Georgia Boyd

• Year of graduation: 2021
• Further study: MSc
• What’s next: PhD

Your University Experience

I studied the Law LLB at the University of Northampton from 2018 to 2021 and in my final year I was fortunate enough to win the Max Engel Bursary Award 2021 for my contribution to University life and the overcoming of challenges throughout my education.

As a slightly older student, starting my degree at the age of 21, I was very nervous to embark on a degree after I had previously dropped out of Music University and had been in the world of work for the 3 years prior to starting at Northampton. On my first day I remember being both apprehensive and excited, my plan, after choosing a local university was to study the modules and go home, being only there for the degree. However, Northampton offered me so much more.

I was pleasantly surprised at the support available throughout my studies, with advice and mentoring from student success mentors, as well as lecturers. Additionally, being a smaller, campus focused university with interactive sessions and smaller seminars, I always found myself being pushed out of my comfort zone and speaking and contributing where I could in sessions. As well as this it helped me to form life-long connections with my peers and this has been invaluable in the transition from university to graduating. We often meet up or speak on the phone still now, having study sessions in coffee shops to do our masters work, despite all moving onto different universities and jobs.

Throughout my third year at Northampton, I wrote my dissertation on the law surrounding pornography and whether it protected the female adult actors within the sector. This project inspired me to continue into academia and complete my masters. I liked the idea of having a long and ongoing project in a subject I was greatly interested in and was inspired by the concept of research and how it can bring about changes in law and policy. This is something I experienced alone while many of my peers sought to continue studies to become solicitors. Throughout my three years at Northampton my academic confidence flourished and this gave me the push to apply for an MSc at a Russell Group University for further study.

Work and Further Experience

Winning the Max Engel Bursary was a huge help to me, firstly because I managed to gain 2 weeks of work experience in a fantastic local law firm. I thoroughly enjoyed sitting with Helen Carville the managing partner throughout my time at the firm as well as going out to visits with other solicitors at the firm. It was brilliant to see legal concepts I had learnt in my third year of university in action such as land law principles. This experience was invaluable and I am very grateful to have had the opportunity! I was particularly inspired as the firm was ran by women and only women were working there, it was really inspiring given my feminist research interests to see this.

Winning the Max Engel bursary fund has provided a great level of help to me this year. When doing a masters the funding barely covers the course fees and I was incredibly lucky to have won this money which helped to pay for my accommodation and living costs, this massively took the pressure off, especially at the beginning of the academic year when deposits and moving costs were needed. During my Masters I carried out numerous research assignments on feminist issues within the law and I am keen to continue onto PhD study one day in the future. Studying a Masters has given me the grounding to apply for funding and PhDs, as I’ve already done the introduction and ground work on research skills and design.

Thank you very much to Northampton University and Max Engel and Co for the opportunity to win this award and the very generous contribution towards my masters. It has made a huge impact!