Summer study leads student to embark on University degree

Chris Chapman jumped at the chance to sign up to study at Teesside during the summer - and it’s inspired him to become a full-time student.

He was the 1,000th student to enrol on one of the many free courses in a wide variety of subjects on offer during our Summer University.

Chris, 19, of Norton, signed up for the four week Into History course as he was planning a return to full-time education. And having successfully completed Summer School he is now looking forward to starting a BA (Hons) History degree, which recently scored 100% for student satisfaction in the National Student Survey.

A great place to study Chris took a year out after leaving college to work in retail, before deciding to return to study.

He said: ‘I thought about returning to education as it seemed that for most jobs I was interested in you needed to have a degree. I looked at studying History as it’s a subject which I’m interested in.

‘The advertisements for Teesside University caught my eye and being local I thought it would be a great place to study, with the Summer School offering a great introduction to becoming a full-time degree student.’

He added: ‘The Summer School course has been really interesting. It’s also helped me to get back into writing essays and meeting deadlines. The age of people on the course ranged from retired, to students just starting at university, which helped to bring depth and variety when discussing different topics during the course.

‘Summer University is a great idea, the courses are free and you can gain University credits too which can be used towards other qualifications. It also offers a chance to sample a course to see if you would be interested in studying it full-time.’

Chris, who also volunteers with the Territorial Army Military Police, said: ‘I’m really looking forward to starting the degree and hope to follow that with a Professional Graduate Certificate in Education as I’m interested in going into teaching.’

Offering a taste of higher education Along with just over a thousand students who signed up for the free, short courses at Teesside, nearly 200 signed up for the Summer University courses held at Darlington College.

Karen Williams, Recruitment Co-ordinator at the University, said: ‘These short courses provide university-level study in a range of subjects.

'They are designed to offer a taste of higher education to students new to higher education, along with those seeking to return to education or wanting to develop new skills.’

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