Enriching the postgraduate experience

Lectures and essays do not exclusively compound the postgraduate experience. University life, as the University of Brighton sees it, is a much more complete network of resources to make learning an on-going and enriching process.

Modules deliver the basic outcomes for all courses; to achieve thought-through goals however, the university experience does not stop there.

By hosting research seminars, such as a recent one titled The visibility of female athletes: Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games coverage in European countries, the University of Brighton is actively inspiring knowledge-thirsty minds to participate in academia – expanding the learning experience in a level where both lecturers and students are mere observants of external ideas that diverse from the modules’ structures. The practicality attached to research allows students to broaden their horizons, pushing the barriers of what they know further in their minds, and providing them with a complete different set of tools that will add to their box of competences.

The seminar opened with presentations by Dr Delorme (University of Bordeaux) and Dr Hab Jukabowska (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan). Dr Delmore’s focused on quantitative gender representation in written media, whilst Dr Jukabowska’s explored the qualitative portrayal of female athletes.

Attendees included those on the Sport and International Development MSc and the International Event Management MSc and the post-presentation debate that blossomed in the room was a passionate and practical learning experience for all – a current, real life, research project discussion.

One student commented: “It was really interesting, held in a laid-back sort of environment – completely different from the dynamics of the lectures.

“As a student, I felt like I was contributing into something greater than I had ever experienced before, but the setting was so relaxed it seemed like a group of friends simply discussing ideas.”

Seminars like this are all about the learning experience and the resources the university presents to its students enables them to choose their own path and speed to make the most of their postgraduate (and graduate) experience. We hope that our students will themselves come back one day and share their own research with the next generation of professionals.