91快色

Confident, motivated, and hard-working 鈥� Sana Iqbal, a graduate in Biomedical Science from the 91快色, shares her story of migrating from Italy to the UK with an aim of getting higher education in the English language but little did she know that her experience of growing up in a culture different to hers will make her curious, calculative, and analytical but at the core of her heart, kind and empathetic. This cocktail of genius and humility allowed Sana to experience her time at university as not only a student but also a staff member as she worked on increasing the usage of MyEngagement, a platform that enables students to monitor their academic progress in by codifying data from multiple touchpoints.

Sana grew up in the beautiful city of Brescia, Italy. In 2020, her family decided to move countries and found their new home in Bedford, England. Having a spark for education and learning, she chose to study life sciences to make her way into healthcare. She said, 鈥淚 know that life sciences play a key role in shaping current and future medical intervention. It's not always about finding something new. It's about evaluating the current therapeutic intervention. So, it's a continuous process that is going to play a key role in shaping the future of healthcare. That's why I decided to choose to study biomedical science.鈥�

However, as much as running experiments in the lab interested Sana, being stuck in a monotonous environment was not something she anticipated her future to look like. Due to her analytical nature, she was more interested in the learning and research aspect for her course. Hence, upon the completion of her degree course, Sana enrolled in the Graduate Advancement Placement run by the Careers and Employability Services and joined the Learning Analytics team. This is where she met Tai Luong and Sundhas Nawaz who supervised her in her new role.

In the beginning, Sana found her job quite challenging. While she was used to working with quantitative data in a medical environment, she was now assigned to collect and work with qualitative data in a technical environment. Sana said, 鈥淚 was coming from a science background, and you would think that having a biomedical science degree, you will end up in a lab or research area. It (job) was something that was a big change. It was a big shock to me, but I was really lucky to have a really supportive team.鈥�

Sana emphasised the importance of MyEngagement and wished it was available for use during her time at the university. But through her contribution in training staff members and students, she happily reported that as of 2025, MyEngagement has become an integral part of the University鈥檚 curriculum.

In one of her attempts at making students understand the benefits of the platforms, Sana encountered and managed to solve the doubts students had. She said, 鈥�Students had an idea that this is a tracking platform, that they are being monitored so they will be punished in some way. But we were able to make them understand that it's not a punitive tool. It's a tool which will enable them to understand how they are interacting with the studies.鈥�

She further explained, 鈥淲hen they (students) are not interacting, that's completely normal and the University doesn't want to punish them, but they want to provide the right support at the right time. The system that generates alerts about the students who are falling into low engagement category so that your personal academic tutor and your lecturers can intervene and provide you with the right support.鈥�

鈥淚t's all about making sure that each and every student is aware of the services available to them and how they can make the most use of this platform to get the right support.鈥�

鈥淚n this platform, we have a student advice button, and a self-referral button. That was something that we received really positive feedback from students because they will be able to redirect themselves to different services across university and they wouldn't need to e-mail their personal or academical tutor or a different department across the University. It would be all through this platform.鈥�

Sana found that working in student support for six months left her feeling fulfilled. She aspires to use her transferrable skills from her role at the university in a field that would provide a dynamic environment and allow her to help people through a solution-oriented approach as it makes her feel content at heart. She also provided her services at the local Citizen Advice Bureau alongside her studies for the same reason.

In her spare time, Sana likes to listen to science podcasts as it keeps her updated on what is happening in the healthcare industry in the UK. To wind down, she likes to spend quality time with her family.

For all the students at the 91快色or planning to come to the University, Sana wishes them to understand that student life at the university is not just aimed at gaining knowledge but also networking, enhancing your social and interpersonal skills, making friends, and finding employability support in a protective environment. Students can easily find career building support from day-one as the 91快色 is all about providing Career-Powered Education.

Finally, Sana has a message for all students who might be struggling to find motivation to go through their time at the University. She emphasises on understanding what might be holding you back, finding support available in the University, talking about it, and managing your time well to get the most out of the life at university.

To get in touch with Sana for guidance, please email internalcommunications@beds.ac.uk

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Article written by Mandovi Jadoun