Beth Yearsley

We are delighted for Episode 7 to welcome the incredible Beth Yearsley!  Beth Is an esteemed Nottingham alumni turned SU (Students’ Union) Director, and she shares with us her evolution from student to leader. Discover intriguing stories, practical career tips, and invaluable advice for maximising your university years! 

Tune in for an authentic and enriching exploration of Beth's remarkable path, and gain insights to fuel your own journey. The SU is a key hub at the university with so much support, fun and friends to be made there! So, if you haven’t yet checked it out, please do so!

Content warning – please be advised that this episode contains reference to the major incident and student deaths of last June, and listener discretion is advised. The section of the podcast which contains this content is 28:40 to 28:55 and listeners should only proceed if they are comfortable to do so.

Transcript

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[Seven Dark Lords - Glad Ghosts plays] So hello and welcome back to It's Noyt Just Physio podcast with me James Coughlan. this is now episode seven. and this podcast is designed for listeners to get to know some of our wonderful staff and students within the School of Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham. Just a little bit better. And I'm absolutely delighted to have a very good friend of mine, Beth, with us today. Hello, Beth. I feel like a bit of an imposter because I don't want to work for the School of Health Sciences, but delighted to be here nonetheless. But as you on the way over, you were saying you did work in and around this. I did, yeah. This is back in, what, 2012? I used to work for the faculty, and I used to work for the dean of the faculty and what used to be called the faculty secretariat. I don't think that that role exists anymore. And. But, yeah, those were good days. Those are very good days in the office trying to work out diaries and printing and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. It feels like a world away now from where we are. Oh, well, take us back. So how long have you worked for the university? How many years? So, technically, I don't actually work for the university, so I work for the student union, which legally is a separate entity. And we'll get onto what is a what on earth? It's a students union and everything involved in that. And but I studied at the University of Nottingham from 2007 to 2010, did business management and then graduated in 2010, worked for an amazing international charity, which operates in 100 different countries across the world and did a bit of that for a year, kind of did a grad scheme and then really missed the business side of stuff that came back to work for the university, worked across three different, faculties, which is fabulous. Really enjoyed doing some administration, getting to know the kind of wider university, how it runs, who's in it, etc., etc. then left for a few years to do something a bit different. Worked for a leadership college, and then came back to work for the student union. And that was five years ago. Wow, wow. So I mean an amazing career to to unpick there but feels like you might have come, you know, sort of come home, which is sort of see this place as you know very much your, your home to know the experiences. Yeah, hugely. I remember when I worked for, this was cultures, languages, memory studies. So this would have been probably about 12 years ago now. going into a meeting which was and an education network meeting across the university, and there was a woman in the meeting, her bright pink hair. And I remember thinking to myself, who on earth is that? She looks really cool. And we started talking about academic and student experience. And when she talked, she just knew students like I hadn't ever heard anyone talk about the student experience before. She was so passionate. She seemed to be so kind of clued up and understood of what students needed and what they were thinking at the time. and it turned out she worked for the students union, so we got to know each other. Ruth, she was called, and kind of few years go by. Fast forward. then when I got my job working at the students union, I was working for her. She was my line manager. sadly, she passed away in Covid, but absolutely in terms of it feeling like home, you know, you meet family, friends, people when the university is so big. And in the students union, we have over 250 employees. So, you know, a small to medium enterprise ourselves in comparison to the university. But I feel like there is a big amount of community, especially this time of year. I love this time of year because it gets to all the exciting, like end of year celebrations in a grad ball is just around the corner like the sun is shining. Once we get past exams then it's all into the wonderful summer. you your life kind of moves into that academic year cycle when you've been here for a while. yeah. So definitely when when I was a student, actually on Jubilee campus near called Pick It Up, they were building what I call the Lego building. So, the ones that have the different read, books on them and what I call, the submarine and the Teletubby hill. I can't remember the proper name of it. I think it's a Sir Colin Campbell building. but all of that was being built when I was a student, so it's nice to have seen how much the university has grown just in terms of, you know, the estate and the people. yeah, it does feel like home. Yeah. It's interesting you mentioned Jubilee a little while back. I like to go to pick up a student card for myself, and I couldn't believe the size of what Jubilee has grown. So, you know, I thought, oh, really? Easy. I'll find this building no problem. Because, yeah, when we were probably only about five building, that's like absolutely massive, but there's a massive sort of statement from the university and that kind of development and growth, which I was like, yes, it's absolutely absolute incredible. But going back to like when when you were a student back in 2007, you know, what were your experiences and interactions like with with the ASU? Did you did you use that a lot when you were student or you what was what was that like for you? So I had absolutely no idea what student union was or what it did. And I think it's probably fair to say most students don't actually know what a student union is. But the way that I got involved with it was through societies. So I was a member of musicality, which is going to be school theater society, and got involved through that also, got involved in band society, where I met you, and my now husband, who was president at the time. so if anyone's ever been involved in any of our over 400 societies across, the university and student union, then you have been involved in the student union. And there's kind of three main things that we do. So the three areas that we fall into, one of which is find support. So if anybody needs any support in terms of wellbeing, we run an advice center, which is a bit like citizens Advice, but it's for students. So if anybody has any problems with kind of a financial matters, academic misconduct or academic grades, anything to do with housing, so landlords, contracts, housemates, all that kind of stuff. And that all goes through our wonderful advisors in our office center. we also have get involved. So like I said, all of our student societies, but we also have a lot of, democracy, democratic structures, democratic procedures. If you want to run a campaign, if you're part of a liberation network, or you're kind of underrepresented in terms of student and demographics, we have a load of and things that that we run as a students union, both in terms of campaigns, raising awareness, events that we run, celebration months that we run, so find support, get involved. And the last one is make change. So one of the big things that we really are passionate about in terms of, the students union is making change for our students and for the wider university. So all course wraps of which we have over a thousand course wraps across the university run, and supported by the Students Union. The aim is to have at least one course wrap on every course. so it is a big undertaking for us. But the student voice in terms of, you know, being able to be part of that voice that makes change on your course, makes change for the university brings, I mean, our vision and mission is we believe in better and will achieve it together. So anything that we can do to help our students make things better that the university is everything about. so yeah, that, we run probably up in the 2030s campaigns per year for our students. Anything from and consent training through to, kind of awareness. lots of stuff at the moment. Lots of people are very passionate about, safety, night time safety, all that kind of stuff. So yeah, we have, like I said before, 250 staff at the students union. around 85 of those are what we would call career staff. So people who do work kind of as my career at the student union, the rest are all our amazing student staff who work in March, which is a bar work in a small convenience store, which we have one on main campus. We also have on Jubilee campus. and then we work in our port and coffee. big shout out to Portland Coffee. in fact, I was I was watching one of the university, reels the other day, and one of the students was being asked to get your coffee on campus, and you're like, have to be okay. And I also put a big shout in, yeah, a clothing shop and print shop. So, yeah, there's a lot going on that people wouldn't necessarily even would be aware of that we do in terms of the students union. but yeah, I got involved originally, via being part of the society and which from which is that the was that we society was that sent me to come and see one and then see I think are about to The Addams Family. So shout out to to musicality and their production of Addams Family Room. So seeing how it was like being a part of that then and now, seeing what it would be like for a typical society now, what kind of changes? It's pretty loads. But what kind of changes have you seen developed in that time? How how different is it? And the question, so I think one of the biggest changes that we've seen is the growth in our offices. So, so one of the things I should have said, at the very beginning, I'll be very grumpy with me for not saying this is that as a student at uni and we are completely student led, and what that means is legally we have, at the moment, eight full time officers, who are elected every year into their positions and they lead the student union. Everything that we do, and they basically represent students to the wider university. And when I first got involved, student officers probably weren't very well known. and we did a lot of kind of activity. There was a lot more culture of kind of going out and and drinking and getting involved with friends and going out in the night out, which is great. But but the biggest change that I've seen over the last kind of ten, 15 years is that actually students have moved from a space where it's more about socializing into a space of activism and being really passionate about things. And I have to say, it's such a privilege to work with student leaders who are incredibly passionate about their area, who put their heart and souls into what they're doing, who genuinely believe in the best for the students that they are serving, and also for the university and who are learning really important lifelong leadership skills about how to speak to power. how to be a public facing leader, how to take on the pressure, of being in that kind of very public facing role, but more importantly, advocating and being an ally for people who need their voice the most across the university. So I'd say that's probably the biggest change and the most exciting one that keeps me coming in to work day after day. And have there been any, examples of that kind of student drive that stood out to you in the past of any things that may have created a change or a movement, which you go, we have I was stunned by that was done by students. That was, you know, that's a real positive outcome. Yeah, absolutely. that there were far too many for me to be able to kind of pull out. and there's literally ones coming out every week. So, but one that sticks in my mind in particular was hidden course costs. And this was probably when I first joined the students union back in 2019. One of the things that, our education officer at the time was working on was a campaign about how much is it actually cost to be on your course at university. So on top of your maintenance loan, on top of, you know, kind of tuition and all of that kind of stuff, if you're going on field trips, how much does it cost? Actually buy the course books that you need? you know, all of the kind of sundries that wouldn't necessarily get get put into that kind of wider cost. And it was really eye opening. and what was really exciting was to see the research that was put into it, how it was put together, how it was then brought together as a campaign, how it went to the university, how we talked about it, and the changes that the university then made in terms of how they communicated around what the actual cost of the courses, and how encouraging it has been that when students want to speak up about something, the university will absolutely listen in terms of, you know, are passionate students who are bringing stuff the cost of living is probably one of the biggest ones that we've got at the moment. You know, the student union put out, our Cost of living report and recommendations to the university and working really closely about about implementing them. And I think even small, some of them seem like small things, but they're actually not. So one of the small things that we're working on at the moment, is for people to actually have access to microwaves and kitchens like that might seem like a potentially small thing, but actually, when you're thinking about it, people are having to make the choice between heating their house or eating dinner. So being able to actually have a space on campus where you can take your leftovers or whatever and heat them up and actually have spaces to to get, you know, a slice of toast or any of that kind of stuff. It makes a big difference, particularly at this time of the year when, you know, exam stress is high, but people are starting to worry about their marks when we're all pulling those all nighters to get like, our coursework in, you know, I remember the, the, the nights at Jubilee campus, you know, staying in the library and making sure that things were done. But back in the back in the day, we I didn't necessarily have access to things like cat or coffee tea that now our students are able to access to help support them through when the needing to do that kind of thing and all the small things add up to big things. Right? So this is this is one of the things that I keep saying to my staff. And the work of better is never done, like it's never completed. We will always find something to make better and there is always that motivation to keep going. So I think it is that, particularly with student unions, one of the things that we can find, I think that's probably true across the sector, student offices who come in, we'll do a year, maybe two years with us. and that's not a lot of time to make big impacts. You know, I mean, one of the biggest things I remember was the David Ross Sports Village. You know, when we first started talking about that with the university, it was years and years and years ago there was a, our sports officer at the time who actually got to stand there and cut the ribbon and be the person who was like, we're open to this amazing facility. But but that was on the back of maybe, I don't know, 5 or 6 different sports officers who all came and help the university moving that project through, understanding what students wanted from the space, understanding the impact that it was going to have. So we might be the very fortunate people who get to cut the ribbon, but actually it's on years and years and years of work and people who have done their best in making those changes. I can't actually remember the question that you all because I'm so sorry, I've just gone on one. Nothing I know. Yeah, bring me back no matter what. I need to be talking about. No, I mean, I think I think it goes without saying. What comes through is just how much you you care, know you so well. I know how much you care and how hard you work. And I think that is evident in that has to come from the, you know, it comes from the top. It filters down. And even just talking about things, it's amazing. You said about David Ross, I think when we were, at uni, I mean, it wasn't, but David Ross, we know now and as you say, impact is important. And that's something that we talk about with our students on, on, on these courses about becoming leaders and how we measure impact, but how we make impact. And it's really interesting you talked about that, of how can you make impact in short periods of time. So when you are a great leader, how what advice do you have any advice you could get you would give to students and how they could become impactful and what that might mean. And anything, anything that you miss is such a good question. So I remember reading, the the the person who wrote eat, pray, love, talks about, finding your passion, finding the thing that you're passionate about and go after that. And actually how unhelpful that whole rhetoric is and mean. I heard that for the first time. I thought, oh, thank goodness someone said it, because I feel like all of at least my career, there's that. Find your passion. Find the one thing that you want to go about. Do the thing. Make an impact. Be the person and the author of eat, pray, love actually talked about. finding curiosity. Find the thing that you're curious about. And when you find the thing that you're curious about, actually the journey is just as exciting as the endpoint. So as you were going through, oh, what's that? Tell me more about this. How do I understand this? What does that mean for my life? What does that mean for my leadership? Suddenly, it reframes the entire idea of kind of finding your purpose, finding your curate. Like all that sets you off on a different trajectory. And I think one of the things that I've learned from the amazing people that I work with at the Students Union is that, we can have a lot of impact without even realizing it. One of the things that I think all of us probably fall foul a bit of is if I'm going to make an impact, you know, I have to be director of Central services at the students union, and then I will have the formal way to make impact. But actually, one of the ways that I like to reframe is thinking about influence. So who are you influencing? What are you having an influence on and what's having an influence on you? So even the smallest thing like this morning, one of our cleaners in the student union is called Suu and she's absolutely incredible. I love su to bits, and every morning she greets me with a smile on her face and I'm all in math. How are you doing? And she makes my day every single day that I walk into the student union. And it is the stewards of the world who don't even realize she's having an impact on me. But that smile, that good morning, that how are you doing? Sets me up really well for my work day, because someone's taking the time to actually just greet me as they come in in the morning. So I think probably for me, there's seasons of curiosity. There's you don't have to have it all figured out. You know something I really love about physiotherapy? and what I've learned from you is that it's incredibly practical. Like, it's very hands on. and I think in some of that ways, it can really help frame that, sort of this is what I'm doing. I have an understanding of where my career is going. I have an understanding of the practical impact I'm going to make for my patients. They're going to come in, I'm going to help them. There's going to be an outcome. But I think even the way that we go about it, the way that we go about learning, the way that we go about interacting with people, the small little things that we can do, not having to have it figured out, keeping being curious and surround yourself with good people like I've been so blessed throughout my career and my time at university to meet some absolutely cracking people who keep me going, particularly some of my work at the Students Union is incredibly difficult because I oversee conduct, the senior lead for conducts and and complaints and compliance, and some of that can be really, really difficult. But our senior leadership team in the students union, like we will always greet each other with a laugh, keep things fun listening ear. And it makes such a difference to have good people. So yeah, I think in terms of finding your purpose, making an impact, you probably don't realize just how much of an impact you make. So if someone has done something that has actually made you feel like, oh, you know what, I had a big impact on me. Tell them, yeah, like, say it to them. Make them aware of it. Because I can tell you what everyone, if you will make everybody's day better. And just being like when you did that thing actually made me feel really good, or when you smiled at me, or when you did that as you had a really big impact on me. So thank you so much. It goes a long way now. I think I said so many, so many great points within that. But I think, yeah, that level of, communication, being able to share, make friends, these are all of the really important things, I guess, from your experience of seeing many, many students over the years, do you feel there's been any sort of, I mean, you could say at the moment life feels a bit heavy and I don't know if I've got anything particularly to to point to and say it, but the there seems to be evidence that people feel a bit. Do you feel that sometimes there's students at them that they might be taking, might be a bit taking things a bit too serious, a bit too much pressure at times? Is that something that you see or, you know, do you think that this is just like where where life is life is going at the moment? Because obviously life does change and things do change. But, I mean, not to put too much down on things, but personally, I think the students have got it really difficult at the moment. I mean, since going through a global pandemic, even before that, the financial crisis in 2008, now we're looking at the cost of living crisis. Tuition, rooms, maintenance loans aren't worth anywhere near as much as they were when we were at university. Fees are much higher. It's far more difficult to find good places to rent. Actually, things are incredibly difficult. It's very unlikely people are going to be able to own their own homes. You know, it's a it's a very different financial economics. And stable world that are students at this point in time are going to be graduating into in comparison to what I experienced. And so I think it's really important that actually we take those serious things with the brevity that they need. Having said that, I also think it's really important that our students are given the opportunity and places to flourish and find ways to manage their own wellbeing, to have fun, and to be able to prepare themselves for the world that they're moving into. And one of the big things that we're working on at the Students Union at the moment of me, and particularly in my role, is how to disagree with each other. Well, like, I think one of the things that we and I and I mean, we as a wider society, particularly at this point in time, aren't very good at is disagreeing with each other in a way that is constructive. You know, I hate the problem, not the person. and one of the things that even again, go back to the small things, but when you said this, it made me feel like this. And actually, in the future, I would like you to say it like this. Or actually we need to find a different way to talk about this. If we had an ability to do that with each other in a way that didn't cause more harm, but actually brought us to a place where we could come at things from very different perspectives, from very different viewpoints, but find a way to be constructive with each other in the middle. I think that is probably for the whole of society, one of the biggest priorities that we need to get right moving forward, particularly in, you know, economic, political, social, environmental like environment that we are working in at the moment and operating in and living in. For me, we have to find a way to actually listen, to appreciate different viewpoints, not necessarily agree with them all, but be okay to like work with the person, even if they're very different to you and have very different viewpoints to you. I feel like that's quite a tough, heavy step. Yeah, it is, but it's it's bang on the money. That and I think this is it. It's, it's it's hard when you know obviously we have mature students that that that come to university of course. But I think anyone coming to university will have, you know, an opportunity of life experience and will most likely hopefully develop and, you know, change through that time. And I guess there is this sort of dichotomy of what, what what's the university for? I mean, it was pretty simple, you know, thing to say. But is it is this to me like be to learn something? But, I sort of feel okay to get your take on it, but I do feel there's a kind of a duty to help try and help prepare students as best we can, for life, for for going out into the wide world and saying, look, you know, things are going to be challenging. There's going to be you're gonna have to manage conflict. There's going to be some difficult conversations. Life throws. Things are switch often undeserved. And, the feels that this is one of the best places to try and to try and learn that. but it's also, you know, it it's also there's a lot to university as well, which isn't all that as well. And these can be years of your life, which are you've got so many things and opportunities to do which, which are different to the real world. And do you just try and enjoy those things as much you can? I don't know what you what your thoughts are around those those things. Yeah, I think it's really insightful. you know, looking at the, the history of universities. Here we go. Buckle in people looking at the history of universities, you know, back when universities first started to be a thing, you bet it was the elite that went there as a badge of honor. They would go there, they would get their degree, and that would be seen as a gateway into the professor, the profession that they were going into. Then as we see the kind of expanding, then we see the post 1992 universities coming in, which goes from, you know, more local, available education and practical hands on education, as well as big research institutions like ours. And I think the the entire journey of higher education is one of inclusivity and kind of opening, opening the doors to everybody to have an opportunity to get a higher education if they want it. And I think part of that journey absolutely must be we have to learn more than just the kind of academic part of what it is to be somebody who is engaging in higher education. And and I don't mean that as a downer on, on an academic on academic study, because it's incredibly important and actually, one of one of the keystones of everything that we're about is academic. and to have those skills as a whole load as coaches in and of itself. But but what I'm saying on top of that is it's that and so it is the skills to research. It is the skill to do an inquiry. It is the skills to write. It is, you know, all of those academic skills that you get. But also it's the journey of your education and it's not and it's a life education. And I think this is probably for me, where student unions are absolutely, at the heart of what it is to have that wrap around education. You know, one of the things that the that the student union at the University of Nottingham prides itself on is that we're one of the largest union unions in the country, and that we have one of the highest amount of societies that people can get involved in. So, you know, yes, you come to university to get your degree first and foremost, but actually the friends that you make at university, the life skills that you learn, the hobbies that you pick up, and we think of students, from a student union point of view, you know, in terms of on your course, in your halls of residence or even as a citizen in Nottingham, as, as somebody who is operating civically. So, you know, you are in life, you are in Nottingham Council, you are part of what it is to be somebody who lives in Nottingham, as well as somebody who is engaging in that education. And so I think it's incredibly important. In fact, I think we're doing I would go as far to say I think we're doing students a disservice if we don't have at the heart of what we're trying to do, preparing them to to after university be set up to go and achieve and do and be the best versions of who it is that they want to be. And some students will come to university and they will fly through it, and they will have the best time, and they will really enjoy themselves. And other students will have life changing things that happen to them at university, for good or for bad. And we are here to support and enable and help students. Whatever happens in a I mean, we all are aware of the tragedy of Bonnie and Grace and everything that happened. And you know, it's going to be the year anniversary soon. So it would be remiss of us not just to acknowledge that, it has a huge impact on the student and the university community and everybody involved, those kinds of big things like that. And again, it helps bring the community together in such a tragic circumstance. And the vigil was a really good example of this. And both the one that we held on campus, but also the one that was held in the city center. Life changing things can happen when you are at university, for good or for bad. And actually it is our duty as a university and as a students union to ensure that whatever happens, we will always be here. We will always put our students first. We will always make sure that they have a safe place to land when things don't go right. So this podcast is going to well, we'll go out soon. but one of the aims of this is, is for current students, of course, but even for new students who will be joining us, might be listening to this and think, I want the student union. Sounds, sounds great. There's so much activity this this actually all this opportunity to to to do sort of how do I, how do I get involved like, you know, do I do I do I just rock or put Portland building or what. Like so how can you give any advice on how a student might start to investigate getting involved in that? And our society or anything like that? Delighted. so all the usual social media, you, NSU, you in a studio co.uk for our website and you can find us on all good platforms. you are welcome to just wander into Portland building, and on other campuses where we also are going to start mornings and then, Jubilee, where we are as well. probably one of the biggest things in terms of events that we do, that showcase all of our societies is are welcome fair. So, first week of term, every academic year we put on a welcome fair, which happens in the David Ross Sports Village. This year, I think we had 15,000 students come through the doors just in terms of, all of all of new students coming through. so I would highly recommend people to look out for that. We also then have a and what we call refreshers in January. So anybody who might not have been able to make it to that, we then have that kind of second touch point in the year. but yeah, I mean, get involved in a society, get involved in a campaign. If you ever need any advice, come to our advice center. you know, there's there's so many opportunities to get involved. Run for a position, use your voice. Like running the campaigns. I just have to give a shout out to this year's elections campaign, which saw us double the amount of, nominations that we had and actually also double the amount of votes that we had, is the highest votes we've ever had this year. Since 2015, which is incredible because it means that our students are passionate about who's going to lead our student union, who's going to be representing them to the university. You know, there is a there is a real like we were talking about earlier shifts to students actually wanting to get involved and have their voice and be part of it. And I'm so impressed with the student leaders that I see coming through. I mean, they are worlds apart from the shambles person that I was when I was involved in the county. When I was a student, like the leadership, the quality of student, the quality of people that we see, the passion, who would not want to work for the students, like, absolutely. And I know I've gone off on one again because here we are back involved in the student union. Find find your space, find your people. Find where you belong, get involved in your course, be a course rep. there are so many opportunities. Be. Find us on Instagram. Find us on Facebook. Find us on our website. Come and see us in person. I think if we've had many great points in this, in this chat, but I think from what you're saying, in terms of driving change, one thing we've found on the course here is actual facts. listening to student Voice, is incredibly powerful. And I think, you know, you can become a grumpy old man like me and sometimes sit on the sidelines and just moan all the time in actual facts. that ability to have a platform where you can go in as a student and, you know, there you have so many of them have have great, vision and awareness of what's going on. And we've had we've had feedback on things like, oh, if you thought about maybe this or maybe that, so many good ideas. And I think, as you say, this union seems is such a really good option if you want to create a change or help in your develop your leadership skills or your communication skills or support skills. And again, that's certainly something we we on on our courses here. We it's all about we you know, we promote leadership and impact and work with CPD. This continual professional development. do you get many physios or sports rehabilitation students, you know, coming across that they asked to be a part of that because I could just see that this would be a great platform for them to use and to drive change. Yeah, absolutely. Be a society. They'll be a physio. So yeah. Yeah yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And and it's really interesting because what you just said about change is something in my mind. And, and particularly I think the curriculum changes, which that has been something that has been, happening in particular for you. it's so exciting for me to see, you know, people who work at the university and students co-create something that takes you to a new place, and new places are scary, right? New courses are scary. New ways of doing things that like the the it's the first time it's ever been done that way. It's always going to be new. But if we don't, it's not brave enough to go there. The naturally we're going to be stagnant. And if we don't try things and fail at things and get things wrong and redo them and, and then get them right, and then go on that whole journey of doing that together, you know, that that is how humanity progresses. That's how we get better as people is is putting ourselves out of our comfort zone into that new place, and to try something new, to doing something new into, you know, speaking up on your questions, giving that feedback. And I'll be really interested to hear from you. James, how have you found from when you were a physio student here to to now teaching, you know, going that full cycle yourself? what how have you found do you resonate with what I've been saying about finding the changes of students over that time? And what it's been like? Oh, yes. First question often comes in, yeah. I think, yeah. It's really it's a really interesting question. And I think. Yeah. Is so change is often scary people. Sometimes some people really embrace change. We've all I think about times we've already had changes. We've we've gone that sounds great. And before. And there'll be other times we've had change. We might be hesitant on that. And then Tom's reporting a little bit in the middle and I can I can I, you know, I can go I can remember as best I can what, what my undergrad years were like and they were things done in a certain way. And then I look at the changes now and I think there are loads of good positive changes, but but also within that, within physiotherapy and sports rehab that the landscape's also changed as well. and this is what was this is also important. This is also a thing. I think Nottingham is really good at it. We do our best to keep up to date with where the changes are upcoming. We're not trying to still peddle the same stuff we did 20 years ago because it worked then, and I think that is like with anyone there, there becomes that time where, you know, we we go, well, we do have to look at ourselves and we do have to sort of say, well, actual fact, just just does that still work? we might finally did then because it's suited. but certainly like within physiotherapy, it used to be very, very I wouldn't say simple. I don't think it's ever been simple, but there used to be very much, anatomy, tissue, bone. That's the reason why people had pain. And there was a way of using that. But now the global impact of of of where people present and how much we know from research that it you know, it can be a little bit of anatomy, but actually there's so many things like stress and sleep quality and social economics and financial status. You know, the number of times I've worked with patients where they were getting this pain and it really actually comes down to them in a job they or they might be getting, you know, going through some, some, some process or some thing and that clears and the next thing their pain's gone. And you think, well, hang on, I, I can't just be purely anatomical then because there is so there's all these changes. And I think that's why I pride us. You know what what you and I do think we we want to keep creating that change. We've got to keep reviewing that change. and you know, landscape landscape is different. So we have to actually say we don't always know what's what's coming over the hill. So it's also trying to be open enough to, embrace change when it's needed. I think there needs to be conviction to, to let also things settle and run. you know, sometimes, I mean, I've worked in places where there's been so much change as every week something's changing and there's then there's no solid footing. And I'm sure you've seen that where it just suddenly you go, what on earth are we doing here? You know, it feels like so. Yeah, certainly within a rehab world, there's there's this big there's big changes that need to happen and do happen. But like, with anything, it's it's some people really like that and other people, not so much. So I'm proud to be doing, you know, working on this course, working with people. I respect hugely. And the vision we've got, and I've wanted to do my best to help our students become the happiest and the best at what they do. But as you say, that's that that can be difficult because there's changes afoot. And we also aware that, you know, I think when I, when I was a student, we lived in this where we used to be over at City Hospital. We stayed in these halls right next to City Hospital. You know, the school, the nurses accommodation. So there's about 30, 40 students. Physics students in these little halls that felt very, insular, but very nice, but, you know, very physio place. And it was that was kind of really. Yeah. I and slept and drank because, you know, it was kind of as it was and, and that was, that was great. But then at the same time, it can become just a little bit, it can become a little bit too much and, you know, actual fact when students come and study an online course, as you say, they've gone to, then go to halls, go home, there's a life outside of of the course. And I think as we've got older and you see things and I, I would always be promoting people to be trying to do as many fun things as they can outside of the course. And that's been a positive change. The course historically didn't really have much flexibility in what you could do outside of it. It was it was very much you're here for the you know, you're here. It's a hard degree and you're going to you're going to physio rehab. It's going to be everything you do and perhaps missed out and certain things I'd have liked to have explored, like the football and stuff like that. I don't regret that. But I look at it now and it's great. Like there's opportunities where we have sports scholars on our courses and we have we have students who could go and play sport on a Wednesday. And I think that's really good. And but I think coming back to the issue, I think seeing how much it's grown and what what's available, be really trying to encourage people to get that work life balance as best as possible. You know, I really resonate with that. And and I think there's a, there's there's a myth of actually being able to balance your work and your life, as your work is your life, and your life is a work that I don't think I've ever had to imbalance. I don't think I've ever, like, reached the zenith I am now balance. I am now in balance. I don't know if there is no. Yeah, I've seen that. But it going back to what you were asking before about how do you have an impact. and from what you were just saying, I think one of the biggest things is, is get your get your habits right, get your structure right, get your framework right so that any individual person can be strong enough to handle the fact that we are living in a constant flux. So exactly what you were saying and, you know, sleep, nutrition, exercise, fun, play. Like the more the more that we get into particularly serious jobs, the less play there can be. Like finding that. Like being able to be silly and have a laugh for having a community, like having your friends of like all, all of that stuff really matters as you go through life. And I think if I could go back to, you know, 18, 19 year old Beth, give her one piece of advice, it would be get your habits right, get those lifelong habits that will set you up to be the best that you can be in any season of life, whether things are going right or wrong, up or down. And I think university gives a really beautiful opportunity to start learning that structure. You know, you've got when you're lectures are going to be you've got the opportunities to get involved in sports, involved in societies, involved in friendship groups. You know, you've got you've got a a framework to then experiment with. Right. Find out more about yourself, discover more of what you care about, what you're curious about going back to that. And I think university does, or at least in my lived experience, gave me the opportunity to do that in a really helpful, structured way that I don't think I would have got if I hadn't come to university. I think it's a really lovely, a really lovely, summary of, of, of and I think from what we've also saying is, if you are a student who might go, blimey. Oh, well, I don't know any of this stuff. I don't know what my, you know, my routine is probably now completely changed from what it's been like up until typically, you know, 18, 19 years of age. But, you know, you can even mature students are coming in with a very different pattern as well. But I guess if you're someone who's there going, I don't know what my routine is yet, it's all in flux. It's all in that the Su is a it's a it's a phenomenal place to go to to to get help with that. Right. Yeah. Absolutely. Like we will we will help every student who comes through the doors. I think personal tutors are another really good place to go. And, you know, people who you trust, all that kind of stuff. And being able to find the things that will keep you grounded, whether they be people, whether they be tools, whether it be, you know, your work, don't be afraid to reach out for help. Don't be afraid to put yourself out your comfort zone. And there is always going to be a place to find, to belong. There's always going to be your people somewhere. I think I said nothing else. I'm the only way to. That's when the podcast path has been. Thank you so much for having me. What a joy. And I'll say right now, sweetie, same thing. Oh, she should not have gone away.