President’s Scholar Encarl Uppal has used his time at Imperial to approach the problems facing the NHS from the perspective of a Medicine with Management student.

 The student scholarship has had a massive impact on my life at Imperial. Living in central London and coming from a modest background, it would have been incredibly difficult to achieve the things I have without the President’s Scholarship Fund. I chose Imperial for its excellent location and reputation in the STEM discipline. Located in the heart of South Kensington, adjacent to several world famous museums, you really do feel you are at the epicentre of knowledge and innovation.

What I enjoy most about Imperial is the opportunity to work amongst some of the brightest individuals challenging modern day Medicine, Business and Science. Their passion for teaching is sincere and relentless; they want to see you become your best!

My favourite part of the course is my intercalation year into Management. Within this year I have had the chance to objectively assess the NHS from the perspective of a Manager rather than a Medical Student. The course has highlighted the difficulties it faces on a day to day basis, the threats that it must overcome in the future to ensure its survival, and the opportunities it must take advantage of to prosper. By leveraging mathematics, marketing, strategy, and many other key management principles, we can change the course of our NHS.

I am currently working on a project investigating the effectiveness and efficiency of mHealth methodologies, namely smartphone apps which help patients organise their medication and prescriptions. This technology not only benefits patients but it actually saves the NHS money since patients are not taking more or less medication than is prescribed. This is certainly something I would wish to pursue in the future; we could make a real difference.

Without the Scholarship fund my experience at Imperial would have been vastly different. Although I must be cautious with my money, rarely does it reach the point where I must scrape pennies together and that is down to the kindness of generous alumni.

In 2016 we awarded nearly 100 President’s Scholarships to talented young people Encarl. Your generosity can help us to exceed that number in 2017. Please give now to support scholarships at Imperial.