Veena Natarajan

BA Humanities

'I decided I wanted to study for an arts degree purely for pleasure, after studying science straight out of school. When I started doing some research into possible options for me in London, the BA in Humanities and English really was the best choice. Birkbeck is totally geared to the needs of part time studying and full time working students - the levels of support from staff and other students in getting through the difficult patches is quite immeasurable.

'By doing a joint Humanities BA, I met a wide range of students and gained a broad multi-disciplinary perspective which the Humanities offer - I read books, studied photographs, watched films, went to plays and learnt how to critically analyse them all. I ended up meeting an amazing and really wide range of people from all sorts of walks of life. The courses were interesting, the lecturers were incredibly knowledgeable and always welcoming - no question was ever too stupid and it was always a difficult call to pick which courses to go for the following year.

'I particularly enjoyed the post-colonial courses such as Literature and Empire, and studying modern adaptations and appropriations of Shakespeare in novels and films. I learned lots of new concepts and gained huge insights from studying the Humanities. I made some really good friends and despite the moments of stress when course work was due in, work pressures piled up and that's just when you had to get that nasty cold, it was one of the best and most enriching experiences of my life.'