100 Faces campaign celebrating student success - Jennifer's story
Jennifer Dominic, BSc Bioscience graduate, was the first in her family to attend university. Her success is highlighted in a new Universities UK campaign.
2wk ago
The extraordinary success of students from Canterbury Christ Church University who were the first in their families to attend university is being highlighted in a new national campaign, led by Universities UK.
Jennifer Dominic, who studied Biosciences and graduated with a First in 2016, was the first in their family to attend university and has since gone on to forge a successful career in the pharmaceutical industry. She is now Senior Marketing Manager at MSD, a premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company and is helping her company set a strategic direction to increase diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM. She has also set-up a social enterprise to support fellow STEM graduates achieve their career goals and deliver dynamic impact to the healthcare and life science industries.
You can read Jennifer’s full story here.
UUK’s 100 Faces campaign aims to champion and celebrate the positive impact of ‘first-in-the-family’ (FitF) graduates on the UK. These include England footballer Beth Mead, Lord David Blunkett, Nobel Prize winner Sir Chris Pissarides and actor Amit Shah, in order to highlight the need for access to support and ensure the next generation can reach their graduate potential.
The success of students like Jennifer is testament to the extraordinary role university can play, particularly for those students who are the first in their family to attend and face significant barriers before they even set foot on campus. Despite this inequality, FitF students flourish at university, with three quarters of FitF respondents saying that their experiences at university made them more confident and ambitious, gave them broader life experiences and crucial life skills which continue to be impactful long after graduation.
University is the beginning of doors opening. When you cultivate those opportunities properly, you make your university experience more than just a paid-for experience. It has a bigger value than anyone could think of. My lecturers were always very helpful and put their necks out to help me because I asked. I always tried to make the most out of every opportunity, to gain credibility and university gave me those opportunities. It set me up for success.
Jennifer Dominic, BSc Bioscience graduate
As part of the campaign, new research reveals the transformative impact of going to university on ambition (74%), with almost three quarters (73%) of FitF students agreeing their degree gave them the confidence to apply for jobs without feeling like an imposter
The research also highlights FitF students’ reliance on depreciating financial support - without financial support, over 4 in 10 FitF graduates couldn’t have afforded to go to university at all. This is equivalent to around 1.1 million 24–40-year-olds in England and Wales.
The research also pointed to the need for uplifted financial support to ensure that FitF students are able to progress. Over 4 in 10 (41%) FitF students believe that without financial assistance they wouldn’t have been able to afford to go to university, and when non-graduates from across the UK were asked what might have persuaded them to attend university, almost half (48%) responded more financial support.
In light of this, UUK is campaigning to highlight the achievements of the extraordinary first in family graduates in every community, and to ensure that future generations don’t miss out on the transformative impact of a university education. With financial provisions dwindling and the cost of living rising, UUK is calling for government to reinstate maintenance grants and increase support for future students.
Vivienne Stern MBE, Chief Executive of Universities UK, commented: “There are those who say that too many people go to university. I disagree. These stories tell you why. In this country you are still twice as likely to go to university if you are from the wealthiest background, compared to the least wealthy. That’s not right.
“The experiences of students who are the first in their families to have been to university tell a powerful story.I believe we have a responsibility to keep working to ensure a wider range of people in this country get access to the potentially transformative experience of going to university. For that to happen, we really do need to see an improvement in maintenance support to support those from the least privileged backgrounds.”
Notes to Editors
- These findings are based on bespoke consumer research conducted by Censuswide among 6,004 UK graduates and 4,006 non-graduates of a nationally representative make up. The research was conducted between 05/03/2024 and 18/03/2024 for UK graduates and 05/03/2024 and 18/03/2024 for non-graduates. All respondents were sourced using an accredited online research access panel. Graduates were asked whether they were first in family to attend university. Responses from this group in the press release are compared to those from peers, or all graduates, in the same survey.
- For more information, please contact the UUK team at MHP Group: uuk@mhpgroup.com