Case Study

I love living in Sunderland. I go to the seafront all the time; it’s a beautiful beach and I can walk there from the Sir Tom Cowie Campus at St Peter's. There’s always so much to do – in the last few months I’ve been ice-skating and paintballing, watched Premier League football at the Stadium of Light, and had day trips to Durham, Newcastle and the Northumberland countryside.

The facilities and opportunities available here are unbelievable. In my first year, I’ve been a student ambassador, a student representative, become the International Officer of the Students’ Union and I even did a placement in a local school.

This year, I’m on the Formula Student team and we are building a formula-style racing car from scratch. Apart from gaining in-depth engineering knowledge, there’s so much happening to develop other important skills.

The course itself is very much job-oriented as we are trained to use industry standard software and the lecturers are very approachable and friendly. At the moment I’m applying for a placement year in industry and the engineering department’s strong link with external companies is definitely helping.

I’m hoping to go into research after I graduate and I’m sure that a degree from the University of Sunderland will open doors."