Jane
Kingswood

"I was reviewing my life and thinking about want I want to do in the future and thought about a career change. I decided that if I could do an MA then maybe I could do anything. I’ve had an informal interest in politics for years and after visiting the postgrad open day it was the MA Politics option that clicked with me."

"I had been working in the voluntary and charity sector for about ten years and was looking for a new challenge. It was the right mix of topics in the right place, politics is great, in terms of current events this was a good year to be looking at voters and parties, but politics is about bigger questions which are always relevant."

"As it was a big challenge for me to study after all this time and I wanted interest as much as career potential. I liked the syllabus at NTU, with focus on engagement and environmental issues, bringing together my interests."

"The online library is great, that’s a massive change since I studied my undergrad, having online access to journals and other resources have been brilliant."

"NOW has been really useful for having all the module information in one place, and you can for example look at slides online during seminars. As a mature student returning to study, I was super aware it was literally years since I had written an essay. So I think getting my first assignments in after Christmas. It was pretty tense and stressful for a while but so good to get things handed in."

"I’ve opened my mind to a whole set of new experience and knowledge, and those are transferable skills I can take to a job, my volunteering and future life. I’ve not decided what I’m going to do next, I'm very busy with my dissertation right now. But I definitely feel like having taken on this challenge and survived, I feel more confidence in myself to take on the next one."

"All the staff and students have been great, super supportive and helpful. Doing postgraduate study is a great idea, of course! It is super difficult, but life is about taking chances and shaking things up, we only get one life so you have to go for it. Also you don’t have to be brilliant at everything, but we all learn new things and find out about ourselves by taking on something new."