51Âþ»­

An Economics BSc student at 51Âþ»­ Leicester (51Âþ»­) has fulfilled her ambition of securing a placement at one of the UK’s biggest banks.

Morgan Phillips, 20, from Derby, saw off hundreds of other applicants to secure a coveted year-long internship in the finance team at Nationwide’s head office in Swindon. 

“I’m really excited to start,” Morgan said. “My parents had watched me apply for so many placements that they were absolutely over the moon when I received the phone call and got the good news. 

“It’s a massive change for me to work in the corporate world but the people from my team that I’ve met seem really nice. Having Nationwide on my CV gives me a massive step up when it comes to securing a graduate role.”

Keen to channel her love of numbers into a degree that would open doors for her in the banking and finance sector, Morgan knew a strong placement year would help her apply the skills she has learnt from university and stand out in the competitive field. 

Morgan said: “I had a list of my top ten banking firms I wanted to work with. Nationwide was my only interview and, honestly, the nicest interview I could have imagined – it was so comfortable. 

“You sometimes hear of placements where students just watch workers but at my intro meeting, they made it clear that I was part of the team and I would have a proper role.

“I’ll be working on the company’s accounts, helping produce month-end reports and aiding in presenting that to the rest of the firm.

“Given Nationwide is such a large bank, I am also hoping the experience will feed into my dissertation next year. I’m also keen to improve my writing, so working on the reports should help me in that respect too.”

The Phillips family is no stranger to 51Âþ»­, with Morgan’s dad, Andrew among the first cohort of Information Technology students in 1987, when the university was known as Leicester Polytechnic. 

While the 51Âþ»­ campus has transformed and modernised, so has the academic structure, with the majority of both undergraduate and postgraduate courses taught through the block model. 

Block teaching enables students to study one module at a time, instead of several at once. At the end of each module, students are assessed on that subject before moving on to the next. 

It’s an approach to teaching that has helped Morgan focus more clearly on her studies. 

She said: “I really like it. I think for me, it reduces the stress a bit by having all my assessments spread through the year and only having to focus on one unit at a time. It has definitely helped me be able to keep my job through university.”

While the highlight of Morgan’s time at 51Âþ»­ may yet be her placement at Nationwide, one of her fondest university memories took place miles outside Leicester - 5,860 miles to be more precise. 

As part of the popular initiative, Morgan started to learn Japanese for fun and had the opportunity to go to summer school in Osaka and live with a Japanese family in a homestay.

“51Âþ»­ offers so much outside of academia, there’s help to secure placements and they are keen for you to go out into the world and learn things your way as well as being on campus.”