Lyuda Gumenyuk, Ukraine

MA Political Communication 

University of Sheffiled 

"With my new knowledge and ideas brought from the UK, I keep feeling motivated, forward-thinking, and seeing my objective as getting things done."

It was a very important turn in my life in September 2000 when, as a British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) scholar, I arrived in Britain to do my MA Political Communication course at the University of Sheffield. For me, at that time a journalist for a Ukrainian daily, 12 months in a country with a hi-tech, dynamic, diverse and creative-minded culture seemed the most exciting intellectual journey. 

A year in the UK shaped my further life ideals; it enabled me to successfully ‘reload’ my career and reach for the new fields where I feel I am confident, in demand, and realised – be it my training of MA journalism students at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, my diverse activity as executive director for the Media Reform Centre or my media/communication consultancy. Over the years after Sheffield, with my new knowledge and ideas brought from UK I keep feeling motivated, forward-thinking and seeing my objective as getting things done.  

My course at Sheffield was a very demanding programme intellectually and required a lot of effort but I was very impressed by the focus on the skills we needed to be a highly professional and successful person. In each class, the lecturer could recommend his/her book as a useful guide for the course. That was a telling sign of the prestige of the University. 

I liked the diversity of culture and the cosmopolitan spirit that the University offered, although at first I was overwhelmed by seeing such a variety of faces in the campus – Sheffield had students from 104 countries of the world, some of which may seem very exotic to many Eastern Europeans indeed. 

I remember, during the Evening of International Food held in the Union I had a feeling as though the whole planet, by some miraculous transformation, had shrunk to the size of our Union, so that we could realise how diverse and wonderful the world is and that all the people are meant to be happy in it. 

Back in Kyiv, I have been able to use that experience of my living in UK as a diverse culture while holding workshops for Ukrainian journalists on preventing xenophobia and racism in their reports. (These days, in the context of the global developments that are re-shaping the world, Ukraine is facing new challenges, with its rapidly growing international community and new, untypical ethnic Diasporas appearing). 

Sheffield became a home away from home and an enriching mix of various experiences. Deciding to go there was probably one of the best decisions that I have made. I've been very privileged, and I want those chances for many in Ukraine. As someone put it aptly, "education in Britain is a first-class ticket for life."