Apeksha's Final Thoughts on Her European Experience

It doesn't seem like it was too long ago that I flew into Europe to start my study abroad experience, but now it's almost time to leave. On a whole, these six weeks have been absolutely amazing since I've been able to study a subject of great interest to me and have traveled to places like Paris, Ireland, Venice, Cambridge, London, Longleat, Stonehenge, and more.

Medical Ethics
I didn't really know what to expect when I came to the UK to study medical ethics as a one-on-one course with an Oxford professor. I had already been in contact with my professor, Dr. Paula Boddington (5th picture), before leaving UTD and was definitely a bit nervous since I was coming from more of a research related background than an ethics related one. However, that's exactly why I chose to study this. It was to become more aware of issues that I don't necessarily come across in my science heavy curriculum. A look into the topic of consent to treatment allowed me to examine patient autonomy and circumstances in which patients may not be competent enough to consent to treatment themselves. Although consent in research (my next topic), was in some ways similar to consent to treatment, it also involved another dimension which went beyond the scope of just participant autonomy since different forms of research involve their own unique set of ethical concerns. In genomics research, for example, advancement of technology makes it harder to determine whether principles such as broad consent are more acceptable since the original terms under which consent was obtained may not apply to other possible future uses of the data. The third topic, which was probably my favorite subject this summer, was decision making in medical ethics since I looked into the importance of ethical reasoning and use of emotions in moral arguments in medicine. There was a great emphasis on aligning one's moral responses with his/her moral principles and beliefs. The final topic I chose to write about was resource allocation in healthcare which allowed me to look into an array of interesting questions when deciding how to fairly distribute scarce medical resources in a society. For example, to what extent should individuals be held responsible for the conditions they're suffering from such as lung cancer due to smoking or liver failure due to alcoholism? Should this affect resource allocation? Overall, this course really gave me the chance to look into a variety of issues concerning four main values in medical ethics including autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice.

Travels
Apart from the course, the best thing about studying abroad was being able to travel to places within and outside of the UK with friends. I traveled to Cambridge and London with other students in the program (the program organized these two trips for us). Maybe it's just because I've been studying at Oxford, but I must say that I liked Oxford more than I liked Cambridge (although Cambridge was just gorgeous). Along with these trips, a group of the girls and I made plans to travel to Paris from June 3rd to June 5th. The weather was great and it was a good bit warmer in Paris than in Oxford which was definitely a nice change. We visited the Eiffel Tower (went to the top), Arc de Triomphe, Avenue des Champs-Élysées, and the Louvre. Since we really spent only one whole day in Paris (June 4th) and walked around a great deal, we were pretty exhausted by the end of the day. After dinner, some of us decided to take a walk so we could see the Eiffel Tower at night from afar but we ended up walking straight up to it (grabbing delicious macaroons on the way of course). The tower would sparkle every hour (I think) so we were able to see it sparkle at midnight and then at 1...beautiful would be the right word to describe it. On our way there, it started raining pretty heavily so we were soaked by the time we got back but since it was warm, it was actually a nice walk in the rain. Completely exhausted but content with our day in Paris, we fell asleep as soon as we got back to the Westin in Paris. After coming back and submitting my third paper on decision making in medicine, my next trip was to Ireland from June 11th to June 14th. Once again, this trip was similar to the trip to Paris, in that a bunch of the girls and I planned it just a few days before leaving. We stayed near Dublin and were able to check out the coast, the city itself, Glendalough (a glacial valley in Wicklow), and Dollymount Beach. Although Dublin itself was nice, my favorite part of the trip to Ireland was taking a four hour hike around Glendalough since the scenery was breathtaking. Also, our trip to the valley itself was amazing since while on the train, we could see a beautiful view of the water on one side and a great view of Ireland's massive green hills on the other side. Definitely a much more relaxing trip than the one to Paris (since we were there longer), Ireland was a different experience for me and I'm glad to have visited. Unfortunately, we weren't able to travel to the Cliffs of Moher but I guess that'll have to be for another time. After gettting back from Ireland, I worked on and submitted my final paper about resource allocation in medicine and enjoyed my time at Oxford with the other girls since they were unfortunately going back to the U.S. in the next few days. Meanwhile though, I was getting ready for my next trip (which unlike the rest of my trips, was actually planned before I came to study abroad) to Venice from June 22nd to June 26th. I was especially excited about this trip because not only would it be my first time in Venice but I would also see a bunch of familiar faces. Over the course of my stay in Venice I was able to see Anna, Sachin, Josh, Grace, Kayla, Lauren W., Matt, John, Ben, Greg, and Monica (since they were all studying abroad in a castle in Italy and took a trip to Venice from the 22nd to the 26th as well). Like in the case of Paris, it was much warmer in Venice than it was in Oxford so I was fairly pleased with the weather. On our first actual day there, we visited the Rialto Bridge, the Basilica, and the Doge's Palace (the prisons were actually pretty cool) at San Marco and then Anna and I visited La Fenice (the opera house) where we were able to see a choir rehearsal. We ended the day with a really nice Vivaldi concert (Four Seasons) and headed back to our hotel. The next day, we went to the islands of Murano, Burano, Torcello (definitely my favorite), San Michele, and Lido (where we watched a beautiful sunset). The last day was also fairly relaxed since we checked out the Biennale, a contemporary art exhibit in Venice that occurs every two years, and then chilled for much of the rest of the day (of course, we went back to Lido to watch the sunset again since it was so beautiful the first time around). It was a great trip to Venice and I'll definitely miss the time that I spent taking rides on the Vaporreto, navigating through the city and it's narrow alleyways, and just having a good time relaxing with people I already knew from UTD. When I came back to Oxford, I spent the rest of the week checking out various museums on campus (including the Ashmolean, Natural History Museum, the Pitt Rivers Museum, and the Museum of the History of Science), visiting the botanical gardens, and going punting with my friends (which was a pretty awesome experience).

Reflections
When I look back at my study abroad experience, I just keep wondering how I was able to take a medical ethics course at Oxford and travel so much in a span of just six weeks. It has been an intense six weeks mainly because there was always something to do but I absolutely loved it! I was asked whether I've been through any change of persepective after studying abroad and quite honestly, I don't think I'll completely know until I'm back in the states. In some ways, I've been able to take a step back, take a look at the big picture, and be a lot more calm and relaxed about things than I usually am which is nice. Although I wanted to be able to meet up with familiar faces while abroad (and I'm glad that I did in Venice), I knew that I wanted my study abroad experience to be fairly independent on the whole and it worked out nicely for me. I was lucky enough to make friends with a group of girls I was comfortable enough with to make trips to Paris and Ireland. It's been a great study abroad experience for me and I hope that all the other scholars are having a great time abroad as well. The amount of time that I've spent at Europe seems just right -- I'm very satisfied with what I've learned and seen here, but I'm equally ready to go back home and start shadowing a doctor in pediatric emergency. Then I shall see everyone when I'm back in Texas!

Apeksha's Adventures Abroad

Where should I start? It's only been a week here, but I've really enjoyed my stay at Oxford so far. My first course in medical ethics (they're called tutorials here) was on Friday and was quite interesting since I explored the topic of patient consent in medicine and basically the conflict between the principles of beneficence and patient autonomy. I didn't really know what to expect from my first class since I don't come from a background of philosophy, but the one-on-one discussion with my professor has made it a very rewarding and worthwhile experience so far. Having a research background and serving on the Institutional Review Board at UTD last year (our ethics committee) has also helped me better understand the topics I'm writing essays about.

In addition to the course, getting to meet the other students who are from all over the U.S. has been great. One of the groups here from Michigan is actually taking a C.S. Lewis course (which I'm sure Dr. Towner would approve of). Also, this will sound silly but being at Oxford sometimes feels like we're at Hogwarts. There are quite a few locations on campus that were used to film the Harry Potter movies. The picture that I've provided is actually in front of the tree where Malfoy is turned into a ferret in the fourth movie. Our group also got the chance to visit Cambridge on Saturday which is absolutely gorgeous (a bunch of us went punting which is something I'd definitely do again).

Overall, the change in atmosphere has brought in a nice change of mindset. Being in a new place with new people and being faced with quite a few cultural differences has been a learning experience. It's a mystery what the next few weeks hold in store for me, but I do hope they'll be enjoyable.

Thomas and Cambridge Dining

Life at an 800 year old university is rather different than that at UTD. It tends to change one some. First off, I rather fancy tea now. Secondly, I now use the word “fancy”. From the restrictions of the various colleges (just try and sneak past the porters at Emmanuel!) to the gorgeous architecture, it’s a rather surreal world compared to back home. One of the coolest things about Cambridge is the way they still hold formal halls. These are the highest social grace amongst the colleges here. Each college holds different types of formal halls, has different chefs/ceremonies, and has different restrictions on who can attend. At my college, Hughes Hall, we keep things relatively modern and egalitarian. While suits and tuxes are required, we are flexible on the need for gowns. In addition to this, the fellows of the college drink and dine with us. We take our sherry overlooking the fields at sundown, proceed to dinner once the gong is rung, bow our heads for a single short Latin grace, dine amongst the fellows, and then proceed to our port. This stands in stark contrast to hall at Trinity, where the building is only lit by candle and torch, and the fellows are kept completely separate from the students. While the students sit at long tables and eat substandard food in plastic chairs, the fellows sit in throne-like carved masterpieces, eating meals personally prepared by Michelin-star level chefs. The rest of the 31 colleges fall somewhere along this spectrum, but it’s fascinating to see each hall and its specific rules. Life here at Cambridge is dominated by the colleges, and formal hall is your passport to each one. On that note, here’s a photo of me in proper gown fashion before hall at Trinity, home of Newton, Dirac, Tennyson, Bohr, Maxwell, and Byron.

800 Years of Politics

My college, Hughes Hall. Nice, but nothing super amazing.

King’s College. People really do go to school there.

Back home, we have a fairly simple way of viewing university structure. The president and provost sit at the top, under them are the deans, and under the deans fall the various departments and responsibilities of the university. Here at Cambridge, however, we have constituent colleges which hold a great deal of power, making university politics and policy a great deal more complicated. Some universities in the U.S. (Rice comes to mind) have constituent colleges as well, but they have more of a social function and mainly exist to promote diversity among the class. On the other hand, the college at Cambridge which you are a part of determines a great deal – your education, your social class, and your overall opportunities provided. For example, Wolfson is a relatively poor modern college which is located far from the city centre. Wolfson students have decent housing, are mostly foreign graduate students, and often keep to themselves. On the other hand, St. Johns is a very wealthy college. The students of Johns are located in the best part of town, have fantastic amenities (having your own turret in a castle must be nice), and are treated to all sorts of luxuries (Michelin star chef, free wine, special recruitment events, etc.). Should a St. Johns student want to study abroad or play a sport, the college will pay their fees or buy them equipment in order to further their experience. This disparity in wealth and experience leads to interesting situations as the colleges have completely separate budgets from the university and are under no obligation to share their money with it or with each other. In recent years, Cambridge has been facing many budget shortages leading to research cuts and difficulties paying faculty salaries. On the other hand, the wealthiest colleges of Cambridge often have yearly surpluses in the hundreds of millions of pounds. Because the colleges hold so much money, the university simply cannot act without their support and cannot regulate many things which the colleges control.

Recently, the UK is debating whether to raise tuition for its public schools leading to the belief of many that Cambridge will re-brand itself as a private university. This, of course, has been met with a great deal of controversy as Cambridge currently only charges 3000 pounds a year in tuition for UK and EU students. If it goes private, students will need to pay more like 20,000 pounds a year in tuition, making it completely unfeasible for the majority of students at poorer colleges. However, should the big colleges choose to flex their financial muscle and push the initiative, the smaller colleges will have little say in the matter, as a Cambridge without a Trinity or Johns is simply no longer Cambridge. It’s a bit like if we ran Congress without the Senate as an equalizing body. Ostensibly, every college is equal under the Cambridge banner, but in reality, size matters. It’s going to be fascinating to see what happens next, as the policies and standards the university establishes in the next five years are going to greatly affect its status as one of the great research and educational institutes in the world. Despite all the upheaval, two things remain certain: Cambridge must find ways to support its world-class research, and the largest colleges will continue to dominate the political life at the university.