What Students Say
Likes
- The University was very welcoming. Made me and other students welcoming in a great accommodation.
- Great teachers/professors with good command on the subject made the entire journey in learning AI smooth and enjoyable experience
- Course structure - Structure of the course is designed to ensure you are industry ready and with constant theoretical and practical assessment its a seamless transition for a student to enter a corporate.
Dislikes
- Safety - This is one aspect that has to be careful of. Its gets little spooky after 9 PM. So one has to be slightly careful.
- Part time job - With so many students around, it can be slightly difficult to get an ideal part time job.
- Overall Cost - The cost can be slighly heavy on the pocket if one doesn't get scholarship and with extremely high cost of living , one has to be extremely careful on what he/she spends on.
Course Curriculum
- It was a mix of theoretical and practical but slightly skewed toward being practical.
- Positive aspect of the course was the in-depth mathematics that was taught for every algorithm, which was groundbreaking for me, which was backed by giving the student to gain practical experience through constant practical thesis and examinations.
- There were normally 3-4 classes in a week, with each day having 4-5 hours as scheduled for a given day. The classes usually were scheduled between 10 AM and 3 PM .
- Avg number of students – There were around 80 students, with the number of Indian students being in the range of 10-15.
Admission Experience
- Applied to around 5 colleges. 4 had the status as Accepted and 1 as Rejected.
- Got Rejected from Imperial. Imperial is one of the top Universities in UK and getting in would require someone to have greater credentials. My research states one may have to be from NIT or IIT to get to a college of such high stature. So I would advise one to be realistic while applying.
- The University of Birmingham is a part of the Russell group and given its decent ranking, it was not a difficult decision to choose it. But apart from this information, other aspects like research, professors, and alumni played a role in choosing this University over others that I applied for.
- Admission process was fairly simple, which required me to provide my educational information along with citations. These were the major decision-makers, along with my knowledge on Data Science and AI, where I had to provide information on different kinds of projects that I have worked on in the past (professional and educational).
- An IELTS score of 7.5 was also a basic criterion for admission. So one has to make sure all the relevant personal and educational documents are ready before one applies.
- I applied for the 2022-23 Intake for data Science and AI PG programme. With the University of Birmingham being a part of the Russell group along with its Global ranking of less than 100, were major factors that influenced my decision-making. The entire admission process took around 3-4 months, which involved the application process to various universities, collection of documents required and receiving the final offer. Universities may take up to 2-3 months to provide their decision.
Faculty
- Faculty to student ratio is 1 Faculty to around 30-40 students. This ratio means faculty is able to give enough time to students to address their concern, answer their queries , etc.
- Which in turn becomes a win-win situation for both the student and the faculty since this approach, bound by UoB's usual approach of mixing practical and theoretical ways of teaching, helps the student to learn the subject thoroughly. This helps the students to be job ready when he/she is done with his/her graduation.
- Faculty members directly don't help the students but they do assist them via their connections to attain a job.
Campus Life
- There is only one main campus located in Birmingham.
- Facilities –
- Library with WiFI
- Lecture Theatres & Study Areas
- Research Facilities & Labs
- Accommodation
- Sport & Fitness
- Cafes, Restaurants, and Bars
- The campus has a number of food and beverage outlets, including cafes, restaurants, and bars.
- Festivals and Events –
- I actively took part in one event – the Science & Tech event. Although campus organises many events on Music, Art, medicine. There are many clubs and societies that students are part of.
Part Time Jobs
- There are part-time opportunities but they are difficult to get due to the large number of students and hence, the competition is quite a lot.
- Maximum hours allowed to work are 20 hrs per week, which goes up to 30 Hrs during the holiday season.
- It's difficult to get campus part-time jobs; it's better that students try to get internships via Linkedin or part-time jobs in companies like TELUS.
- 10 GBP to 20 GBP is what one can expect per hour, depending upon the kind of job. It can be tough to get a part-time job, but if you have friends, they can generally assist you in getting one part-time job. But usually these jobs are laborious and I would not suggest one do it unless required. This can impact your studies and overall performance. But in case one wants it, Linkedin, campus and friends' sources can definitely help one to get the part-time job.
Placement
- Considering Cost of living and economy of the UK, I would suggest one returning back. But one who still wants to stay has to rely on various job sites to get a job which may or may not be from the field of study. This can take some time. But one can expect a salary in the range of 35 GBP to 60 GBP once they are employed.
- Few of my friends got placed in TESCO, TELUS, GENPACT, etc but after a long wait of 6-8 months and hence one would have to be slightly patient. But my suggestion would be to return back to India.
Accommodation
- I stayed in University accomodation(Jarrat Hall). And monthly rent was close to 550 GBP for 2022-2023.
- with facilities of a shared kitchen with basic utensils and cutlery. Wi-Fi, contents insurance, and utility bills were all included. One needed to pay separately for using the washing machine.
- NO major challenges while using university accommodation, which was around 500m away from University campus
Exams
- I wrote the IELTS as an exam, which was a prerequisite.
- Required documents –
- Graduation, 10th and 12th Marksheet
- Citation from the 2 professors from your Graduation college.
- Statement of Purpose, clearly detailing why you want to apply and your experience in the field that one is applying for.
- There was no interview process as a part of the admission process.
Fees
- I was charged 23K GBP for Course, 5K GBP for University accommodation. Fees were paid to the university in 3 splits, which can be paid at the university in person or through Wire transfer from India.
- University is quite flexible in terms of making the payments.
- For the rest of the expenses, one would require around 5K GBP in addition to ensuring everything is taken care of.
Scholarship
- I received around 3K GBP as the scholarship, which was awarded by the University of Birmingham International Scholarship Award. Few of my friends received it as well. The range was 2K-5K GBP as a scholarship.
- I do not have information on the average number of students who get scholarships, but based on the information I have, it's more on the line of your credentials that you carry.