When someone suggested I go to university at the age of 24, I thought they were crazy – I surely wouldn’t get accepted in to uni at my age! But after visiting the Bournemouth University website and reading about the interesting courses on offer, I decided to find out if it was actually an option for me.

Higher education wasn’t for me after high school – I started working for myself at 17 and left school without any A levels. I ran various successful business ventures as well as carrying out some freelance work, but after 7 years I felt I wanted a change.

I wanted to be more involved with the marketing industry and work on projects as part of a team, rather than on my own. However I didn’t want to just go into a job in marketing without having any real industry knowledge (everything I knew about the subject was self taught and was minimal). The Marketing Communications course at Bournemouth University sounded really interesting and after visiting an Open Day, I decided it was what I wanted to do.

The session for mature students at the open day was a great chance to ask questions about how life differs as a mature student – and the answers were generally that it doesn’t have to be different if you don’t want it to be! I also spoke to the finance team about funding available and they informed me I would probably be entitled to additional maintenance grants as a mature student.

The lecturers I spoke to at the Open Day encouraged me that I would become a valued student if I was to come to the university, bringing my additional life experience with me. In fact, there are many great benefits to going to university as a mature student.