Hugo Knowles

What made you want to apply to your course and to Leeds?

During my year out I visited a friend who was studying at Leeds and fell in love with the city. I got in touch with another friend who was studying Theatre and Performance at Leeds and she said the course was amazing; we’d studied Theatre Studies together at A-level and loved it, so I trusted her opinion. These two factors made me want to apply to my course and to Leeds.

Leeds also has a thriving parkour scene that I wanted to be a part of.

What aspects of your course do you enjoy the most?  

I enjoy the support we get from the PhD students within the school, who often act as tutors for the modules. Being taught by someone who is both an academic and a student is great as it makes the course content more accessible.

What would you say about the learning facilities in your School and at the University in general?

The learning facilities in the School are great; it’s got two theatre spaces, a dance studio and several studios across campus that students can book.

The learning facilities at the University are okay – as a Theatre and Performance student I’m not a massive fan of lecture theatres but the ones we have to use are nice. The libraries are nice but sometimes it can be hard to get a seat during busy periods.

Please tell us about your involvement in the Undergraduate Research Experience (URGE) and your project.

I applied to be part of UGRE because I wanted to do research on a topic that I was passionate about, and it gave me the opportunity to start this.

I chose to do my project on parkour, a sport I’ve trained for 5+ years. The UGRE gave me the opportunity to do research into an area that didn’t directly apply to any of my modules, which was important to me because I wanted my university experience to allow me to work independently on things I’m interested in. Following my talk at the UGRE, I’ve applied for a self-proposed Laidlaw Scholarship about parkour and performance.

What would you say to anyone waiting on their exam results in order to join the University in September?

Don’t stress too much about your results – I got my place at Leeds through Access to Leeds, which aims to make university more accessible to people from different backgrounds. If you do get a place then take it one step at a time. University is a big change but there’s loads of support to help you make the most of it.