Philippa Barnwell

"The UHI staff, administration team and student support services were all marvellous throughout my academic experience, even from the start of the application process I felt supported, valued, and encouraged. The UHI team felt like an interpersonal network that really helped incorporate my student life and personal life into the area of Inverness, as well as prepare and mould me for my professional life.

Tutors and the extended clinical team within the Oral Health Science course were all clearly and compassionately promoting and protecting our progress throughout the learning experience. I believed and trusted in them wholeheartedly in that they did all they possibly could to enhance the process in training from student to clinician. Every tutor brought a unique insight to what our careers held as oral healthcare professionals and acted as role models that enhanced our full potential.

The academic experience is like no other, in the sense that within the Oral Health Science course your peers will become some of the best individuals in your social support system that truly understand, recognise, and empathise with the unique structure of the clinical landscape. With different age groups, backgrounds, experiences and career fields, the student cohorts each year provide a strong foundation for growing those vital interprofessional skills, as well as bringing the fun and comradery that boosts morale throughout the years.

The course content and delivery harmonised well to each progressing year and helped build upon our strengths as well as evolve our capabilities, confidence, and competence. I feel this was reinforced through tailoring support and structure to individual’s needs; with reflective practices that developed academic approaches to the workload, as well as the provision of personal academic tutors. My final year took place during the turbulent times of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the tutors, staff and wider UHI team really demonstrated they would go above and beyond for their students.

Since qualifying and graduating from UHI in 2020 as a Dental Hygiene Therapist, I have been working in Aberdeenshire, both in the city and in more rural practices. In 2023 I graduated with my MSc in Dental Public Health, Policy and Leadership at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry with the Queen Mary University of London. I am currently networking and collaborating with ‘Education, Health and Human Sciences’ specialists and supervisors down south as I am in the process of applying to enrol in a Health Sciences PhD research degree with the University of Greenwich."