London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

A bit about me

It’s seven months into my Master's in One Health programme, and with the end staring at me so plainly, it feels quite nostalgic to reflect on what has been. A year ago, in April 2024, I received the news that would change my life in more ways than I had the capacity to anticipate at the time. I had not only been granted admission into the MSc One Health: Ecosystems, Humans and Animals programme, a joint course offered by the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), but I had also been awarded the Commonwealth Shared Scholarship award, without which I would not have been able to afford studying here in London.

I graduated as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine only two years ago from University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Before coming to London, I spent most of my life in the bustling city of Lagos and I’d never as much as crossed the border of my country into any other. Thus, coming to London felt equally like a dream come true and the sharpest of culture shocks. Even the tiniest details about London surprised me – Even the tiniest details about London surprised me – from walking down the street and seeing people of different races for the first time, to grappling with the understanding that it was unusual here for strangers to converse with each other on trains and buses. I’d been interested culturally in London for a long time, so the historic buildings held a deep fascination to me. Many a time, I walked around the streets of London half-convinced I stumbled into a movie set. 

Sit in the classes, review my biases, and understand more

The classes were equally exciting. My interest in MSc One Health stemmed from the fact that I was interested in human cancer research, which contrasted with my veterinary training, and I thought of the MSc One Health programme as a bridge to navigate the two worlds. At the time, I only had a vague interest in public health. That was about to change.

The Master’s programme is divided into three terms. As I split my time between the RVC and LSHTM, the only module I took at the LSHTM in Term 1 was Infectious Disease Emergence and Control (IDEC). For the first time, I started to view zoonotic diseases from the human point of view. More concerning to me was that most of the diseases taught were a major problem only in the Global South, particularly in Nigeria. In light of our lectures, my interest in public health started to develop, as did a passion for strengthening the public health system back in Nigeria. IDEC was one of my favourite modules in the entire Master’s programme, in part because of the ingenuity of our assessment: a fake scenario where my classmates and I posed as WHO investigators looking to fix a disease outbreak affecting tourists in Costa Rica. This involved giving a poster presentation and writing a report based on the solutions we proffered. By the end of the term, I was certain that public health was a field I wanted to delve deeper into. 

I returned to LSHTM in Term 2 for more modules: Medical Anthropology and Public Health, and Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases. Medical Anthropology held a deep-seated interest for me from the outset. Prior to the module, I had never considered the fact that scientific objectivism was not purely objective after all, and that social perspectives were of significant importance in developing research projects. It was interesting to sit in the classes and review my own biases and the importance of having a more constructivist approach to understanding ‘the other.’ In part, this inspired the summer project I decided on; studying the perspectives of climate-impacted Bangladeshi farmers towards some agricultural interventions implemented by an NGO to help them with their economic productivity.

My other LSHTM module, Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases, was also interesting, and most possibly the most strenuous module of the entire Master's – or my life. Here, I developed a deeper understanding of epidemiology and the mathematical aspects of determining the spread of infectious diseases. Through the assessments, I fully understood the pressures required in investigating disease outbreaks and developing policy recommendations based on our findings. The five-week lectures gave me a deep appreciation – and reverence – for epidemiologists.

LSHTM's global network and rich history

The lectures at LSHTM were phenomenal, but I would be remiss not to mention other aspects of studying here that made it such an enjoyable experience. 

Being in classes with students from more than 50 countries meant that I learnt more about international medical health, art and culture that can be captured in just a few words. 

I also appreciated the lecturing approach used, where students were always given the space to share their own ideas with fellow classmates and the professors. Assessments were mostly liberal; professors were less interested in confirming what we had learnt than watching us apply what we knew to real-life situations. It was a refreshing change for me, and it built my interest in public health quite easily. Another fascination – the deep history embedded in LSHTM and its past students’ contribution to the field of public health in general. Oftentimes, professors would make statements in the line of “Have you heard of *insert name of 19^th century world-renowned Nobel-Prize winning biological scientist who named a bacterium or two*? He studied right here in this university.” My jaw dropped to the floor many times during the first introductory weeks. Luckily, most of my gasps went unnoticed. 

Socially, London had more to offer than I would have ever imagined while I was excitedly making plans back home in Nigeria. Making friends was far easier than I expected – my cohort only had eight people, and we soon became a tight close-knit group that liked to explore together. Every alternate Saturday – as much as I could while grappling with assessments – I visited the tourist attractions in London, a lot of which were free – Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, theatre shows, restaurants, and more museums than I can possibly list here. It was an amazing experience living here as a funded student. There was so much to see and I couldn’t get enough of them all. 

The RVC part

The One Health programme was an exciting opportunity that completely transformed my career goals, interests, and even personal mindsets. While at the RVC, I took equally enlightening modules on Foundations of One Health, Principles of Epidemiology, Statistical Analysis, Economics of One Health, and Systems Thinking. I had expected to learn quite a bit about human and animal health, but this program granted me a deeper understanding of health and its interconnection to other issues: climate change, policy making and politics’ effect on health, decolonisation, environmental health, social studies, economics, and so much more. Sitting in the lectures of world-renowned global scientists and public health leaders from all around the world, my own world opened up, and I gained a broader perspective. I was made a more capable veterinarian and researcher by virtue of this program, and I am immensely grateful for my time here.

While I'm still in London...

With the time I have left, I intend to commence my summer project, pouring all I have learnt in the past months into it. Of course, I also intend to squeeze out as much time as I can to visit all of the museums and tourist spots that haven’t been delighted by my appearance yet (if there are any left!). Being here was – and still continues to be – a delight and a dream come true, and I will always look back on this season of my life with immense fondness. 

Sidenote: Securing the Commonwealth Scholarship

This was one of the best news I received in 2024! Right from my undergraduate days, I’d nursed the hope of studying abroad, which meant I’d been preparing for years. I got my documents ready – including an international passport, English proficiency tests, exam transcripts, and application essays. Even prior to graduation, I started preparing by making sure my grades were top-notch and I had a wide array of professional and volunteer experience. The application for the Commonwealth Scholarship required 11 different essays, so I got started on writing them months before the portal opened. International scholarships are very competitive, but I decided I was going to keep applying untill I have a great offer. I applied for the Commonwealth Shared Scholarship for two consecutive years before finally getting two spots in the same year, then I chose to study MSc One Health.

• Discover MSc One Health: Ecosystems, Humans and Animals.
• More from MSc One Health students: From cholera dreams to malaria realities: My journey to finding the perfect summer project
• You may be interested in: 5 things I wish I knew before starting in September at LSHTM