Jack Walton

Media and Communication - BA (Hons)

As a child of a single parent, Jack didn’t think that attending university was financially possible. With the help of student finance, he has been able to go above and beyond during his time at BCU and is an extremely active member of the student community.

"My journey to BCU certainly wasn’t a simple one. I never wanted to go to university during high school or even after, I just didn’t see it as something I wanted to do. However, during my final year of college, I realised I wanted to learn more and have the chance to do different things. It was so last minute I didn’t have long to fill in the UCAS form.

BCU was my first choice of university and lucky for me I got a conditional offer, based on me achieving certain grades in college - which I did. I did however encounter some challenges along the way. Because choosing to go to university was quite last minute, I had a big discussion with my family. At first, we thought it would be a struggle in terms of finances, and not realistically achievable.

I have a single parent and I’m the only person to attend university in several generations. I had many hesitations about going to uni during those initial stages. I thought it wouldn’t be for me and I’d have to struggle to pay for things. That’s before we found out properly about student finance which has made all of this possible and something which I’m incredibly grateful for.

To me ‘I AM BCU’ means being part of something bigger. Being at BCU has been my favourite educational experience by a long shot. I feel part of a community here, I can be my true self –something that I hadn’t experienced until my first year here, and it was beyond refreshing and a big relief.

I don’t just attend lectures and go home, I get involved and try as much as possible to immerse myself in the experience here. I attend Graduate+ workshops, and have worked as an ambassador at Open Days and the Summer School as well as the Clearing hotline. I’ve also been the School of Media rep in my final year. Basically, I try and get involved in as much as I can and the opportunities are pretty endless.

One of the things I love most about being a student at BCU is the freedom we have to express ourselves creatively. In my modules, I get to do things I have a genuine interest in and when you do what you love it doesn’t really feel like work.

I also love the community of students and staff, I email several lecturers regularly and don’t view them as I did school teachers for example. It’s a nice working relationship we have.

One of the challenging things about being a student at BCU is the work and social life balance, which I sometimes struggle to get right. During my first year, I went out lots more and felt like I had to juggle seeing people and working much more. Luckily, after you find your feet this isn’t really an issue, and everything does calm down and falls into place. The workload at times has been vast, especially now I’m in my final year, but because the majority of work I do is enjoyable, this doesn’t bother me so much.

Being at BCU has helped me to no end. I have more confidence and have done so many things I never imagined doing."