Nick Ducker

Software Developer

The programme offers a wide range of diverse topic areas that give you a good grounding in computer science and allow you to focus on the areas that really interest you.

Why I joined Leeds Trinity University

After attending another university and dropping out after just one semester, I worked for the following two years before joining Leeds Trinity University in 2020. I was quite nervous coming back to university, especially after my experience the first time around, but decided I wanted more for my life and took the plunge.

After several interviews for different universities in the Leeds area, I decided on Leeds Trinity because of the warm response I felt from them during the interview, and because I felt like they cared and took me seriously.

What I liked about the programme

The programme offers a wide range of diverse topic areas that give you a good grounding in computer science and allow you to focus on the areas that really interest you. In my experience, the first couple of years are fairly immutable in terms of content, but the third year provides some decent flexibility to work on projects of your choice. 

The programme provides a good level of challenge and there is lots to learn, but what you get out of it really comes down to what you are willing to put in. I think the abundance of support from the lecturers, and their willingness to help, is really what set my experience at Leeds Trinity apart from any other experience I've had in education.

The Globalizer placement

During my second year, I was approached by the University and offered the opportunity to work on a new mobile application called Globalizer. This experience served as my second professional work placement, and the app aimed to connect people and international academic/business projects using a similar interface to Tinder, the renowned dating app.

I worked in a team of three people and took the lead in producing a prototype for the application. This prototype went on to secure funding and a third-party company, Wilderness Technologies, was hired to carry out its development and deployment.

In my third year, I was invited to work alongside this company and ended up receiving payment for my help in delivering this app to the App Store and Google Play Store, where it is now used commercially. The experience I gained from working on this project taught me a lot about working on real-world software projects, and it has proved invaluable in preparing me for my career in tech.

Life long skills

I still use the skills I learned during this project today, as I am currently developing the Minimum Viable Product for a mobile art portfolio management platform.