An international student has revealed how Liverpool Hope University’s combined honours programme was instrumental in her decision to study here.
Athena Lam, from Hong Kong, initially considered Liverpool Hope because of its excellent reputation in teacher education and was convinced it was the university for her after learning she would be able to study Education and Special Educational Needs in combination.
Liverpool Hope offers more than 1,300 course combinations, which is thought to be among the highest combined offerings in the UK and having the chance to broaden her areas of expertise was crucial for Athena.
“I first heard about Liverpool Hope when I was searching UCAS to see which universities offered a coursed in special educational needs,” she explains.
“The University ranked highly for education courses among those universities which provide special educational needs and I decided to study here because I had the opportunity to study two degrees at the same time, which has allowed me to gain a wider variety of knowledge.”
Now in her final year, 19-year-old Athena intends to continue her education with a Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) after completing her undergraduate degree.
The PGDE prepares you to teach in locations worldwide, and Athena has aspirations to work abroad after initially returning home to work in special needs schools in Hong Kong.
Wherever she ends up in the world, Athena will always fondly remember her time at Liverpool Hope, where she found the inclusive environment to be ideal for international students.
“I love the relaxing atmosphere here and that the tutors always welcome the opportunity to speak to you,” she adds.
“At first I was worried I’d feel isolated, but that wasn’t the case at all. Hope has an extremely diverse student population, with people from all over the world and everyone is eager to make friends.
“Because Hope is so diverse, there isn’t a clear distinction between local students and international students, which is great.”