Author Archives: Olivia

“Birkbeck opened the door to my new life”

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Catherine Bourne’s life was changed when she witnessed the exploitation of human rights in Georgia. It led her to study MA Human Rights 33 years later and embark on a career change. This is her story. 

Catherine Bourne

The moment that changed my life 

It was 1989 and I was 18 years old, studying Foreign Languages at university and living in the city of Tbilisi, Georgia. I was participating in a peaceful demonstration for independence, but we were met with violent retaliations by the Soviet Army which left 21 people dead, mainly young women aged 16 and 18. Witnessing these events unfold in front of my eyes was when I first questioned the understanding and laws of human rights.   

10 years later, I moved to London to start a new life  

I give birth to a girl and a boy and then in 2005, I accepted a job in my son’s school, working with autistic children and supporting them. It felt so rewarding to be able to help them.  

In 2012, I filed for a divorce because of domestic violence 

This personal experience ignited something inside of me and it was a similar feeling I had back in 1989 at the demonstration: I felt I needed to do something and be an advocate for the rights of women and children. In 2019 I decided to take the leap and I was accepted to study MA Human Rights at Birkbeck. 

I was so scared to start studying again after 20 years 

My children were my biggest supporters and they encouraged me to persevere, even though I was frightened I wouldn’t be able to do it. I even ran away from the Library on my first day. 

The course was everything I could have hoped for 

I found the lectures so stimulating and especially enjoyed the module on the future globalization of human rights. I was pleased to make friends on the course who I still keep in touch with now. My application to the Birkbeck Hardship Fund also meant I was given a personal laptop which I’m so grateful for. 

Volunteering with Afghan mums  

I’m building up my confidence to work in the field of human rights, by volunteering every week with Afghan mums and assisting them with questions about living in the UK and teaching them English.  

I’m so excited for the future and embarking on a new career in human rights. I was uncertain about doing a degree aged 49 but Birkbeck offers the chance for everyone to study and change their lives, regardless of age, background or circumstance. For others who are my age and wondering if it is the right thing to do, I’d say go for it!  

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“Because of Birkbeck I’m living my dream as a writer”

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Tasneem Abdur-Rashid has just graduated from MA Creative Writing and is now pursuing her dream of becoming a writer, having just landed a book deal. This is her story. 

Tasneem Abdur-Rashid

This is the moment I’ve been waiting for my whole life 

I took the decision to quit my full-time job and go self-employed after finishing my degree at Birkbeck and securing a two-book publishing deal. My days are now filled with writing, reading and going to fancy coffee shops. It’s amazing!  

I started the Master’s degree 16 years after my undergraduate degree 

My first degree was in Writing and Media Studies at Middlesex University. Even after graduating back then I knew I wanted to do a Master’s in Creative Writing, but the timing wasn’t quite right because I chose to move to Dubai in my twenties. I lived there for 7 years, working for magazines and government in communications. I met my husband in Dubai and we returned to the UK to have children. After my second child was born, I had that niggling feeling in the back of my mind – I knew I still wanted to pursue my childhood dream of being an author. That’s when I applied for a scholarship from the Aziz Foundation to help fund my studies at Birkbeck; which I was thrilled to be awarded. 

Life was incredibly hectic  

I balanced studying part-time at Birkbeck with a full-time job in Communications at Barnardo’s and raising my two children, now aged 7 and 5. I also live an hour and a half away from Birkbeck in Essex, so I worked in Barnardo’s head office in Bloomsbury on the same days I had in-person lectures. 

Rejection after rejection 

I had written my book before starting at Birkbeck, but I was growing increasingly frustrated because I kept being turned down by literary agents and couldn’t work out why. When I reached out to my Birkbeck tutor for advice, she said I needed to reduce the word count by nearly half so we reduced it by 60,000 words, cutting down subplots and characters. I pitched it again to agents and secured a two-book publishing deal straight away!  

Tasneem Abdur-Rashid with her mother and sister

At school, I was the kid who bunked off school to go to the local library 

I had three library cards, and even that wasn’t enough! I was a real bookworm and read a huge number of books growing up. What struck me was that none of the book characters were ever like me. As a Bengali woman born and raised in London, I couldn’t relate to anyone in young adult books, because my life was so different. 

My book is the book I wish I had when I was a young girl growing up 

Representation matters, and I want people like me to pick up my book and find characters they can relate to. My debut rom-com, Finding Mr Perfectly Fine, is being published this summer. It is about a 29-year-old Bengali, Muslim woman from London, trying to find a husband because of parental pressure to be married by 30. The inspiration for the main character comes from a mixture of people I know, but I think the story transcends culture because finding a partner is a universal challenge. 

Birkbeck is special because everyone is there to make it count 

It’s a close-knit community, filled with ambitious people. Regular creative writing workshops, where students submitted pieces of work that was critiqued by everyone else, were life-changing. I received so much support and praise for my work, which is when I realised that I could make a career out of writing. We continue to meet every couple of months as a group to share our work and successes, which is so valuable.  

If I had to describe Birkbeck in three words, I would say it is supportive, empowering, and flexible. I would encourage anyone considering studying at Birkbeck to go for it, it might change your life, like it has mine. 

Further information

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How Birkbeck is widening access to education

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This term Birkbeck’s Access and Engagement team held a series of online and in-person events designed to empower prospective students and learners on their journey to university education. In this blog, Isabelle Habib, Access Manager, reflects on the inspiring events.  

Campus visit in March

Birkbeck’s Access and Engagement team have held a number of events this year for prospective students and learners who are interested in finding out more about university study. The first cross-department event was held on campus and it was fantastic to welcome learners to Birkbeck’s home in Bloomsbury; we are already looking forward to hosting further events on campus in the summer term.  

All the activities were shared with our partners who were encouraged to invite their members to register to attend. We were so pleased to be joined by individuals from community groups in Camden and Newham London Boroughs, Further Education Colleges, Trade Unions and Forced Migrant Charities. The aim of these events is to introduce attendees to what they can expect from university and from studying at Birkbeck, in order to build individuals’ knowledge and confidence around the application process. 

Is university for me? 

Our first event of this term was held in February, entitled ‘Is Uni For Me?’, and was a workshop delivered online. We were pleased to be joined by Birkbeck academic Dr Kristoffer Ahlstrom-Vij, from the Department of Philosophy, who shared a video about ‘Political Knowledge and Preference’, with the group of prospective students. Kristoffer led a lively discussion with the group following the video, giving participants the chance to ask questions about the discipline and how courses are taught at Birkbeck. 

The event also included an introduction to the benefits of university, and participants had the opportunity to hear from two current students about their own experiences of studying at Birkbeck. The workshop was attended by people at different stages in their journey to university and many of the participants went on to join us at further workshops hosted this term.  

Money workshop 

In March, attendees were invited to attend a ‘Money and Student Finance’ event, which was led by Daniel Becker, one of Birkbeck’s Student Advice advisors. Daniel spoke to the group about the process of applying for student finance and we discussed other funding opportunities, such as grants and scholarships. Attendees went away with a better understanding of how the student loan system works and what they need to bear in mind when they apply. Sharing knowledge around financing studies with prospective learners is a key area Birkbeck is improving on.

Team Birkbeck Ambassadors Aditya and Showbi talking to prospective students at the campus visit in March

Campus visit   

The final event in the series, and the most exciting for our team this year, was a ‘Campus Visit and Application Workshop’. This event was held in March on a beautiful sunny day, that really showed off Bloomsbury at its best! The first official cross-department event delivered in person since the start of the pandemic, it felt fantastic to be able to offer advice on campus again and show off our facilities to prospective students. As part of the day, we hosted an application workshop in one of the Birkbeck IT suites, and it was brilliant to speak with individuals about their educational aspirations.  

In addition to our Get Started activities this term, our Access Officers have been hosting specialized events for partners. We ran our second Taster Series of the academic year with the Department of Law, and launched the activities in the lead up to applications opening for the Compass Project Scholarship, that provides a stepping stone into higher education for people from a forced migrant background. We are now really looking forward to the Summer term and to meeting even more prospective learners at activities on campus.   

Further information 

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How free taster courses at Birkbeck are inspiring people to enter higher education

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For those who have never studied at a UK university, knowing where to start can be daunting. In this blog, Birkbeck Access Officer Ali Sheldrick discusses the taster courses available at Birkbeck and demonstrates how the courses are run by explaining the recent Management taster course.  

Applying to university can be a confusing and unsettling process. Deciding which course to take, which university to study at, whether to study part-time or full-time, or in-person or online, can easily overwhelm students. And this is especially true for those who are thinking about going to university for the first time. To help with this, Birkbeck’s Access and Engagement department have created a series of free taster courses to provide a way for potential students to try out a university level course in an easily accessible way.  

Our ‘Get Started’ taster courses are a free programme of classes which aim to give people without experience of studying at a UK university an opportunity to sample evening study at Birkbeck. We run each course in collaboration with Birkbeck lecturers, with a two-hour evening class running once a week over four or five weeks.  The courses also include access to a series of pre-recorded lectures and a Birkbeck site packed with free resources and readings which students can access in their own time. 

“The pre work was amazing and very insightful… it was a useful taster for what studying Management will be like at university”
Management taster course attendee

 Management taster course 

Our Management taster course ran for the first time between November and December 2021, and followed the success of courses in Law, Psychology for Education, History and Archaeology, and Community Leadership in the 2020-21 academic year.  

The pre-recorded lectures and first four classes were delivered by Dr Ian Harrison and Dr Mary Otiotio, both lecturers in the Department of Management at Birkbeck. The classes were delivered online using Microsoft Teams to a cohort of around 30 learners, many of whom were engaging with a university and online study for the first time.  

The course content revolved around some of the foundational questions in Management studies; asking attendees to consider ‘What is management?’, ‘What role does management play in organisations?’, ‘Who are managers?’ and ‘What do managers do?’. These broad questions were brought to life through case studies featuring Apple, Tesco and the NHS, and attendees contributed to classes by discussing experiences from their own places of work. Discussions even included thought experiments involving broccoli and Marmite! Here’s what we covered each week:  

Week 1: Managing in organisations  

In the first session we considered the role of management in organisations, what management is and what it involves, who managers are and what they do. 

Week 2: Models of management  

We introduced theories and models of management and how they have shaped management thinking and influenced approaches to managing in organisations. 

Week 3: Leadership and motivation  

We considered a specific but integral aspect of management: leadership. We looked into what leadership means, what it involves and how it influences other workers in organisations.  

Week 4: People management and diversity  

We focussed on the key resource of any organisation: its people. How we manage, inspire and empower a diverse workforce to achieve individual and organisational goals.  

Week 5: Emotional intelligence for managers and continuing your learning 

In the first part of this class, we explored the importance of emotional intelligence to managers, what it involves and what we can do to increase our own emotional intelligence. The second part of the session provided attendees with an opportunity to talk with current students and reflect on what they learned during the course. We finished the course by exploring potential next steps for attendees’ learning journeys. 

“The course exceeded my expectations. I came with no knowledge prior to the sessions and I feel enlightened.”
Management taster course attendee

The Access and Engagement department will be running a second free taster course in Law starting on Monday 28 February 2022 – sign up here to register your place! 

We will also be delivering a taster course in Psychology in Education in May 2022 (date tbc) and a wider programme of outreach activity with both current and prospective students across the academic year, including ‘Is University for Me?’ events in February and May 2022, plus much more!  

For more information about our work and how to get involved, please email getstarted@bbk.ac.uk or explore our webpage.  

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