if they did not pass them. BCU allows the students to take courses that cover what is needed for A-level exams so that they can go to college at an older age. After the presentation on education systems, we had a primary headmaster and a secondary headmaster discuss their jobs and daily tasks.
Here is a picture of Grant Huddleston’s slide show!
High Tea
Between presentations, BCU prepared high tea for our group. This included tea, along with small sandwiches and desserts that were tiered on display. High tea is a classic component of English culture, and it was so nice of BCU to provide us with the opportunity to experience this tradition.
This is the food from high tea!