I was attracted to study at the IDD because of the good quality teaching
that is here, also that it's a well recognised institution here at
Birmingham. It's an environment that is very conducive to learning there are
lots of ideas in the melting pot and everyone is very open to hearing
what you have to say and your opinions on things. I've gained a lot
from my studies here in Birmingham, not just in terms of academics but in terms
of my own personal development. My time in IDD at the University of Birmingham made
me a successful professional in Equador.
We have such a good group of students from all over the world and they form a
really excellent community where they have fun, support each other and then
hopefully as they go on in their careers continue to support each other.
Attending the Master's programme with 25 different nationalities at the same time - it has been
definitely the best experience of my life. The students in the department come
from so many countries that we can learn from each other as well as the staff.
In our Making Policy class there are about 50 students and many of those had
learning experiences in Making Policy in their own country and they brought those
to the class and we were able to really benefit and learn from their experiences
and that really enhanced our learning. I myself am from sub-saharan Africa. I was
able to meet and interact with people from Asia, from South America, from North
America from here in the UK - it was very enriching, very rewarding. Some of them
have come straight from university others had come from professional jobs
others had worked in the third sector and NGOs and we had an amazing sense of
community nobody felt more important than anyone else but really incredibly
we were able to learn from each other. I got to know so much about so many
different places I'd only read about or watched on TV.
I've been really impressed with the teaching facilities here in the IDD department.
Yeah, just really up to date technology and nice places to work.
The classroom experience at Birmingham was it was interactive it was innovative and there was a lot of room
for independent learning. There's enough support for you to not feel alone but
there's enough space for you to be able to study independently and choose which
path you want to take. The environment created in my Governance and State
Building lecture was really excellent there was a real dynamic learning
environment, a really enthusiastic created by the lecturer for the topic
that really came across and actually the students picked up on that and there was
a sense of excitement. I found the staff to be very welcoming here at IDD and
this is one of the things that eased my anxiety when I first came here.
The staff are great they've worked on the ground in some of the most amazing
countries in the world. At IDD we pride ourselves on the fact that all of us
work overseas on practical activities and on research and so that immediate
experience in the field is brought back to our students in the classroom.
All of our teaching at IDD is research and consultancy led - a lot of us have
experience overseas and basically our teaching is a way to get that research
out to our students very quickly. If you come to IDD you get us. So I for example,
despite the fact I work for the UK Government and various other agencies I
make time for my students I supervise dissertations and I teach classes.
Bringing our research and our consultancy into our teaching means that
our students get to hear first the kinds of research we've been doing. It can take
around six months for something to come out in publication, so our students get
to hear it before anybody else does.
One of the unique features that IDD offers
is the ability to do original field work as part of your dissertation. So you can
develop your own research programme do it in a developing country of your choice
and then have something really excellent for your CV afterwards. I was really
lucky on my dissertation to spend two weeks living in amongst the people that
I was writing about and finding out the real story from them. And from there
I was able to write a dissertation that I thankfully did really well in and that
has been used by people who are working on the issue now.
I would say to a student who was thinking about coming and studying in
IDD that it will be a very good investment. You get not only a very good
academic Masters out of the year that you spend here, but you also get access
to some very experienced professional staff. I'd really recommend studying at
IDD here at Birmingham whatever your background whether you're from a
developing country, whether you're from the UK, whether you've got work
experience or not you should find something for you because there is such
a range of expertise or in an environment where the teaching was kind
of interactive the students could contribute. We've gained this huge
worldwide community that anytime we want to step into so many countries all
around the world, there's someone from IDD who's there and so we were able to just
carry this community on for years to come. I definitely will recommend any
potential student from South America or overseas to come and study at IDD because
that will definitely be the experience of their life.