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AKING the decision to apply to universit y could be the moment that changes your life. For Deborah Hyde, who studied degrees in history and classical civilisation part-time at Birkbeck, University of London, that was definitely the case as it led her to discover a new passion and new career.

Hyde had spent 15 years in a successful career in television. However, in her mid-30s she decided that she wanted to broaden her horizons and began to consider university.

She says: “Nobody in my family had ever been to university before and I didn’t really know anything about the day-to-day realities of university life or study.

“Starting university was incredibly nerve-wracking. I nearly left in the middle of the first term as my nerves got the better of me, but a tutor took me aside. That sort of individualised support was incredibly important. You really felt that the history and classics teaching staff bent over backwards to help you succeed and they were so understanding of the fact that mature s t u d e n t s h ave to face c o mpet i n g priorities in their life.”

Birkbeck teaches part-time and fulltime degrees in the evenings, so that working Londoners can gain a degree, boost their career potential and experience the stimulation of studying with world-class academics and alongside