Sophie Kirkman

Sociology and Psychology, 2020

“The lecturers on my course at Oxford Brookes have helped show me where my strengths lie, as well as suggesting career paths”

From my applicant day to my final year, the academic staff have been really flexible and supportive.

Before I started, I was worried about what would happen if I missed a class or a deadline. But the lecturers are always prepared to sit you down and talk things through. When they saw that some of us were struggling with academic reports, they ran a workshop to help us – and that was in the first week of semester!

‘Wellbeing offers really practical help’

The Wellbeing service at Brookes is good at helping with lots of things, like exam stress. They’ll help you make a study timetable, or talk you through what’s making you stressed. Budgeting was something I struggled with, even though I was doing a part-time job. Thanks to Wellbeing, I found out that I was being underpaid – and then I was able to sort that out.

My dissertation looks at the topic of cheating in exams. I’m interested in what options the university could put in place if a student is caught cheating, rather than kicking them out. Could they look at what the students are struggling with, and find a different method of supporting them? Everyone I know likes being at university, they don’t want to fail or quit. So I thought this topic was fascinating and relevant.