Hollie Craven

I chose to come to the University of Leeds to study cardiac physiology because it has a great reputation and I wanted to challenge myself academically.  Leeds was the only university where cardiac physiology was within a school of medicine and the course was professionally accredited. I loved the architecture and the feel of the campus when I visited for open day and I fell in love with the city, it’s a really fun place to live and socialise.

I have found that passing my exams and assessments has given me a real sense of achievement. I have enjoyed the course lectures because they are very interesting and relevant, especially for the second and third year modules. The teaching quality is great and our lecturers are all currently or have previously been cardiac physiologists. This means that their teaching is focused to help us become competent in practice.  Their student support is robust, my lecturers make time to meet with me regularly and are very encouraging. The Lecture Capture system is brilliant because I have been able to watch or listen to recordings of my lectures as many times as I want.

Being on placement has been interesting and by being in a tertiary centre I have had the chance to get involved in very interesting procedures. I have enjoyed placement, especially my third year placement as I can see the progress I’ve made since I started the first year, I’ve enjoyed becoming more independent and getting involved with more complex tests and procedures. I have found traveling to placements further away has been challenging. However, I think experiencing three different placements has helped me to gain a breadth of experience and to decide what kind of centre I would like to work in when I graduate.

The highlight of my time at the University of Leeds has been living in Headingly which has been so much fun. There are loads of cafes and bars and it feels like a little community. The campus facilities have helped me get the most out of my degree. The libraries are nice environments; Edward Boyle library is my favourite place to study because it is newly refurbished, it looks great, it’s comfortable and has a lovely café for breaks. The Health Science library is great for nipping in between lectures because it is so close by. There are lots of places to study and usually always somewhere late during exam periods.

I plan to work as a Cardiac Physiologist when I graduate; I think that the course has been a good preparation for this and I aim to develop my career as I gain more experience.

Read more about some of our other recent cardiac physiology students.