Why did Cumbria choose to work with Alliance Medical?

Alliance Medical are an established and well-respected independent provider of diagnostic medical imaging services. The university shares their values of excellence in patient care and innovation to meet the needs of the dynamic (and rapidly evolving) modern medical imaging workforce. They are a natural partner for us to work with. Our relationship initially started with discussions about hosting student placements. 

They are now a fully established student placement provider and send students on a variety of programmes at different academic levels from Assistant Practitioner Foundation degrees to Full MSc programmes. They are instrumental in helping the University develop and modernise its courses to meet the needs or service.

How do Alliance Medical and Cumbria work together to deliver the best experience for graduates and support them with their career?

The University runs a pathway within the BSc Radiography course in which students are able to opt to study a particular imaging modality in more detail.

Staff from Alliance were instrumental in helping the University develop this pathway and they now offer placements to students which enable them to develop specific core competences in PET/CT scanning. This is unique in the UK and makes a major contribution to helping to develop the workforce in this rapidly growing field.

Do you believe that graduates have the opportunity to move in different directions within Alliance Medical; or gain experience in a range of areas?

Yes. Alliance Medical give graduates the opportunity to develop a specialist interest within a field of medical imaging from the day they graduate which can be quite different from that offered by a graduate working in a traditional NHS background. Once they have developed the skills and competences within one area, they are then able to extend these within the range of services offered by Alliance in a variety of settings.

What are Cumbria and Alliance Medical doing differently to other universities and partners?

Our year 3 ‘Focussed Radiological Proactive Modules’ are an innovation in the radiography course, commended by the course validation panel and the programme external examiners.

The unique relationship between University of Cumbria and Alliance Medical has enabled us to be one the first in the UK to offer this as a route. 

Students can uniquely gain specialist experience and develop core competencies in PET/CT scanning in the Scanners run by Alliance Medical.