Five ways my Humanities degree has stood me in good stead

I now spend my time trying to devise strategies to help international students choose where they study, as director of global recruitment for Oxford Brookes.

That means a lot of time thinking about, and implementing measures to support the international student experience and how we position the university in a crowded marketplace.

I am slightly ashamed that a key driver for me to study in Newcastle was a (then) newly developed fondness for how Alan Shearer played football, as I had transitioned from bullish centre half to bullish centre forward in my late teens, and was attempting to model my football on the Newcastle number nine. 

This meant that I was excited when I got to the city, and knew that it was the place for me to study for my degree.

It’s been 10 years since I graduated, and the more I think about what my time at university taught me, the more grateful I am for it as it has given me skills, experiences and lessons that I carry with me to this day, and hope to carry and build upon throughout my life. Here are a few snippets of them!

1. Attending seminars has prepared me for work meetings. My performance in seminars was best when I had prepared. Do the reading, have an idea of how you want to contribute. Being prepared is something that I have carried into my working life. Doing the reading before the meeting, and thinking about how I can best contribute ahead of time are skills that I try to bring to meetings I am chairing or attending now. I’m grateful to have been building this skill set since I started my undergraduate Humanities degree.
2. As part of my undergraduate degree, I was able to spend a year studying overseas, in Atlanta, Georgia. Spending this year in the States, as a lad who had grown up in Northamptonshire, encouraged a curiosity in internationalisation and diversity which led me to living in the most diverse cities in the UK, and into the world of work in international education. If I hadn’t stumbled upon that opportunity I don’t know where I would have ended up, but I am delighted to be in this industry.
3. Studying history meant a lot of reading. It meant a lot of reading, and then having to find the most salient points, and re-wording them to support or challenge the argument that I was trying to make.  Absorbing a lot of information, whether in a pitch from an organisation who are trying to sell something to me, or from a student or partner explaining their engagement with the university, and trying to turn that into something concise and actionable is a skill that I built in my degree and try to use every day at work.
4. “Plant your flag and defend your hill” is a phrase that my course director (shout out to Dr. James McConnel) used in relation to writing essays. I used the exact phrase in a team meeting recently. I often think of it when I am writing papers or adjusting approaches  in working life. Like in my degree, where I plant my flag is often carefully considered and based on data. It is then my job to ensure that those who I am trying to persuade have access to enough information to understand why that’s where the flag is, and hopefully agree with where the flag is. I’ve been honing this skill since my early assignments, and nearly 15 years later I hope I’m getting somewhere!
5. During my degree, like many, it was the first time that I lived away from home. Balancing studying, working (part-time in an Indian buffet, or refereeing football), and maintaining an active social life is something that was really important to me at university, and remains so today. I learned a lot about my own limits in terms of “burning the candle at both ends”, and about how to prioritise things that were important to me. Dealing with multiple pressures is something that I don’t think will ever go away, but it was at university that I first learned how to deal with those.

As part of my undergraduate degree, I was able to spend a year studying overseas, in Atlanta, Georgia

My Humanities degree taught me things that I continue to benefit from in all walks of my life.

I hate hearing people downplay the importance of these formative years. This list of five could easily have been a list of ten (including obscure history knowledge that’s occasionally useful in pub quizzes!). I was given great academic foundations that I continue to value and appreciate.