Placement Students
Thinking of a Placement?
Probably the best way to enhance your degree and greatly increase your chances of finding a good job or PhD position is to embark upon a placement year. Not only will you receive excellent experience and training but the average salary for our placement students is in the region of £12,000-14,000 !
Although finding a placement may appear daunting at first we will be able to put your mind at rest and help you find the perfect position.
Starting the Placement
The start date of the placement is open to negotiation between the student and the company, but most start in July or August. Arrangements for accommodation should be established well ahead of the start date. It may be that the placement will be a continuation of a project following on from a student from the previous year, in which case it may be possible to arrange to take over their accommodation. Alternatively, the company may be able to offer temporary accommodation for the first few weeks to allow time to make arrangements. In any case, it is the student's responsibility to make the necessary contacts with the company and arrangements for accommodation. Advice should be sought from the academic supervisor if problems arise.
Once the placement has started students should contact Prof Dave Adams (Dave.Adams@glasgow.ac.uk) by e-mail to provide the following details:
• Placement start date
• Work mail address
• Work e-mail address
• Work telephone/fax numbers
• Home address
• Home telephone number
• Industrial Supervisor's Name
• Industrial Supervisor's e-mail address
• Industrial Supervisor's telephone/fax numbers
Supervision
Each student is assigned an academic and an industrial supervisor. The Industrial Supervisor is responsible for overseeing the project, the day-to-day supervision of student's activities and training either directly or indirectly through another member of his/her team. S/he is also responsible, along with the academic supervisor, for the assessment of the placement.
The academic supervisor will visit at least once during the year. If the student’s report can be sent to the School at the end of the placement, then the academic supervisor will visit at the beginning of the placement to ensure that student has settled into their placement satisfactorily. If the project report cannot leave the site, then the academic supervisor will visit the student near the end of their placement. If this is the case then the academic supervisor will keep in close contact with the student throughout the year by email. Any problems that have arisen can be discussed and resolved with the help of the industrial supervisor if necessary.
Returning to the final year
Most placements finish in July leaving over two months before the start of the final year. Although the placement components have been designed to maintain some familiarity with material from the Chemistry 3 course, it is inevitable that much will have been forgotten since the previous June. It is therefore essential that students devote some time over the summer to revision of material from earlier in the course. Students may access the departmental web pages. The website contains the course manuals for Chem 4 to enable revision topics to be targeted. It should be remembered however that the manuals available will be from the previous year, although differences should only be minor. Students who do not make an effort to prepare for the final year, will be placing themselves at a significant disadvantage. On the positive side, the experience and training received during the placement should enable rapid progress with the final year research project.