KEIGHLEY Bradford's decision to study a Master of Creative Industries has allowed her to do more than build on the skills she developed in her undergraduate degree.
It's also helped her publish her first novel. Ms Bradford, 23, submitted her contemporary romance Once We Were last week and is waiting on the physical copy to arrive.
"I'm very excited," she said.
"My whole goal when I started university five years ago was to publish my novel, so it was really good I got to do it."
Ms Bradford received an email from the University of Newcastle (UON) on Thursday explaining she would be unaffected by its course optimisation program, which will see it discontinue its Bachelor of Creative Industries from next year and suspend four postgraduate programs in 2021 due to low numbers: the Graduate Certificate in Creative Industries, Master of Creative Industries, Graduate Certificate in Digital Media and Master of Digital Media.
Ms Bradford said she understood why UON made the decision - she is one of only six in the Masters program, but said it had taught her valuable skills.
"It's a little bit disappointing, I definitely enjoyed doing the Masters and have no regrets whatsoever.
"The bachelors I still feel that's still quite relevant, particularly with all the subcategories."
She said both degrees had taught her to look at the world from a different perspective.
"I don't think I would have the skills or look at things the way I do if I'd continued with my [first] arts degree. They encourage you to look outside of the box."
Ms Bradford was in the first creative industries cohort in 2017. She "panic-applied" for Masters "after applying for jobs for several months, every single day of the week, with no success whatsoever".
"That was one thing I had a lot of trouble with... people don't quite understand what the creative industries are, so it is a big barrier when you are applying for jobs."
She was drawn to the flexibility of the Masters program, which included a core project and electives.
She focused on marketing in the hopes of a career in it or publishing. "Now I've got a lot more knowledge... and I've been able to implement it and do volunteer work through my own project."
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