The course was highly recommended by my college in Toronto

Alexandria Brown is a successful writer, editor, and CEO of a publishing house Rising Action Publishing Collective based in Vancouver, Canada. She is also doing a PhD in Creative Writing at University of Gloucestershire.

Partner progression

Alexandria graduated from Humber College, one of our progression partners in Canada. From there, she continued to the Masters in Creative Writing at University of Gloucestershire. “It was highly recommended MA programme by Humber College in Toronto. They had students who had gone through it and everyone loved it. I read their testimonials and decided to do it.”

PhD

Alexandria was so happy about her MA programme that she decided to continue onto PhD. As part of it, she is writing a fiction novel and critical research on cultural connection and trauma and how this is portrayed in fiction. She says that doing a PhD is a real challenge, so her advice to potential students is to be clear about your motivation: “Being able to contribute to any kind of knowledge to the world is amazing. Find a research topic you feel passionate about and supervisors that you connect with. Everything feels easier because I have two people in my corner who want to see me do well.”

Distance learning and working

Distance Learning works great for Alexandria, as she is also running a successful business: “I work in the publishing industry, so it’s good for me to do it online because I work a lot. I can fit it together. It’s crazy, but I think it it’s worth it in the end.”

Even though she is doing online studies, she has regular support from her supervisors, library, and other University teams. “The International Team has really helped me, to make sure that I had all my forms done for my student loans. And the postgrad research certificate team was great as well. So, everyone has been pretty helpful.”

Canadian at UoG

Although Alexandria is doing her studies online, she was impressed by the facilities and campuses when she visited the UK and University of Gloucestershire. “Being a Canadian in the UK is an incredible experience. Your campus is probably as old as my country! The history and the buildings are so different and beautiful. I think it’s great for Canadians to be able to study abroad. I feel you just get a wider view of the world.”

Skills

Alexandria is developing her writing skills and is particularly happy that she can immediately apply them to her job. “My writing for when I started my MA to now is 100% different and has grown in the best way since I started this programme. I’ve learned from my advisors and applied that to my own business and my own job. And that’s great because I can see the application of the tools that I’m learning in my everyday life and in my academic life.”