Charlotte Brown

Why did you choose Kent?

I looked at the course and it seemed really flexible. There were a lot of different modules you could choose from and it was possible to switch to a different degree within the School of Economics once you found out what areas you liked. I also looked at the league tables and Kent was ranked fairly high.

How was it when you first came to Kent?

It felt quite exciting. You have your space to make your own and you’re fully independent, living by yourself, cooking for yourself, no-one to do your washing! And everyone’s in the same boat, so you help each other.

How is your course going?

It’s great, I really enjoy it, particularly in the third year because we choose all of our modules this year. I’ve been able to focus on what I really enjoy, such as behavioural economics and development economics.

Behavioural economics is influenced by psychology and anthropology – the focus is on how we make decisions. My dissertation is in this area; it is looking at lying and cheating. I’m in the process of planning an experiment at the moment, which is quite exciting – it will look at how a person’s relationship with someone else affects how likely that person is to lie. My supervisor hopes it will be good enough to potentially be published, so that’s really exciting.

How would you describe the teaching?

My lecturers like to use examples to explain things –?they love it when they can use something that’s actually happening in the real world. The lecturers are open and you can talk to them in their office hours – they really encourage people to do that.

What about your fellow students on the course?

My friends on the course are really great. It’s good to have people to talk about your lectures with; I think it helps with your understanding. And we do a lot of our seminar work together, so we can talk through problems which is really useful.

What do you do in your spare time at Kent?

I like walking and horse-riding and there is a horse-riding society at?Kent, so sometimes I go along with them. Canterbury is a city but we are close to a lot of outdoor space so if I want to go walking, I go up to Blean Woods where you can walk for hours. You can also get to the beach from here quite easily; I can use my bus pass to get me to Whitstable for no extra cost.

What are you planning to do after you graduate?

I did a placement year and I really enjoyed it, so I think I’d like to do something similar. I worked for a firm called The Behavioural Architects. They’re based in London and do consultancy work for companies, a kind of market research with insights from behavioural economics. I worked on many different projects and even though it was a small company, we were working with some really big names.

Have you had good careers advice from Kent?

The School of Economics has really good careers and employability support. There are always lectures on getting jobs, CVs, applications, and assessment centres. Because it’s specific to our School, they can help us to get economics-related jobs.

What advice would you give to prospective students?

Do your research! Make sure you like the place itself because you’ll be there for quite a few years. Your course is really important too, so look at the specific modules – what you have to do as well as the modules you can choose. And speak to the students to see how they found things. People usually give an honest opinion, so if you have any questions, someone will be able to answer it.