Upon completion of an undergraduate Geography degree at the University of Wales Swansea I had always intended to further my studies at a Postgraduate level, and with hindsight I feel as if I could not have made a better decision than doing so through the ‘Economy, Space and Society’ course at the University of Nottingham.

Initially I applied for the course due to a combination of personal and academic reasons; first, I had always enjoyed the ‘economic’ side of Human Geography and thus the ‘Economy, Space and Society’ course, taught by several of the leading academics in the subject area, was the natural choice. Secondly, as a city Nottingham, with its vibrant selection of bars, clubs, sports teams and facilities, and live music, offered the perfect social environment for me.

Having now completed the program I am still engaged in studying Economic Geography at Nottingham and this is mainly due to the combination of the content of ‘Economy, Space and Society’ itself, which was diverse, challenging, and enabled me to focus upon my personal research interests, and the enthusiasm that those who taught the course brought. Indeed, despite their strong research pedigree an informal relationship existed between staff and students and they were never too busy to discuss further issues arising out of seminars or project work. Supplementary to those actually teaching at Nottingham, the course allowed oneself to attend presentations by other leading Economic Geographers from other universities throughout the country, thus introducing the student to wider research themes within the sub-discipline.