Nadine Steer is a Malaysian Biological Anthropology student at the University of Kent. In this blog she shares how a GREAT scholarship provided her the opportunity to pursue her studies in the UK, with blended learning (the mixture of online and face-to-face tuition) allowing her to make her dreams a reality despite the pandemic.
The range of study modules means I can customize my learning journey.
I chose my course as it seemed most in line with my academic interests. Moreover, the lecturers and other members of staff are absolutely amazing in their fields! I find the different aspects of what make us human and how we got here truly fascinating. I love that the course provides modules all the way from human evolution and primatology to forensic anthropology, allowing us to customize our own learning journey. I enjoy employing different techniques to study skeletal elements of prehistoric individuals to try and infer behaviour and different capabilities of our ancestors. It may seem slightly morbid, but I believe that there is so much to learn from our ancestors and the fossil hominins show the incredible story of how we came so far.
I can attend face-to-face sessions with confidence.
The blended learning approach is rather helpful as I am able to access lectures at a time that is convenient to me, then supplement them with practical sessions later. I am grateful for the opportunity to access the laboratories and have practical sessions even with the current restrictions. These sessions help friendships to be formed which I personally find easier to do in person. The university has introduced smaller class sizes and provides PPE (personal protective equipment) which alleviates my worries when having to come in for face-to-face sessions.
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