Afonso Maria da Silva Moreira is one of the 328 first year first time students in the FMUL Integrated Masters Course in Medicine, and the news@fmul editorial team went to meet him to find out how his experience is going as a recent student at our faculty and about his academic life.

Editorial Team (ET): Was this the first time you have enrolled in a higher education institution?
Afonso Moreira (AF): Yes

ET: How did the experience go?
AF: It was always in my plans to apply to higher education. But, obviously, when I was in the last year of secondary school I felt a little intimidated by the change I was about to undertake, independently of this being a great desire of mine to enter this new world that is studying and living in a faculty. I was one of those who enrolled for the first time on the Internet, so the process was quick and not at all complicated or insecure like a lot of people thought it would be. I admit that the last click was a striking moment.

ET: What led you to apply to the FMUL?
AF: Without doubt its prestige. Obviously I also chose this faculty because both my parents studied here and because my mother still frequents the hospital as a doctor in the paediatrics service. However, if the faculty were not so renowned my choice might have been different.

ET: What are the main differences you feel in going from secondary school to higher education? AF: I have a strong feeling that in higher education things are more “serious”. Both in the teaching itself and in the moments of relaxation. Everything is better organised, and so the demand is for us to be much better organised. For example, unlike secondary school, our study is much more independent, we students have to structure our studies, deciding whether we are going to this or that theory class or whether we can use the time differently. Deep down, higher education demands a greater degree of maturity. Ah, and in higher education the students’ associations are serious as well!

ET: What led you to choose the Integrated Masters in Medicine? And the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (FMUL)?
AF: Throughout secondary school I never completely decided about the course I wanted to study. I worked towards being able to choose the course without worrying in relation to my final average grade when the decisive moment came. I had been at a music school, the Gregorian Institute of Lisbon, since the 5th grade, and since then I had been more and more drawn to that world. However, medicine became an option over time when I realised that on the one hand I was not going to have major problems with my grades and on the other hand it was within my range of interests (which is somewhat broad, and that’s why there was all this uncertainty). it was only during the application period that I decided I would go for medicine, and at the same time I would carry on my music studies, articulating these two aims as best as possible.

ET: What is your opinion of the course after these first weeks of classes?
AF: It is living up to my expectations. One can already see that it is a somewhat demanding course and requires a lot of work, dedication and perseverence.

ET: What do you think of the way you have been received by your teachers? By the support staff? By your colleagues?
AF: In general, the teachers I have met understand our situation very well as first year students, and they have very kindly given us advice and motivated us. The support staff have also been understanding and kind. As for my colleagues, I was pleased to see how willing they were to meet us and help us in these difficult initial moments of academic life, which, as we all know, can be rather confusing and bewildering. I should state that I do not agree with the practice of ragging freshmen in higher education, due to all of its ideology of hierarchical submission, as opposed to a philosophy of equality and mutual help, which ought to be cultivated right from the beginning of the year and not only after ragging the freshmen. This is all for me to say that although I wasn’t present at many of the moments in the initiation practices, I feel totally integrated, which to some extent makes me happy because we are far from the academic segregation that I know is practised in many faculties.

ET: What is your opinion of the FMUL premises?
AF: Quite well equipped and pleasant. We have a phenomenal auditorium and a student common room that is quite versatile, of which we should be proud. I could perhaps point out a single failing: gels against Swine Flu with a nicer smell has been used, right? Because with this gel one doesn’t feel like disinfecting oneself …

ET: Overall, how do you see these first weeks as an FMUL student? AF: It has in fact been a period of adapting to this new reality. meeting a lot of people, exploring the main areas of the Faculty, not understanding absolutely ANYTHING that is being said in a lecture and thinking: “Ah, don’t worry. You can study this at home.”, furiously cramming for the first presentations in Anatomy … It is a complicated period, like any period of change in our lives. Fortunately, I think that for me and for most of my 1st year colleagues, it feels good to know that through this change we are growing as people and seeing our dreams and ambitions come true.