Daniel Bunyan (BSc Psychology)

Hi, my name is Daniel and I recently finished my final exams for my BSc Psychology degree at The University of Buckingham.

When deciding what university I wanted to attend, Buckingham was appealing to me as I had heard many positive things related to the satisfaction of the students and the quality of the lecturers. Like many other people, the accelerated programme of the two-year degree caught my attention and made The University of Buckingham a serious contender for my first choice. However unlike many other people, I had to factor in the idea that this was my local university. At the time I was completing my A-levels in the school opposite the Franciscan building where I also did my GSCEs, I worked at a restaurant in town where students at the university would also earn extra money and I had shared many a drink in the local pubs. Buckingham is my hometown and I had to decide whether it was going to be a part of the next chapter of my life.

Having walked past the campus hundreds of times on my commute to school, I quickly began to associate the idea of my future life at university with Buckingham which was supported by the fact that I was surrounded by glowing references and satisfied students within the town. Some people close to me tried to discourage me from going local and suggested that I went off to a bigger university. However, I ended up going against their judgement in favour of the familiarity that I have with Buckingham which helped to make the transition a lot easier. Regardless of where I ended up, I always knew that the move from school to university was going to be a major change that presented challenge and uncertainty which I found to be extremely daunting at the time. This is where I consider myself to be lucky as the university local to me offers such a unique experience in the sense that the individual support and the active engagement from the lecturers would allow me to better focus on my studies by being tailored to my own needs. Additionally, the condensed duration of the course would afford me the time following my degree to travel and further explore places where I may have missed out staying so close to home.

With these thoughts in mind, I can now reflect on my time at the university as I have recently completed my course in psychology. As mentioned before, a big part of my decision to remain local was to do with the two-year degree which meant that I was relying on my own ability to keep up with the demands of the content. I found that I was able to keep on top of the workload, although it was not always easy and at times I really struggled. Being fresh out of school I was able to cope with managing deadlines and working alongside the lecturers better than some of my other peers, my personal tutors then guided me through some of the adjustments that naturally came with university and ensured that I knew what resources were available to me. In terms of the transition of going to university, time was taken in the opening weeks to fully outline what to expect and make sure that we were prepared. After this the deadlines start to come and the expectation begins to mount, at which point students come together to help each other out and university life is well underway.

Something that I had not considered at the beginning which became more apparent over time was the role that I played within the cultures at Buckingham. I was aware of these different cultures and how there was a variety of backgrounds on campus, but I had imagined myself being an observer to this diversity with little to contribution as I was the local lad living in his hometown. In reality, you had a lot of people coming a long way to make Buckingham their home, at which point I felt a responsibility to welcome my new friends and be a representative of the place that moulded me into the person I am today.

If you are somebody local who is considering coming to The University of Buckingham, to answer every single question you have and address any doubt that you will inevitably have I can assure you that you will be ok. I support the positive comments that you will hear made about the University and the resources that they have available which helped me to cross the finish line. I have worked with numerous members of staff who have allowed me to grow and get the most out of my studies despite of any challenges that I faced. My life outside of university has remained connected with my family and I still get to see my friends from school, in some cases introducing them to my peers from university. In terms of my next steps, I am now going to use the extra free time to travel and spend some time away from Buckingham.