BBC broadcaster Kerry McLean graduates from Ulster University
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LearningTranscript
00:00So can I congratulate you? Can you just tell us what you graduated from today?
00:07Well today I graduated in Psychology, so yeah I am now officially BSc Psychology.
00:12Yay! And I heard you got a first?
00:15I got a first, yes. I have been telling people, but not as many people as my husband and my mother have been telling that I got a first, so I'm absolutely delighted.
00:23It's been a long five years of part-time study, an awful lot of four o'clocks in the morning.
00:30You know we're spotted whenever I was sitting at the dining room table trying to get all this stuff into my head and get it all sorted out, but oh my goodness it's been so worth it.
00:37And I have loved every single second of the journey.
00:41You said that you did it part-time. Is there any advice for anybody who is looking to go back to university and move to work?
00:50Well I really had to think long and hard before I came back to university because in my head I was thinking I work part-time.
00:58Sorry, I'll start again.
01:00I had to think long and hard before I came back to university because I was thinking to myself I work full-time, I've got three children, I've got a really busy, hectic life and I thought how am I going to do this, how am I going to manage?
01:13And I'm so pleased that I took that jump and I did it because I have loved my experience here.
01:19I have had so much help from all of the lecturers, everybody who has made themselves so available to answer any questions, to email me back whenever I'm emailing you know on a weekend morning,
01:34I can't tell you how much help and support has been given to me from the people that work in the university and from the group of friends that I've made since I've been here.
01:44People my own age who have come back here also doing that whole part-time study and then they understand the pressures.
01:50But also with the young people that have been here I've been so impressed with the young people who have come through and the amount of dedication and the amount of work that they have put into this.
02:01And it's just been an incredible experience.
02:08My highlight is this, this moment, getting to walk across that stage and lift that certificate and knowing that I had five long years of an awful lot of work that went into that.
02:20Oh my goodness, it was worth it. I feel like my brain has just sprung to life. I feel like I have developed a real thirst for knowledge.
02:28I want to go on, I want to do the next thing that's coming up and I just feel so proud of myself and I'm so thankful to my family and my kids and everybody, all my friends who have supported me and given me so much help.
02:39But more than anything I'm proud of myself.
02:41Well my next step is to come back here to do the MSc. So yeah, so I'm looking at a lot more four o'clock in the morning finishes for different work.
02:57But I don't mind because I know how it feels whenever you hand in that final bit of work and then you get results back and there is nothing in the world that feeds as good as that.
03:08I mean, I have got three kids and please don't tell them that I said this, but having my babies and getting my certificate kind of at the moment feel like an equal thing.
03:16So obviously you're very well here for your new postgraduate degree.
03:24To anybody who wants to get into broadcasting or get into journalism, my advice to you would be do everything that comes your way.
03:42Contact the hospital radios, get in touch with local newspapers, do something that sets you above and beyond, set up your own YouTube channel, do anything that gets you experience because there are an awful lot of good people coming through.
03:55But if you can say, look, not only am I good, not only am I studying here, but I'm also doing so much more above and beyond.
04:04But I'd also say that you've put your foot in the right direction because some of the best journalists that I know have come through here, that I've worked with day and daily in newsrooms, not only here actually, but I worked across on the Today Programme on Radio 4 for many years.
04:18And there were journalists from there, from here, from university here who have gone across and worked on the Today Programme.
04:25So I would say you have made the best start to your journalism profession by coming and starting up and signing here.
04:33Okay.