Student stories

I hope that anyone following a similar journey in my field will find that the path has been smoothed by people like me who have fixed the issues we’ve found along the way. Hopefully it won’t be many more years before being a ‘female engineer’ is so normal that it is no longer noteworthy – that’s when we’ll know we have succeeded!

The course itself is unlike any others offered elsewhere in the UK, with practical language skills at the core of the Modern Languages courses. Moving away from studying traditional literature opened up a world of politics, culture, translation and history that I wouldn’t have been able to study otherwise. 

My degree from Surrey provided me with the skills and experiences necessary to be competitive in the current job market. This included the use of engineering software, working in multidisciplinary teams, practical skills and problem solving.

I am incredibly fortunate to have graduated and gone straight into 'Les Misérables' in the West End as 1st cover Éponine. In fact, I’m doing Les Mis with 11 other "GSAers" (including creatives!), two of whom are from my cohort! We wouldn’t have had this opportunity without GSA.

I found sessions organised by Economics with different potential employers important when they came for an on campus visit ahead of the careers day. These sessions were filled with insights from many different industries that helped me decide on the way forward.

GSA provided me with the variety of skills and the broad knowledge needed to develop a sustainable career in theatre.

GSA had a great network of staff and student communication so there was always someone to talk to if you needed help or advice on anything.

I initially did the course because I wanted a degree to be able to teach, but I got so much more than that. It taught me a different perspective on life and myself and has given me more confidence in my abilities.

One benefit of the economics programme is that all first year modules are uniform across a few different degrees. This means if you’re not sure whether you want to do pure economics, or maybe add in some finance or business, you have time to decide and switch later. This is something I know a lot of people took advantage of.