Neil Cufley at his graduation video transcript

I feel really elated. I feel proud of the achievement. I didn’t realise actually until yesterday night the enormity of how I’d feel because I work full-time and I stopped that and got in the car and then realised that I was on the road to coming here to Derby to graduate, so it’s a great feeling.

I think I’m nervous about tripping up on the stage. I hope I don’t do that. I think just soaking up the atmosphere is the best part of today and looking at the achievement of so many people here at Derby Arena.

I found out about the course through something called The Military Transition Partnership and that had the UDOL course listed as a course partner that would be able to offer something for ex-military types wanting to look at a Masters level qualification.

I think I’m going to capitalise on my Masters qualification and move on to a PhD following consultation with the staff here at Derby to see whether my proposal would be valid and move onto doctorate level.

The best thing for me about the online study was that I could do the work at my own pace. I could work at one o’clock in the morning or at four o’clock in the morning, it didn’t matter.

My tutor, Faye Taylor, was amazing and really helped me along. We used to use Skype and email to communicate and it was the pace that I could do my work at, I could do a burst and do quite a lot and then a couple of weeks when I didn’t do anything so I was able to do the work at my own pace.

I’ve gained a great deal of self-confidence. I’ve learnt that I can actually study a masters-level qualification and that I’ve got the self-confidence and self-discipline to achieve a really decent result. I’m chuffed obviously to be here, having graduated. I think UDOL has been really supportive and, if I had my chance, I would do it again.

Neil Cufley at his graduation video

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