Katrina Sansum

My Graduate Story

My name is Katrina Sansum, and I completed both a BA in Political Science and International Relations and a MSc International Development.

I currently work as a Research Funding Officer at the British Academy, which is one of the four national academies, which serves as the academy to further academic research in the humanities and social sciences while offering policy advice to the UK government and fellowships to academics who have offered exceptional contributions to their fields.

A Day in my Life

In my role, I aid in the oversight of three research grant schemes, the Neil Kerr Memorial Fund, the Stein-Arnold Exploration Fund, and the Small Research Grants. The Small Research Grants is the largest scheme within the Academy by number of applicants and offers awards of up to £10,000 with a tenure of 24 months, and has been applied to by numerous academics within Birmingham (including awards held by some of my own lecturers!)

My days can be extremely varied. I often start my day by reviewing the shared grants inbox, answering queries about awards at varying stages of the project's process from pre-award proposal writing to post-award reporting. I may also find myself reviewing academic proposals. This is probably the most interesting part of the job, I am often impressed by the originality of proposals that come across my desk and the fact that someone thought of them.

I spend a good deal of time chasing and then reviewing final reports from academics. This is particularly interesting as I get to gain insight into the impact our awards have on an academic's publication outputs as well as less traditional outputs, such as website development or podcasting. There is a good deal of financial analysis and event planning involved in the role also especially given the Academy's renewed focus on hosting following a major redevelopment of the building recently.

My Journey to The British Academy

Being a UK national, I did not have to go through any visa processes post-graduation, for which I am immensely grateful, the application process, however, was not always easy.

As we all know, the graduate market is increasingly difficult in a post-COVID environment. I wish I could give better advice but perseverance and luck really are the main factors that helped me get my first job after graduation at the Council for At-Risk Academics

My Birmingham Experience

My experience at the University of Birmingham taught me many invaluable lessons, most important of which was that even when everything feels like it is going wrong, your attitude will decide if it actually is falling apart. It doesn't matter if it's a 'bad' mark on an assignment you poured your entire focus into or a job application that you were so confident in only to be rejected, if you can't see a silver lining the world won't either. I've tried to carry that message into everything I do, whether that be in my personal or professional life.

Birmingham's Impact

The people, both academics and course mates. Many of the people I met during my time at Birmingham are still incredibly close friends and I still have good working relationships with many of my academics. I know that the connections I made at Birmingham will follow me throughout my life in so many different ways.

My Achievements

I still maintain that going from scrapping through second year of undergrad to getting a first overall is one of my greatest accomplishments.

Advice for Students

Take rejection on the chin and be polite. When I first interviewed at the company that would become my first graduate employer, I didn't get an offer. But, I sent back a very polite email thanking them for the opportunity and asking to keep me in mind if another role became available and I got it the second time round. I was told that that email made all the difference.