Roo Dhissou

Fine Art MA, BA (Hons)

Roo wasn’t sure what she wanted to do after graduating from her undergraduate degree, but her love of art has led her to complete a Master’s and now she’s almost completed her PhD. Alongside her studies, she’s also started her own printing press. 

“My brother had been the only person in our family to attend University before me, my family did not value education in the way that many other families do.

I graduated from BCU with a BA (Hons) Fine Art degree in 2014, but I never would have imaged that I’d be returning to complete not only a Master’s degree, but also a PhD, both fully funded by scholarships.

When I finished my undergraduate degree, I worked for a supermarket in operations and management, giving me the maturity and focus I needed in life.

But I missed being creative and analytical. With the life experience I’d gained, I wrote an application for my Master's degree and applied for a scholarship. Not only was I accepted onto the course in 2019, but I was also awarded the prestigious Gertude Aston Bowater Award which covered the full fees of my course. I was delighted.

In my application, I wrote about life experience, during the five years in employment, I suffered great tragedies and traumas and just about survived a life-threatening experience. It made me appreciate my life and I decided to give something I love, the arts, another chance.

I graduated from my Master’s in 2020 with a distinction in Fine Art Research Practice. It was a tough time to study during Covid, as I had to shield as a clinically vulnerable person and as a result, I had no access to the art school workshops. I was devasted, but did not want to let that defeat my chances of becoming an artist again, so I made do with whatever I had at home during the pandemic. I became extremely resourceful, and this is now the backbone of my artistic practice.

After a year out of education, I applied for the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership and was successful. I’m now near completion of my PhD, which is a continuation of my master's Research Practice, alongside being an Artist, Researcher and Lecturer. The odds were severely stacked against me, but I have succeeded and thrived.

I am very thankful to have been given the opportunity by BCU to restart my career as an artist. It has not been easy, and challenges continued to grow in my life with health precarity and more uncertainty. One thing has been a constant though, and that is the encouragement I have had from BCU’s wellbeing team and my tutors in progressing in my career.

Over the past five years at BCU, I have received many prestigious accolades, including the Tate Liverpool Student Award, a grant from Arts Council England, and recognition from Bloomberg New Contemporaries, alongside my work being acquired for the Arts Council National Collection and showcased in significant national exhibitions, as well as having work commissioned.

It has been a surreal 5 years. I know that studying and pushing my practice has only been possible studying at BCU.

I’ve also recently launched my own publishing press, Jalebi Press, with a successful Kickstarter campaign for my first publication.

Without BCU I doubt I would not have achieved so much; the structure, wellbeing support and disability team have created a space for me to thrive as an individual.

I now give back as much as I can to those who do not have the resources, and I share the skills I have with them so that they can help themselves. This is what I AM BCU means to me.

Having three degrees from BCU, I am an example of what it means to find a career in what you love and thrive when all odds are stacked against you.”