This is the latest in our series of case studies sharing the experiences of current mature students at Sheffield Hallam. This time we hear from Catherine Ridley, who is on the BSc Occupational Therapy course in her third and final year.

Over to you Catherine…

Before starting this course, I had worked in retail for nine years. I was not enjoying it and a period of illness had affected my mobility and made me reassess my priorities and I had a desire to pursue a more fulfilling career. However, the course was going to be very different from what I had been used to. I was very apprehensive about making a career change, as I had been out of the education system for some time. How would I find the travelling? Would I enjoy the course? Would I like the people? How would I manage financially? The thought of undertaking placements made me very nervous, as this was something that I had not encountered before.

I planned to commute into Sheffield and I had reached an agreement with my husband and my parents that I could stay with my parents, who live close to Sheffield, during the week, as this would cut down on my travelling time significantly. I live a 90 minute train ride away and the thought of doing this journey twice a day every day was not appealing, as I have a musculo-skeletal disorder and tire very easily.

The first few weeks were spent getting used to all the changes and I found this very challenging. The talk about expectations of healthcare and how placements were allocated made me question whether I was doing the right thing in pursuing the course, but I reasoned that there was no point in blowing things out of proportion and I was not expected to know or do everything perfectly straight away. This helped me to put things into perspective. Having been to university before, it took some time to get used to electronic assignments, submissions, e-lectures and lots of emails, but I soon got the hang of this.

A member of staff spoke about the importance of students with disabilities setting up a learning contract and I made this a priority during the first few weeks. My contract entitles me to have a supportive chair to sit in during lectures/seminars, longer loans on library books, the use the computer chairs in the learning centre that have extra support and I can have extensions on assignments where necessary. All of these changes have made such a difference to my university experience and I would urge any students who are in a similar situation to set up a learning contract too.

Academic staff also gave us hints and tips to make our learning experience easier. I found the session on referencing particularly helpful, as we were shown a website called RefWorks, which is a referencing tool that you can use alongside the Library Gateway. If you export your references from Library Gateway to RefWorks, this system can work out all of your references and put them into SHU Havard style. All you have to do is copy and paste! You are also encouraged to use other resources, such as webfolio packages. I have used these from the start and I believe that this has put me at an advantage, as I have a good timeline of the work that I have completed.

As I was a mature student, I was apprehensive about how well I would connect with people on my course, especially as I live 60 miles away! This took time and effort on my part, but by the end of the first term this became a lot easier. However, being on a healthcare course and already having an established ‘life’ outside university, for me the course is my first priority, as the NHS is paying for it!

I have found that with all the challenges that come alongside being a mature student that it is a worthwhile experience and you can make the most of it, if you are able to. I have taken part of the various opportunities that I have had as a result of my course and this has enhanced my university experience significantly.

Take a look at our infographic for more facts about mature students at SHU and visit our blog pages for mature students to find out more about support available to mature learners within the University.