Mahak Salik
Hi everyone! I am Mahak, a postgraduate student at King’s, studying Public Health. If you’re worried of ‘if’ and ‘how’ you’ll be supported by the university during these uncertain times, please read along.
Support provided by the university
During these unprecedented times, King’s has been a pillar of support. It constantly ensures that our mental health is well taken care of for which online support bubbles have been created. This helps people to talk about their feelings and if they require any help.
By mid-October, we were assigned our personal tutors who can be your professors or teaching staff of your own or any other department. These meetings are apart from regular classes set monthly by your personal tutor. Personal tutors can help guide you if you’re facing any difficulty in your classes or may require help with your dissertation or even if you just want someone to hear you and provide solutions to your problems. These meetings are online for me right now but nonetheless, the support they provide is with the same rigour.
King’s also has a career and employability page where you can search for available internship or job opportunities within or outside of King’s. It sends out a weekly list of online webinars of companies that are open to hiring so that you can register and attend their session. It also has a CV checker, which I used before submitting my CV for jobs that I was planning to apply to. They send a detailed feedback suggesting any improvisations if needed. Also, they help prepare us for our interviews by organizing one on one mock interviews which are helpful if this is your first time applying for jobs.
King’s Talent Bank is another page to visit if you are looking for internships or jobs within King’s itself. KCLSU (King s College London Student Union) is another King’s page to search for all student union activities and enroll for any societies or extracurricular activities. KCLSU also has jobs for students, so you may want to check that too.
Support provided by my department
During my time at King’s the MPH department has organized weekly meetings with people relevant to our field of study. It is not mandatory to attend but we are more than welcome to share our thoughts and get to know more about our field of interest. It includes sessions on primary care, healthcare settings etc. The department considered our requests that most of the international students were not aware of plagiarism, essay writing styles or even referencing, so the head of the department, Dr Kalwant Sidhu, helped organize an online session covering these topics before we had our submissions due. I have just started with my dissertation proposal, which is due for its first submission at the end of January. I have been in constant contact with the dissertation lead who has answered my queries personally on email and has also organized multiple webinars and doubt sessions since we all are new to this. Personal mentors as well as specific subject professors can also help you in forming your research proposal. As a public health cohort, we are constantly exposed to recent covid events and their relation with our chosen modules. Most of the topics are taught in accordance with current events around the globe.
Whichever course you choose to study, King’s will definitely provide you with full support to achieve your goals.