Family links and ratings attract computing graduate Deborah

Family ties and a glowing press report both played a part in attracting Deborah Matthews to the University of Teesside.

She had considered staying in her native Scotland to study, but a national newspaper story highlighting Teesside’s excellence in computing helped to change her mind.

And now Deborah will graduate today with a BSc (Hons) Computer Studies from the University.

Having visited the area in her youth, as her dad Mark left Middlesbrough for Scotland in his late teens, she already had links with Teesside.

Deborah, 22, from Fife, said: “I had been looking closer to home to study in Scotland, but then I read the article in a supplement with The Times which was rating different universities. The computing course at Teesside was rated as excellent, which led me to decide to travel down for an Open Day.

“At the Open Day I was impressed to see everything was very close together on the campus and it really close to the centre of the town.”

She added: “The course programme allowed me to choose the subject areas, which I really liked, as at the time I didn’t know which area I was most interested in. It enabled me to try different specific areas of computing as it gave a taster of each.”

Deborah specialised in Computer Networking during her degree course, which she feels set her on to the right path to securing her job as Assistant Network Manager with Racecourse Data Technologies.

She said: “Each day I am using skills, knowledge and experience which I gained at university. There are so many opportunities at Teesside that I think I would have had a completely different experience had I gone anywhere else.”

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