Joe Newton

Before Wrexham University I was an apprentice footballer at Tranmere Rovers Football Club. I was at the club from the age of 9, and from ages 16-18 I was a full-time apprentice whilst also studying sport.

For me it was the link with Wrexham Football Club and Wales FA. I joined the university whilst signing for Wrexham FC simultaneously. With both being so close together it made balancing football and my studies easy. The university’s link with the FAW hugely benefited with me throughout my degree.

I studied Sport and Exercise Science which covered a range of areas/modules from sports coaching to sports psychology. The performance analysis module was the most interesting module for me. This pushed me to explore performance analysis further and I continued my studies with an MPhil focusing on decision-making in sport/football.

The atmosphere around campus was really good. For me I had a good link of friends around me who joined Wrexham University and Wrexham FC at the same time. Additionally, all the people associated with my course were great to work with. I feel like the whole university has a good personal feel to it. Wrexham University isn’t a huge campus, but for me that benefited me more as all staff and students are more approachable and you have a more personal relationship with them. 

I enjoyed that I was able to experience all different areas of Sport Science. There were also modules that opened me up to other sports, which was interesting for me after being solely focused on football. I also really enjoyed how many of the modules had a practical and real-world approach – this pushed me to build relationships away from the University in the real world which developed me personally for life after university.

The support was brilliant. I have touched it on already, but although Wrexham University isn’t one of the biggest, this hugely benefited me. Support was more personal, and you knew you could speak to any of the relevant tutors when you needed help or advice. After coming from a less educational and more sport background, this personal support network made it really easily for me to get stuck in university education.

Due to the personal and strong support network I was able to complete my degree to a high standard. In addition to earning the title of a degree the links the University has with the FAW benefitted me massively. I’m convinced that without those links I wouldn’t be in the job that I love today. 

For all the reasons I have stated above! The strong personal support network with tutors, the courses that cover all relevant modules and the links to, and opportunities to work with, external real-world organisations.