University Day 2024

On 20 February 2024, the University of Hamburg opened its doors to students in Years 11 and 12 who are already looking forward to life after their A-levels and were presented with a wealth of study options at the UHH's University Day. From ‘A’ for general linguistics to ‘Z’ for dentistry, the University of Hamburg offers over 170 degree programmes, which were represented at the University Day in a fair with stands. In addition to the fair, interested visitors were able to enjoy a series of lectures on student projects funded as part of the Excellence Strategy. We, medical students and co-founders of the SimLab (Simulation Laboratory for Minimally Invasive Surgery) research project funded by the ISA Centre, were also able to present our extracurricular teaching programme and medical studies at the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf with a lecture and a stand.

SimLab has various visions for surgical research and teaching and launched its first peer teaching courses on laparoscopy at the beginning of the year. To give students a taste of what it's like and perhaps spark their interest in surgery, we brought a training box including instruments and various practice models to the open day. If we had known how many participants would be magically drawn to the hands-on laparoscopy training, we would certainly have brought more training boxes! The low inhibition threshold of playful experimentation quickly led to conversations about the requirements for and access to the programme, its main content areas, and the career path from the start of the programme to specialisation as a medical specialist. The feedback from the students was overwhelmingly positive and motivates us greatly in our continued work to expand surgical teaching at the UKE. 

We would like to express our gratitude for being able to represent SimLab at the UHH Open Day and are delighted about the many opportunities made possible by the support of the ISA Centre!

Best regards and many thanks
Lucie, Hans and Merle from SimLab

Figure 1: Hans, Merle and Lucie represented SimLab at the University Day with a stand and gave the students a practical introduction to laparoscopy.