Study under the world's leading faculties at the University of Birmingham to excel in your career!
Read this article to know how to get world's leading quality education by studying in the UK at University of Birmingham. Know how to apply, what to expect and what challenges you might face in the process.
Having internationally recognised research activities and global acclamation, the University of Birmingham is among the top institutions in the UK. It is a public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham and ranks at the 90th position worldwide and 14th by the QS World University Rankings 2022. 4 Nobel Laureates have studied in the classrooms and adopted the research labs as their homes for quite a few years.
The University of Birmingham was primarily known for its teaching and research in engineering, science, and commerce. However, it has expanded its focus on several other departments like cancer studies, medicine, computer science, philosophy, etc, which have 5-star ratings and excellent reviews. Suppose you are a student willing to be involved in research. In that case, you can pursue it through the University of Birmingham's 5 colleges- Arts and Law, Engineering and Physical Sciences, Life and Environmental Sciences, Medical and Dental Sciences and Social Sciences. The University offers research opportunities to international students in the above 5 colleges through their postgraduate research courses like PhD, MPhil, MRes and MSc (Research).
The academic eligibility criteria of pursuing research at the University of Birmingham are- master's degree in the respective field and a research proposal. As an Indian student, you also have to submit a Proof of English Proficiency- IELTS- 7.0 and TOEFL-95. The application process for research at the University of Birmingham is also easy to understand with the online application form available on their website. You have to prepare your academic transcripts in English and update your resume. Lastly, you have to fill the form, attach all the essential documents for research at the University of Birmingham and submit the application within the deadline. After a processing time of 4-6 weeks, the University of Birmingham will reach out to you if you are accepted. They might want to conduct an online interview to gauge more about your personality and how you can contribute to the excellent research activities at the University of Birmingham.
On your online application form, you will be asked to insert the name of your preferred research supervisor. Research supervisors of the University of Birmingham will guide and supervise you throughout your research. Before starting your online application, go to the University of Birmingham's webpage and look at the research faculty's profiles in depth. It is important that you choose a research supervisor who has prior research experience in the same field as yours.
Having accessible and useful research facilities, the University of Birmingham continuously invests in resources and improves its research facilities. The faculty or the research supervisors here approach each student's research with a careful notch so that none of the students is let down by failures in experiments. This helps researchers be free to pursue all the experiments and ideas to derive conclusions. For them, a failed attempt also greatly contributes to the research project.
Cancer studies, youth mental health, maternal health, liver transplantation, future of energy and transport, sustainable future of plastics, sustainable environment, quantum technologies, clean air are a few of the research spotlights that are being extensively worked upon by the research supervisors and their team of students at the University of Birmingham.
Once you are a doctorate from the University of Birmingham, your opportunities are immense. You can either choose to teach or work in governments, organisations or the research departments of supranational companies. You can solve grave technical problems owing to your deep knowledge in that field.
Research is an expensive affair, and pursuing a postgraduate research degree at the University of Birmingham while managing the living expenses of studying in the UK can be difficult. The annual tuition fees of INR 14-20 lakhs, and the cost of living in Birmingham is an approximate INR 70,000 per month. The University of Birmingham offers various scholarships and funding opportunities to Indian students like the India Inlaks Scholarship, India JN Tata Endowment Loan Scholarships, India Ravi Sankaran Fellowship Program, etc. These programs lift off a financial weight from the research students. See more details about studying in the UK here.
Many world-class researchers have graced the corridors of the University of Birmingham. Francis Aston (research in mass spectrographs), John Stewart Bell (founder of Bell's Theorem in quantum physics), John Wane (studied how aspirins give pain-relief and introduce ACE Inhibitors) are a few of the research experts who have conducted world-class research at the University of Birmingham.
The University of Birmingham has a thriving postgraduate community that holds the annual Research Poster Conference to celebrate the researchers across Birmingham. If you wish to pursue a postgraduate research degree (PhD, MRes, MPhil) in the UK, the University of Birmingham is excellent. It is affordable compared to the other universities in the UK without compromising on the research avenues.