A first-class relocation for Mr and Mrs Coles

Married couple Neil and Jennifer Coles relocated from Peterborough to Middlesbrough to enrol on separate degrees at Teesside University.

The move paid off, as both graduated in the same week with first-class degrees, Neil with a BA (Hons) in History and Jenni with a BA (Hons) in Business Studies with Law.

In addition to their firsts, the couple were also awarded special prizes; Neil received the Dick Richardson Memorial Prize and the Historical Association Award, while Jenni gained the Teesside Business School Prize. Neil, 49, and Jenni, 40, have been married for eight years and first met while working at King's Cross Station, London. After being made redundant from the railways, Neil thought about returning to education and pursuing his passion for history.

Neil said: 'I left school at 16 with few qualifications as I didn’t make the most of the opportunities on offer. I’d been with the railways for 23 years and wanted to start afresh, and Jenni also wanted to do a degree. We searched carefully on the Internet and found that Teesside had a good reputation for history and we also found it was welcoming to mature students, which some universities weren’t. Tutors were absolutely fantastic, so enthusiastic and knowledgeable 'So we moved to Middlesbrough. We didn’t have any ties with the area but that wasn’t a problem, it was a new experience and an opportunity. It was very good to study together, we could help each other and to both get a first and prizes was brilliant.' Jenni has stayed on at the University and has just finished the first term of a Master of Science degree in marketing management.

She has received the University’s postgraduate bursary of £2,400 to study for this. Jenni said: 'Like Neil I left school at 16, I just didn’t value education. But now I’ve got the study bug, I feel the world’s my oyster!

'It helped to be studying alongside each other; we understood the pressures we were going through - although it was hectic at exam times and when we were both trying to finish our final year dissertations!

'I made the right choice to come here; some of the tutors were absolutely fantastic, so enthusiastic and knowledgeable, they definitely contributed to my success.'

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