"Join a society to meet people but don’t join too many. It's really tempting to sign up for everything but remember to leave enough time for studying."
David Stern
Age: 22
Course: Film and Television Studies (third year)
“I chose Nottingham because it was one of the few that offered a theory-based course, and the Department had one of the best ratings in the country. For me, it was a chance to do something different. When I came here, I saw the campus and thought, “Wow, this is a beautiful university!” It’s incredibly green, too.
I like a lot of things about the course. The lecturers are brilliant and have given me help whenever I’ve needed it. It’s very different from being at school - you can get to know the staff personally, instead of them just being people who teach you.
The modules are really interesting, and I’ve particularly enjoyed looking at children’s education, and the creation of children’s identities through the media. We also did a module called Interrogating Practice – rather than looking at the films themselves we looked at the auxiliary texts, and the role of the trailers and reviews in creating a film’s identity.
There are lots of things to do outside of your course. I’m the president of the Aegis Society which brings people together to understand genocide and its root causes. As well as running events on campus, we work with the local Darfurian community and run an annual trip to Rwanda.
My route into Nottingham was slightly unusual because I took an access course – I left school after doing my GCSEs and wasn’t sure what I wanted to do at that point. I would definitely recommend an access course, and found that it was very easy to contact the University about it.
At the moment, I think I’d like to do a masters degree although I’m undecided in what. Eventually, I’d like to go into directing documentary films.”