Medical pedigree

  • 13 August 2021
  • 2 minutes

The medical pedigree of Gonville & Caius College is what attracted Binu Perera (Medicine 2019) to apply.

“Coming to Cambridge and studying medicine at Caius is about the experience,” he says.

“I talk to friends from other universities and what we get here is almost surreal. We get something that is completely different and the quality of education is incredible.

“The attention you get here, multiple hours a week of small group teaching and targeted feedback on essays, means you make considerable progress even in the short terms.”

Caius is renowned for medicine, with John Caius, the College’s founder, physician to three monarchs. Read more about the medical tradition on the subject page.

Binu attended Queen Elizabeth’s School for Boys in Barnet, north London, which is in Caius’ link area under the University of Cambridge college link area scheme. Binu followed up a Caius admissions talk at school by attending an open day in Cambridge.

He says: “The first thing was how nice everybody was. It’s been confirmed now that I work with the access team just how approachable, friendly and helpful everyone is. It’s very easy to ask questions, to get involved in things, and felt like a place I’d want to spend six years.”

Binu is the President of Caius Medicine Society in 2021-22, and is placing an emphasis on promoting the College.

He says: “I’m currently putting together some admissions and enrichment talks for current sixth formers, which cover studying medicine at Cambridge, personal statements, BMAT (the BioMedical Admissions Test) and academic talks by current undergraduates.

“Caius is such a big college for medicine – 25 students a year, which is a lot – and we have a long history. Our aim is to bolster the name of Caius.”

To sign up for the talks and find out more information at https://medsoc.cai.cam.ac.uk/.

Binu is on Caius’ access platform, available through the Caius homepage, to answer questions from prospective applicants. He wants to encourage others to embrace the opportunities at Cambridge.

He adds: “I don’t want people to think Cambridge isn’t for them, because Cambridge is for everyone. What makes it special is the academic provision; for anyone interested in their subject there’s no better place you can go to fulfil that desire to learn more.

“Being able to talk to a student on the Caius access platform opens people’s minds to what Cambridge is actually like.”

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