The students below can tell you more...

Vince Williams, MGeol Geology, 2004, now working towards a PhD at Leicester

A mature student’s experience of Leicester

Vince Williams

At Leicester new mature students are invited to an induction session before the start of the year where you get to meet each other as well as representatives from the Mature Student and Postgraduate Association (MSPGA). It means that you get to make contacts very early on with people in the same position as yourself from different departments across the University giving you access to a mix of skills and a wide social network. It was twenty years since I first went to University and although I had already made contacts within the MSPGA, I still arrived with some trepidation. The thoughts going through my head included: Am I bright enough? Will I be able to keep up? They all look so young; will they think I am ancient? Will they want to work with me? Will anyone even talk to me? There was no reason for me to worry; it was hard work but I was able to keep up, if anything I found it easier to focus than the school leavers did. They had to contend with living away from home; a new city, new experiences and they didn’t know anyone else either. I know now that I could have made friends on the first day; it was only my reluctance to try that prevented it. The first residential field trip put paid to my worries about not being accepted as I became part of a small group that studied together for the rest of my degree and I made a number of lasting friendships.

How I came to be a mature student at Leicester

Vince Williams on the 4th year Alps field trip

I was interested in fossils from a very early stage but geology was not an A-level option at my school. It was the late 70’s, the beginning of the computer revolution, computer science was the in thing and I was good at it. I did a computer science degree and then worked in the newly emerging software industry. I worked happily and successfully in the industry until market forces changed and the bulk of the work was outsourced to places like India. It became harder and harder to maintain a good order book so I decided to give my boyhood choice of careers a try; somewhat later than originally planned. I researched a number of universities and it came down to a choice between Bristol and Leicester. I particularly liked the support offered for mature students at Leicester and the fact that there was then at least one mature student in each year of the degree (and this is a number that has grown for the five years that I have been here). I visited both universities on open days and was very impressed with the closeness of the department at Leicester. For me, the decision was made when I attended a Literary and Philosophical Society seminar given by Dr Mark Purnell and Dr Sarah Gabbott of the University of Leicester. They spoke with so much passion about their subject that I knew this was the right choice for me. I am so sure that I made the right choice that having completed a four year M.Geol undergraduate degree I have now embarked on a PhD here.

Doing a PhD at Leicester
The four year M.Geol degree gives a great deal of flexibility in that you can tailor the degree to your strengths and interests by adding a number of optional modules to the core modules. I chose mostly palaeontological modules but there is a wide range to select from. The freedom to carry out independent research both in your third year dissertation and fourth year project is also extremely useful. I wanted to continue onto a PhD and the fourth year helped me decide whether on not I was capable. I now find myself behind the scenes in both the Natural History Museum in London and the American Museum of Natural History in New York, researching the diet of dinosaurs. My PhD involves cleaning and moulding dinosaur jaws from around the world and imaging casts of their teeth in the scanning electron microscope in the Geology Department at Leicester. The wear patterns on their teeth can tell us how and what they ate, and how that changed over time. I now have unprecedented access to the very museum collections I dreamed about as a boy - it scarcely seems real but I am living my dream.

Chris Nellist, 4th year MGeol Applied and Environmental Geology

Chris Nellist, 2nd year fieldwork, SE Spain

I came to Leicester via a foundation course, and was a little nervous as to how I would fit in with a lot of 18 year olds. However, not only have I made friends with other mature students, but also with many of the younger students.

The fieldwork was a concern for someone with a mortgage and responsibilities, but it hasn't proved to be a problem due to assistance from the department and the university and has been really enjoyable. In my second year, I started to fully understanding the fantastic career opportunities that are available, and managed to secure several offers for paid work experience in the summer between my second and third years and as a result spent eight weeks in Chile. [In the summer between his 3rd and 4th years Chris obtained paid work experience in China].

I can’t recommend both the department and the university enough, especially for mature students, as there is great support available with a very active mature students society.

[Chris graduated in 2008 and is now working for AngloGold Ashanti, based in Perth, WA].