Mature Student
After being out of education for 15 years, I embark on a scary journey as a mature student in Higher Education at the University of Central Lancashire.
I am thirty one years old and studying a foundation course in Broadcast Journalism. My only other experience is a City & Guilds in Journalism and media techniques, which I studied when I was eighteen years old.
Twelve years and two children later, here I am; better late than never! I found breaking into the media industry harder than I thought it would be, as my journalism qualification was from a long time ago and I only had four months’ experience at a working newspaper.
l found it hard to even get to the interview stage, mainly because of my lack of up-to-date qualifications. I was very frustrated, but I was determined not to give up.I regularly browsed a website called
Hold The Frontpage, a website for journalists or people hoping to go into journalism.
It was there I found an article about BBC Radio Lancashire and The University of Central Lancashire working in conjunction with each other to start a new foundation course in Broadcast Journalism.As it was the summer holidays I sent an e-mail to the university telling them a bit about myself.
I had completely forgotten all about it when I received a phone call at the end of August 2007 to say they would like to offer me a place on the course.After enlisting my dad as chief childminder, I was halfway there.
I now commute from Liverpool to Preston two days a week, then from Liverpool to Blackburn, where BBC Radio Lancashire is situated, for another two days.I would advise anyone who has always wanted to go to university but thought they were too old to go for it.
I am enjoying every part of it and get on with my fellow students no problem; they vary in age from eighteen to thirty six.One of my many worries was I would be much older than the other students and would have nothing in common with them. As usual, I was worrying about nothing.
I occasionally write for an online newspaper called the Southport Reporter. My most recent article was a review of Creamfields 2007, the biggest dance festival in the world, which I have been covering for the past three years.
After having experienced working as a journalist, there is no other job I can put my heart into. That’s how I know I was born to be a journalist. Already doors that seemed firmly shut are starting to open: take, for example, the opportunity of writing for ETP Magazine.
I also have an A4 sized picture of my children on the front of my work folder to motivate me if things start to get tough.
Universities Secretary John Denham was recently in the media saying that Universities need to attract more mature students by designing courses to fit in with people’s lives. The target by 2020 is for 40% of adults to have a degree or higher level of qualification.
Tracy Orr, aged thirty six, studied at Liverpool John Moores University when she was thirty two for a degree in child care, and said: “At the moment I help run a Surestart programme in Halewood in Liverpool. If I had no formal degree I wouldn’t have been able to progress this far.”
I asked her how she found being a mature student. “I loved being a student and after I passed I was so proud of myself, and it set a good example to my own children to do the best they can”.
52% of first year undergraduate students are mature students (aged 21 and over).
58% of these are women.
(Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency)
The tutors are great at university and approachable and, if you’re lucky like me, your tutor will support and encourage you and keep you on your toes.
So all you women out there who have always had an excuse: I have kids; I’m involved with a charity; it’s too far... All these apply to me as well. And if I can do it, so can you. For more information on becoming a mature student, see below:
nally arrived at the University of Central Lancashire. Not only was he worth the wait but he also suprised me, as I expected a serious, old stuffy man.
how he feels about the future of journalism.
