Alice Joules

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Course: Health Data Analytics MSc
Year of graduation: 2017

As a biosciences graduate, I was looking for a health-related masters course with as much statistical content as possible. I quickly learnt that I was going to have to study Epidemiology if I wanted to be accepted to a statistics based masters. Despite being accepted into many universities, I chose the University of Leeds because of the option to take advanced statistical modules. Additionally, there is a super wide range of other modules available.

The course has given me something to be passionate about for the first time in my life; you really do learn about the most novel and recent developments in health data science. The masters course sets you up for life, teaches the foundations of exciting methodologies and leaves you with enough materials to keep exploring for years to come.

The staff at the University of Leeds were so unbelievably helpful, not only are they first class lecturers but they are really committed to helped you achieve; they helped me boost my grades from a feeble 'pass' at the start of the course to a final classification of 'distinction'. Even now, over a year after I graduated, they help me out via email when I am faced with providing statistical advice. It is worth noting that some lecturers provide detailed lecture notes to every lecture, these are invaluable, and I still regularly refer to these now.

I'd like to mention my peers. There is no denying that the masters was the most challenging year of my life. Although we didn't all live in Leeds, we grew very close and supported each other day in and out. A group of us have since formed a group named 'women in biostatistics' and - although we're all based in different places - we meet regularly to discuss data analytics.

I am now working as a statistical consultant in the healthcare division of a large market research organisation and have a mix of public, private, and charitable clients. The knowledge I gained from the masters has set me up to be a reputable statistician. Furthermore, as the only employee with detailed knowledge of causal inference methods, I have been able to educate my senior colleagues on the topic. A mixture of this knowledge, and my ability to communicate complex analysis to non-statistically trained colleagues, led to me winning a ‘rising star’ award in 2018.