Kelly is a recent graduate from the BA Law & Social Policy programme at the University of Strathclyde

Tell us a little bit about your background before beginning the course...

I worked in retail for 26 years before coming to university. I left school at 16 with 6 standard grades, 3 3s and 3 4s – that’s the equivalent to 6 nat 4s in today's qualifications framework. I hated school and always had difficulty concentrating, spending much of my time looking out of the window daydreaming. I couldn’t wait to get out of the place.  By the time my daughter was 8 I was a single parent, divorced, paying a mortgage on my own and continued on like this for another 12 years. During that time I began to consider how life might have been had I had the opportunity to go to university when I was younger but didn’t know if I was capable of the work. I knew I couldn’t afford to give up work to go to college to try to get the qualifications to get to university. At an open day at the University of Strathclyde with my daughter one of the welcome team handed me a postcard with details of the pre-entry access course at Strathclyde which I had never heard about before. After finding out more about it I realised this was my chance to find out if I would actually be able to ‘do uni work’.  It turns out I was able to do it fine. I undertook the access course while working full-time – I loved it, it's amazing and I would highly recommend it – this really prepared me for what was expected at undergraduate level. I applied to study at Strathclyde full-time at undergraduate level and after getting 72% overall on the access course confirmed my place to begin full-time study in September 2020 – right at the height of the pandemic.

What drew you towards undertaking this degree?

I initially enrolled on the BA Human Resource Management and Law Degree, taking Social Policy and Education as elective modules in first year. I was initially interested in pursuing a career in human resource management and thought it would be helpful to have law content as well. However, I fell in love with Social Policy and could only take 2 subjects forward to 2^nd year. It was difficult to choose between HR and Law but in the end I decided to keep Law alongside Social Policy. 

Tell us about the format of the programme. What was a typical working week like?

In first year it's great that you can be flexible with subjects to see what you like and don’t like and it allows you find your ‘thing’. The first year everything was online because of the pandemic and 2^nd we got some time on campus towards the end. It wasn’t until 3^rd year we were fully back on campus. Classes were a mix of lectures and tutorials and with my subjects I was normally able to schedule all my classes over 2 days allowing me plenty of study time. I also worked part-time and was able to work around my academic commitments – it has to come first to ensure the best outcomes.

Tell us a little bit about your dissertation topic...

My dissertation topic was Gender bias and Autism: The lived experience of late diagnosed women, non-binary and AFAB people, examining the way gender bias contributes to late diagnosis and misdiagnosis of Autistic women and people assigned female at birth.

What is the academic support at Strathclyde like?

The academic staff are engaging and friendly and encourage students to employ critical evidenced based thinking in all they do. Staff are also on hand to offer support and advice when needed.

What are your future career goals?

I have accepted a place at Strathclyde to study on the Social Work MSW so will be at Strathclyde for another 2 years. Studying Social Policy and Law alongside my part-time work in mental health social care – a position I took up after receiving an email via my university email account advertising the job – reinforced and reinvigorated a passion for social justice which has led to this moment.

What advice would you give to someone considering applying for this course?

Just go for it – what have you got to lose? If I can do it anybody can really.