Activities / Project
BSc career choices
Vicki Dale, Stephanie Pierce (now at the University of Cambridge) and Stephen May have been working with BSc course leaders Donald Palmer, Neil Stoker, Caroline Wheeler-Jones and Rachel Lawrence on a study of the career choices and learning styles of BSc Veterinary Science graduates from 2005-2007.
The questionnaire and follow-up interviews have revealed that whilst the majority of graduates went on to study clinical veterinary medicine, in order to pursue their original long-held ambitions to become veterinary surgeons, the career aspirations of a proportion of graduates changed. Those that decided to stay in veterinary medicine stated that they had used the BSc as a “stepping stone” and that they “had always wanted to be a vet”. Respondents who had chosen science over veterinary medicine noted that the course “opened their eyes” to previously unseen opportunities in science, and “broadened their horizons”.
Whichever career choice graduates have made, it appears that most of them have undergone a process of irreversible change, or transformation, as a result of undertaking the BSc, that aims to foster independent learning, critical thinking and an enquiring mind. Mezirow’s (1981) theory of transformative learning is providing a useful framework for understanding the career transitions experienced by BSc graduates. The emerging model of career choice is also informed by Bourdieu’s work on habitus and horizons for action.
Further information
- Student as Producer Conference 2007, University of Warwick Reinvention Centre –
“How a research-based, non-clinical learning programme in veterinary science changed the career aspirations of students with previously strong ambition to become veterinary surgeons” (short communication), V.H.M. Dale, D. Palmer and S. May. - Association for Veterinary Teachers and Research Work (AVTRW) Conference 2008, Scarborough – “The Changed Career Aspirations of Veterinary Science Graduates” (short communication), V.H.M. Dale, D. Palmer and S.A. May.
- QAA Enhancement Themes Meeting 2008: Research-Teaching Linkages: Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine, Edinburgh – “When it is really good, all you want to do is Science” (poster and short communication), V.H.M. Dale, D. Palmer and S.A. May.
- International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSoTL) Conference 2008, Alberta - “Learning, Teaching and Scholarship in Veterinary Science: How a new BSc positively influenced the career aspirations of would-be veterinarians” (short communication), V.H.M. Dale, S.E. Pierce, D. Palmer and S.A. May.
- Dale, V., Palmer, D., & May, S. (2008). Instilling a research ethos into an undergraduate science programme. In J. Struthers, A. Laidlaw, J. Aiton, G. Humphris & S. Guild (Eds.), Research-Teaching Linkages: enhancing graduate attributes (Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine) (pp. 76-78). St Andrews: The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.
References
Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Mezirow, J. (1981). "A Critical Theory of Adult Learning and Education." Adult Education 32(1): 3-24.