Research Training Fund Travel Report – Amy Paterson (2021, DPhil Clinical Medicine)

I gratefully received £1000 from the Univ Research Training Fund this March to cover half the registration fee for a week-long psychometrics course in Sheffield. I am immensely appreciative as this course was key for my DPhil progress and I would not have otherwise been able to attend. Here is a short report of the week:

My partner kindly decided to work remotely for a few days and join in on a little trip to Sheffield. We took the early morning train on the Monday to get there on time for the first session of the conference and were greeted with a beautiful sunrise over the countryside.

The course was even better than I thought it was going to be. I was in a room with 30 other mid-career participants who mostly do psychometric scale development in health settings full time and had an enormous amount to learn from them. The lecturers were excellent and, since it is such a specialised field, had come from as far as Denmark to teach the course. There were a lot of hands-on activities on statistical programs to practise what we were learning, and a lot of opportunity to ask questions. The course also included a dinner at a local Italian restaurant on the first night and many delicious lunches! It definitely made the course fees that came from Univ’s generosity and my own pocket feel worth it.

The magnolias were in full bloom for the week I was there.

We stayed in the loveliest airBnB at the back of someone’s house and were just a short walk away from the hotel where the course was being held. We were thrilled to discover that the short walk was directly through the Sheffield botanic gardens which were spectacular!

One afternoon the course ended at 3pm and we caught a bus to Hathersage to explore the Peak District National Park which was a big UK bucket list item for me!

Overall it was an extremely informative and interesting (but also fun) trip – a big thank you to Univ again for making it possible!

Find out more about the range of travel grants and scholarships available to assist Univ students on our Travel Grants page or read further travel reports.

Published: 19 July 2023

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