Module testimonials

"I’m really interested in stories and how we tell them, why we tell them, how they make us feel; so I was interested in taking a module that would give me some context on some of the most commonly told stories of all time. For example, you take stories like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White – stories that Disney in the US has largely popularised and made commercial and look at where these stories actually come from and why we are still telling them in 2018 when they were written in the 1800’s. Then look at how we’ve developed them and how we’ve turned them into different kinds of art."

Fairy Tales and their Retellings   
Abby Doermann, USA 

"The class is quite diverse; we come from all over the world so there is a nice range of opinions and experiences. The teaching is a bit different to home - my favourite thing is that it’s not so dense where you end up having trouble with it or not enjoying it but you still gain a lot of useful information. We've had two field trips; one to the King’s Cross redevelopment area and another one to the Eastern Cluster - a group of skyscrapers in the city of London and one of the city's most important ‘opportunity areas’. When we were there we talked about the buildings and their surroundings. We talked about policy and thought about how the buildings affect the area around them."

London's Urban Development: Politics, Policy and Design   
Carlos Rico, Spain    

"My focus is on women’s studies, especially the economic empowerment of women, so I would like to work with women in developing countries and help them to empower and be more active economically, socially and eventually politically. We’ve looked at human rights, gender, food security and agriculture; all from a development point-of-view. So we are analysing development from all these perspectives which has been very interesting."

Politics of Global Development    
Ilaria Giustacchini, Italy  

"In Italy all of my exams are focussed on law so I wanted to broaden my studies through an international perspective. We have students from Italy, Hong Kong, France, Taiwan and India so it's great to get together and discuss things with people from different backgrounds. The best thing on the module has been the opportunity to conjugate theoretical lessons with practical experiences through excursions, for example to Amnesty International and the FSO. So, it's been interesting to see, in practice, how these rights work."

International Politics of Human Rights    
Giovanni Libutti, Italy    

"The professors were wonderful and we had a lot of guest lecturers who came in and talked about their research and how they go about it. The most interesting was a talk we had on cancer and the prevalence of cancer in major cities, which ties to smoking … and I’ve done a lot of research back home on smoking and cancer so it was interesting to learn about it in this demographic."

Population and Public Health   
Gifty Brisbane, USA    

"A student should consider this module because it’ll help them get the feel of what a data scientist actually does in the work place. It covers everything quite holistically; we’re asked to complete reports in our own time and are also tested through an exam ... so the multi-dimensional ways in which you are assessed will give you a feel for what an actual data scientist actually does."

Data Science and Big Data Analytics    
Soumya Sharma, India    

"I was interested in the module because it’s linked to what I’m studying at home and I can transfer the credit. I also wanted to study it here in the UK with Brexit and everything going on, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to learn more about that. We learn a lot about trade theory and I think that’ll be very useful for when I return to study in Brazil: I’m probably going to be a little bit ahead of the other students on my International Relations course! The module also included an excursion to the Bank of England because it’s an important institution for trade. Afterwards we even got to do some sightseeing with our lecturer which was very nice!"

International Trade and Migration    
Ana Ralston, Brazil    

"I see a lot of value in law and social justice and having an understanding of it, but that's something I haven’t been able to learn at university so far due to my two majors being Medical Sciences and French. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to develop an understanding of the legal system and how social justice works. It’s definitely lived up to my expectations; taught in detail and in the three weeks we’ve learned so much. I’ve learnt about things like pro bono and the pros and cons of different concepts and the role of lawyers in society."

Law, Lawyers and Social Justice    
Celeste Kalnenas, Australia   

"I decided to come here because I wanted to meet a lot of people from all around the world in a multi-cultural environment and to improve my English. I’m interested in further study in the UK, like a master’s or PhD, and I wanted to improve my English so that I can consider these options in the future. I’ve been very happy with the course; the teacher is very good and explains everything we need to know and I think my language skills have improved a lot, even in just three weeks … My advice is to do it. Someone should do this course if they feel their English language skills are not so good ... then it will help them a lot, not only for future studies but for their career and stepping out into the world."

English Language Skills for Academic Purposes    
Ilias Rogkakos, Greece   

"I chose the programme because, despite being a med-student, I’ve never heard of this kind of course before; my university doesn’t even offer anything close to it so I really wanted to look into it and learn. I’ve really been able to grasp the concept of nanotechnology; I mean before this it was kind of vague and abstract but since studying here we’ve learned about the practical uses of it and how it can be used in medicine. Some of it I already knew, but didn’t realise it was nanotechnology until I took this class."

Nanotechnology in Medicine    
Nina Chan, Philippines    

"I needed some international experience and I chose to study Principles of Microeconomics because I needed it to get into my master's degree … The teacher was very professional and very good at explaining all the different concepts of microeconomics … She always managed to explain something hard in an easy manner: that was very nice!"

Principles of Microeconomics    
Peter Sølling Sørensen, Denmark    

I wanted to immerse myself in the culture and the history of the city I was studying in so I chose this module, which focuses on London itself, and is a little more nuanced than just a history of the city. It’s a combination of film, art, psychology, criminology – looking at how London has been portrayed through art and film in the past. To have a professor who’s so enthusiastic and cares so much about what she’s teaching has made the experience really engaging. She’s not just there to tell us facts, she’s there to get us excited about Noir film and British crime and all of these things that she really cares about.

The Dark Side of London   
Abby Doermann, USA  

"This module is a perfect fusion of world-class academics and touring the city each and every week. We’ve talked a lot about place and space and how each of us make our own sense of place within the city; particularly London since most of us are from elsewhere. We also talked a lot about culture and diversity and how the city is such a hub for economic and cultural activity. It’s been really interesting to discuss theories on, for example, what makes a 'global' city, and how 'global' cities are arguably different from normal cities; and then being able to apply those theories to the city itself."

Global London: Contemporary Urbanism, Culture and Space    
Rachel Haddad, Canada    

"I chose this module because I have a particular interest in neurology and the brain but, as medical students, we don’t really see it in the same psychological perspective. So I was a bit curious about how they would tackle that stuff. They see it in a more human way, looking at the whole human experience. We started by looking at the general biology of the brain; the different areas and functions. Now we are looking at what can go wrong, e.g. ones that affect language and vision and now we will look at mood disorders and psychiatry ... There's so much to learn in such a short length of time!"

How the Brain Works and What Can Go Wrong   
Renata Nunes Velloso, Brazil   

"The module is about psycholinguistics ... about how people process language in the brain, how we encode speech and decode what we hear. I’ve never learned about psychology nor linguistics so it was all new for me. It’s very interdisciplinary and very different from studying my usual subject, Biology. What has also been really cool has been the students. In Korea, students are not very active in the class but here students are very enthusiastic and participate in the lessons!"

Language and the Mind    
Shin Won, South Korea   

"A lot of our teachers have done their own research at UCL; for example, today’s lecturer has done studies into crime and social media and she’s just published her findings so it was cool to learn about that directly from the source. We’ve had guest lecturers too so we get exposed to a lot of different peoples’ viewpoints … The highlight for me however was taking a trip to the Old Bailey where we sat in on two murder cases. That was just crazy and such a unique experience."

Understanding and Preventing Crime   
Alani Frace, USA

"I wanted to experience Psychology classes outside of the US framework and see how psychological issues are assessed and dealt with from a UK perspective. I knew that UCL is ranked highly for its psychology programmes and that this module was more about applying the concept, whereas in US courses it’s more about taking in the information with not as much integration. With this module, there were more practical assignments; for example we were able to design an Implicit Association Task Experiment and also had to write a paper where we had to design an experiment ourselves by applying the concepts we learned in class to a real-life context."

Psychology in Action    
Trisha Sheth, USA    

"I knew I wanted to do public health because I’m thinking of doing it for my master’s and I liked that UCL had an introductory course which is open to everyone, not just medical students. But it’s still very comprehensive. After every class I can answer more questions in the next. Also, now I feel I’ll know more from a public health point-of-view, and will be more familiar with certain terms when I read about them. We have students from Singapore, the US, Hong Kong Canada, and Holland. Sharing examples from each other’s countries has been a very good experience."

Population and Public Health    
Wonseop Suh, South Korea    

"It's applying mathematics to pricing things like options and shares; it's been really interesting! I study engineering at home so it's really different and I'm enjoying it so far ... My favourite thing is the people you meet; the chance to meet people from all around the world - it's such a good opportunity that's hard to come by."

Quantitative Finance: Maths in Investment Banking    
Cassie Ma, Australia 

"The most interesting thing about the course was making a presentation about a case from the Supreme Court of England. This was really interesting because we had to learn how to write a memorandum. I had to think like an English lawyer and there were a lot of cases to look at. It was a totally different way of thinking from French law so it gave me a lot of insight on how to think for all cases. I learned how to look for the precedent and for me it was really good because it allowed me to improve my searching skills and also about the motivation behind the verdicts in those cases."

International Commercial Litigation   
Tristan Beylot, France    

"I looked at various entrepreneurship courses but liked that this course offered content on both the ‘theory’ and the ‘practical’ side. The best thing about the module is the professor. She managed to provide the content that everyone needed, regardless of whether they have a business background or not. She gave us lots of advice on how to build contacts and relationships and I’d really recommend people to choose this module because it’ll really motivate you! UCL Summer School has really inspired and motivated me to keep studying business!"

Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice    
Kat Lautova, Russia    

"I chose the module because I’m thinking of starting a business so I need a few ideas regarding start-ups which I knew I would get on this module. Plus I read about the module tutor and could tell she is very knowledgeable. We get to learn a lot; we have to work in a group with students from different countries and create a business to present to the rest of the class in the last week. We have four groups of students from different countries and it's really fun!"

Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice    
Manhar Kataria, India    

"We’ve been talking about how films were introduced; we look at the history, different genres, we analyse movies ... looking at editing and so on. It’s very interesting! I’ve learned so much and am impressed with how far they got with technology. I study finance and minor in management so this has been very different! What do I like most? The fact that we watch a lot of movies! It’s nothing like studying finance… [laughs]"

Action! An Introduction to Film Studies    
Merna Dimitri, Sudan    

"I chose this module because I’m studying a finance degree with business and economics back at home so I thought I could reinforce my macroeconomic knowledge by coming here. The teaching is similar to back home in Mexico: the teachers are open to questions and interact with the students. The module has definitely lived up to expectations – our teacher is really prepared in her subject and I’ve learned a lot whilst here. It’ll also benefit me in the sense that I have a more clear idea of what I want to do when I graduate and start my career."

Principles of Macroeconomics    
Mike Fernandezcano, Mexico 

"The most interesting part about the module was that it wasn't just sitting there and listening to your professor, instead it was very interactive. For example, if there was a lecture on negotiation, we gained hands-on experience acting out real-world examples of negotiations that have taken place among renowned organisations. This allowed us to better understand the process and it was really engaging and fun."

Business Psychology    
Siddhi Pal, India    

"Literature is a theoretical subject but the practicalities of this module include going to the actual places that inspired the writers, or where they wrote or lived. We go to these places and read passages from the books aloud and discuss the pieces. That element of realness, even feeling that those writers were right there at that moment when they wrote that particular piece, that is a very authentic experience that I don’t think you'd get anywhere else. London has inspired thousands of writers, some of the best ones, and so I couldn't have considered doing this module anywhere else."

Literary London    
Soumya Vats, India    

"We’ve covered a lot of topics and the course really aims to give us a broad understanding of management covering many different areas including marketing, operations management, culture, diversity, of course leadership; so it’s a nice introduction no matter what your academic background is. For me what was interesting was the application focus in class so you’re not just discussing theories but applying them. The tutor did this through our assessment because we were given a consulting case where we had to decide on whether or not to enter a new market in another country for a hotel business and so everything we learned built up to that."

Understanding Management   
Lucy Kallenbach, Germany    

"I study Nursing so this module is totally relevant especially from the healthcare policy side of things. I like the fact it’s mostly international students here so we get to listen and hear about different aspects of public health in each of their home countries and how their governments approach it, versus how it is done in the UK. And of course the excursions were very fun like when we went out to hear about English public health issues in years gone by. We learned about how alcoholism was a big problem in the Victorian era but then we ended the trip in one of oldest pubs in London, The Old Cheshire! [laughs]"

Population and Public Health    
Yang Yew Tang, Singapore    

"I chose this module because I wanted to learn something about psychology, to see whether I am interested in it or not. We are learning about the fundamental concepts of psychology and about lots of different theories and theorists, and also experiments that have taken place. It’s been so surprising and has made us think about the many things we do in our daily lives. Like, why we do these things and helping us understand our behaviours. For example with vision and memory, how the mind processes things and how that affects behaviour."

Psychology in Action    
Yaqi Long, China