Posted on 25 May 2011
Sara Glithro - final year student
Students of McTimoney College of Chiropractic were among the lucky few to be granted a University of Wales Validation Bursary in the closing months of 2010.
Annually the University makes available a number of these awards to students following validated degree schemes at collaborative centres. The awards are intended to remit, wholly or in part, the tuition fees appropriate to the successful candidates’ studies.
McTimoney College run four-year fulltime and five-year integrated Masters Courses in Chiropractic. Students studying on the five-year programme have fulltime work commitments alongside their fulltime studies; so balancing family, work and study time is a relentless challenge.
Here the students tell how being awarded a bursary has helped them:
Sara Glithro I am a fulltime final year chiropractic student following the MChiro programme at the McTimoney College. Being awarded a bursary from the Universtiy of Wales was such fantastic news and has already made such a difference to me. For the first four years I studied fulltime and worked fulltime too. This bursary has allowed me the financial freedom to reduce my working hours to part-time, allowing me to concentrate on my patients, my studies and my research dissertation.
Jo Rule I live with my husband and three children aged six, four and one. Although I was very keen to join the course and begin to change my career to something I knew I would find considerably more rewarding than my current role, I was concerned about the effect the commitment would have on my family.
The bursary has enabled me to cut down on my working hours and spend valuable time with my children without having to worry about where the next month’s course fees are coming from whilst at the same enabling me to concentrate on my studies.
Karen Philip Being awarded a bursary which covers my fees is an amazing thing to have happened in my life, as it has lifted a huge financial burden. With my fees paid, it has now been possible for me to buy a secondhand car which I desperately needed to be able to get to College and invest in a new laptop as my old one is on its last legs. But this bursary brings me one step closer to being able to change our lives.
Mary Young
Because I am in my mid-30s and with quite an unrelated career, the time and financial commitment has been a serious consideration, but it has been a worthwhile journey and now that I’m in my fourth year of study I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The University of Wales Bursary will make an enormous difference to me, particularly because I work freelance - I am now able to reduce the hours I work in order to spend more time studying. Thus the Bursary has lightened both burdens and made it feel as though I’m not alone in pursuing my dream of being a chiropractor. Kasia Robertson The bursary will help me to fulfill my dreams, enabling me to continue my studies by temporarily reducing my financial burdens and thus a chance of a future in a profession I love. I consider myself to be very lucky to be awarded this support and opportunity to pursue this course, meeting so many inspiring, enthusiastic, dedicated and knowledgeable tutors is humbling and gratifying.