Loughborough stood out to me because of its high rankings in both my field of study and student experience, and this was the balance I was looking to get at university.

My course was very well structured. We had a mixture of lectures, workshops and labs, which helped us develop not only our theoretical knowledge but also our practical skills. Each of these were beneficial to my learning.

All lectures were recorded, so in cases where I did not fully understand a lecture topic, I was able to replay the lecture as many times as I needed, to understand what was taught. Workshops were sessions where lecturers would give us exercises or questions to workout at our own pace. During these sessions, they would go round the room answering our questions or helping us if we got stuck and they provided an opportunity for 1-2-1 feedback. Labs allowed us to put all the theory we had learnt into practice, which sometimes is all you need to make a concept stick!

The lecturers are experts in their field and do their best to deliver content in a digestible form. In addition to this, the STEMLab was top tier, giving students access to state-of-the-art facilities from the very start of their courses.

Olamide Abegunde

My course was structured in a way which allowed me to develop a lot of new skills. Prior to my degree, I had never been involved in programming, but by the time I had finished my first year, I had built a solid foundation which would later see me picking up multiple programming languages with ease. I also developed my skills in CAD, report writing and laboratory work. While my course allowed me to develop my technical skills, I was also able to develop my team working skills as we had a few group projects. Really, this is what engineers do, work in teams to deliver projects, so it was good to have that small scale experience before going into industry.

Olamide working

In my final year, I applied and got accepted onto the Siemens Engineering Graduate Scheme, which lasted two years. Shortly thereafter, I became a Project Engineer, where I manage the engineering work packages on projects. This involves ensuring technical standards are maintained in all aspects of project work, participating in and monitoring the planning and progress of works (both at the office and on site) in relation to timeline and budget, and assisting with evaluating the quality and technical accuracy of tenders. At Siemens, I’ve had the opportunity to get involved in a variety of things, from data analysis and app development to hardcore on-site engineering. It’s been an interesting journey so far.

Loughborough really is where history begins. My time at the university saw me develop a massive can-do attitude and a hunger for success. The university prides itself on its sports excellence, and even just seeing the athletes train as you walk-by is inspiring. They are already one of the best, but they still always put in maximum effort, and you can see that. When you stay in an environment like that for a long time, it starts to positively influence your work ethic, which is exactly what happened in my case.

Olamide working

Personally, I was not a sportsperson prior to university, but while at Loughborough, I tried out women’s rugby and was surprised by how much I loved it. That was my first time picking up a rugby ball and since then, I have developed so much in the sport. I eventually qualified to play for the University’s team and carried on playing after graduation, still playing today at Championship level.

It is hard to pick one, but some of my best memories come from the activities I got involved in outside of my academic work. That is really where you feel the Loughborough spirit. Things like sports, societies and volunteering activities, let you mix with different people that have similar interests as you do. I was also a member of the dance team, and we went to Italy for a week, but it wasn’t just us in Italy, there were other sports teams from Loughborough, as well as other sports teams from other UK universities. We all had a great time away, meeting so many new people and just having fun. It was my first time in Italy, first time traveling with friends and was definitely the highlight of my year at the time.

Olamide graduated from Loughborough University in 2019.

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