Zoya Zahid Chaudhry

Your Time at UCL

As international student, what attracted you to study MSc Clinical Trials at UCL? 

Having completed the three years of BSc in Human Genetics at UCL, I had become certain of UCL’s remarkable academic framework and their constant thirst for excelling in research. Being thousands of miles away from home, I had developed a sense of homeliness with this place due to the great extent of support, encouragement and guidance I had received from my peers and tutors here. Hence, there was no chance of me choosing anywhere else than UCL for my MSc. What attracted me to go for MSc in Clinical Trials had a lot to do with my BSc course and the immense interest I had developed in the field for Cancer Research. I was aware of the ground-breaking cancer research being done at UCL Cancer Clinical Trials Unit and the UCLH. After getting in touch with people and ICTM UCL and further inquiring about the course, I was greatly satisfied with the course structure, content and the way it was taught as it aligned exactly with what I wanted for my MSc. Another major reason contributing towards my great satisfaction with the course was the extremely helpful, supportive and encouraging behavior of each and every person at the ICTM UCL towards me starting from the very first meeting I had with them at the UCL postgraduate open day till today i.e, one year later my graduation.

What can a student expect to learn on this course?

Upon undertaking MSc in Clinical Trials, you can expect to learn all the possible aspects of Clinical Trials, ranging from ethics and legalities surrounding the clinical trials to learning about different types and designs of Clinical Trials eventually enabling you to independently plan and design Clinical Trials as well as performing their statistical analyses. The content taught throughout the course is based upon real world research and data collected from different types of Clinical Trials performed globally on patients with different diseases allowing the students to practically get a strong hold of the field.

What is your current role? What’s a regular day like?

I’m currently working as a Clinical Study coordinator on two surgical clinical trials at Shifa International Hospital Islamabad, Pakistan. My job is to screen the potential participants and recruit them onto the study plus document the daily developments of the study. I also have to keep a follow-up of the study participants, ensuring their retention upon the trial as well as their adhesion to the trial protocol.