Why I chose to study at Leeds Beckett

What attracted me to Leeds Beckett was the city of Leeds itself. Coming from a small seaside town in Wales, the big city life has always excited me. I was ready to dive into a new adventure and I had always heard good things about Leeds.

Leeds is also well known for its amazing student nightlife - which I can confirm exceeded my expectations as a fresher! Being home to thousands of students, Leeds has an energetic atmosphere and the people here are fun, outgoing, and friendly. For me this was always important. After visiting on an Applicant Day, I fell in love with Leeds even more and just couldn’t wait to live and study here.

Choosing to study PR

I’m studying Public Relations and Brand Communications, a course in the Leeds Business School. I’ve always been a strong communicator and enjoy staying on top of the latest news and trends, as well as regularly posting on social media. I was very keen to channel these interests and skills into my future career. I did some research on courses and discovered PR. I instantly knew it was the perfect course for me as it ticked all my boxes and I’m so happy I applied. Through my course so far, I have gained an enormous number of skills and experiences. From working on real-life client campaigns and briefs to creating my own personal branding and content, I’ve achieved so much in my three years.

The teaching is high quality and I love the modules

A big selling point of Beckett was that the Chartered Institute of Public Relations - the world’s leading professional body for PR professionals -accredits all of the university’s PR courses. I also did my research on the teaching standards and could see Leeds Beckett has a silver rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework. This means the teaching is high quality - something that is important to me.

After deciding that this was the uni for me, I just had to select which PR course I wanted to study. At the time I was applying, there were three different undergraduate PR degrees to choose from at Beckett, BA (Hons) Public Relations and Brand Communication, BA (Hons) Public Relations with Journalism, and BA (Hons) Marketing and Public Relations.

After evaluating the modules, Public Relations and Brand Communications seemed like the perfect course for me. Not only does this course involve learning about client campaigns and how to manage them, but I’m also taught how to brand myself as a PR practitioner through the personal branding modules. Overall, what I love about this course is the freedom to be creative in my practical work while understanding the principles of Public Relations through the more theoretical modules.

Leeds Beckett has great industry connections

At the Applicant Day I found out about the placement connections. This was important to me being career driven and wanting to get the best possible experience out of my course. Through studying at LBU, I have benefitted from the strong industry connections the university has with various charities, employers, and business partners. For example, I created a campaign for homeless charity Simon on the Streets and had the opportunity to take part in the GlobCom project, a worldwide virtual team learning project run by the Global Communication Institute. In addition, Beckett has a partnership with IKEA – the company’s only such collaboration in the UK. These sorts of connections are invaluable, helping me to grow as an individual and equipping me with the skills to succeed.

I love the placement opportunities

As someone who is eager for hands-on experience, knowing that the course had a placement year option was a big selling point for me. Once here I decided to do the LBU Sandwich Year. This was a twelve-month placement that saw me working as an event and conference coordinator for a professional event management company called Hg3 in Harrogate. This has been a fantastic opportunity and when I graduate next year, I know I will be a stronger candidate for jobs.

There’s lots of extracurricular activities

The other thing that appealed me about Leeds Beckett was the extracurricular activities available. I have participated in many of them, including the Social Impact Programme which involved me volunteering for a charity in the Leeds community. I have also completed the Level 2 Mentoring and Leadership Award and have been employed as a Marketing Ambassador for the university. The opportunities that have come through choosing Leeds Beckett have been endless and have helped me develop as a person, not just as a student.

In addition to academic based extracurricular activities, I’m also involved in sports. While I spend most of my time at City Campus, every Thursday I go up to the beautiful Headingley Campus for netball training. Being a sporty person, it was essential that any uni I chose had excellent sports facilities. LBU is the place to be if you love sports like me. The Carnegie Sports Centre at LBU’s Headingley campus has been used by several Olympians for training, including Leeds lads Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee

Overall, I’m so happy I chose to study at LBU, the extracurricular activities, facilities, modules and teaching have lived up to all my expectations. I also couldn’t thank my lecturers enough for their support and encouragement on this course - they have all been great.