My name is Caroline Climie, I'm from Aberdeenshire in Scotland, and I studied the International Law
Postgraduate Certificate. Right now, I'm in Malmo, Sweden, studying
online at Edinburgh University, but I also work part-time here in Malmo at the Malmo University.
In my work, I'm in collaboration with external universities around the world, so my job title is
External Agreements Manager, and I write the contracts, the partnership agreements,
with the universities around the world. And in writing these agreements I've -
recently - with certain changes in laws, and new updates and policies, I felt that I wasn't up to
date with my information, so I felt that I would like to update my knowledge of the international
law to help with my position. So I searched out international law at postgraduate level,
and actually considering my family and job situation, I needed to be in Malmo, I didn't
want to work, I didn't want to study full-time, I wanted to be able to work at the same time,
and Edinburgh University was the only one who offered distance learning for this particular
level and programme that I needed, and that's why I chose Edinburgh, It was very easy,
very supportive, to begin studying online with Edinburgh actually, which made my life much
easier, it made things very efficient for me; I could start and not have any stress,
I didn't feel any lacking of anything that I needed to start studying. The library support
was amazing, and so I can only say I've had a very beneficial start to my online education at Edinburgh.
I studied human rights in the international law, and I studied intellectual
property, and I studied EU law, all of which I felt that I needed in my position of work,
but I was also extremely interested in these areas as well. There was no live lectures,
which meant that I could arrange my time around my work and my family, but also have time for my
studies, which was very helpful and essential. International law was very challenging.
They don't not challenge you, even though it's online, because my fear probably was that
I wouldn't learn anything, but in actual fact I've learned a great deal, and my interest in
these areas has also expanded and gained more interest; and I feel that the challenge that
Edinburgh gave me, and the structure they gave me with the online learning, has also benefited me in
the way I approach my life and job - especially my job. I feel that the academic skills it's given me
has expanded my knowledge in my own job, and I can
feel more confident in the way that I write, in the way that I can assess situations,
because of the academic quality that I was given. And personally I felt that I've grown so much,
because of the challenging way and structure that Edinburgh has online learning. I really am
very thankful for the way that they supported me, and all the students of course, but
I think that Edinburgh has a very special way of allowing students to succeed rather than
making things difficult. It's not easy with online learning, distance learning, and having a family,
and having a job, so the easier it is with the background technology the better.