Graduation 2025: Matthew Stothard
By: Communications
What journey did you take to get to UEA?
I first came to UEA in 2020, to study my undergraduate degree in History. Coming from Suffolk, it was the ideal university for me – close enough to home for comfort, but also far enough away that I could fully throw myself into university life. It was also immediately obvious to me how brilliant the History course was here, with its vast range of options.
Fast forward three years and I’d completely fallen in love with UEA and the amazing School of History. I’d had such great support from brilliant lecturers and enjoyed living in Norwich so much that I didn’t want to leave, so I decided to stay for another year to study an MA!
Tell us a UEA memory you’ll always treasure.
During my MA year, I was Co-Editor-in-Chief of Concrete (UEA’s student newspaper) with Eve Attwood, which was by far the best thing I’ve ever done and the time when I really found my community at UEA.
I think the best representation of that was when I hosted the last episode of our radio show on Livewire, ‘A Week in Concrete’. I was in the studio with Eve and one of our editors, Fiona Hill, just playing great music, laughing (I think we’d been set off by M&S yumnuts!) and reminiscing on what a brilliant year we’d had – making content we were so proud of while having such a fun time hanging out together in the media office.
That whole year, and the people I spent it with, are so special to me and my biggest highlight of my time at UEA.
Image: Matthew at work during his time as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Concrete
Tell us about your time working at UEA as a Content Marketing Intern – what it’s been like, what have you learned?
For the last few months, I’ve been working in the role and my main focus has been helping the team make the UEA website the best it can be. But I’ve also been able to shadow photoshoots and work on social media content, which has been great fun!
The role has helped me to develop my editing and communication skills further, and allowed me to delve deeper into the behind-the-scenes of an institution I fell in love with as a student.
What’s next for you after graduation?
For the moment I’m staying in my intern role at UEA, so I’m really thrilled to be able to stick around for a bit longer. Once you’re here, you don’t want to leave!
I’m also still in the student journalism world, volunteering as the Chair of the Student Publication Association: a charity which supports publications at universities across the UK and Ireland.
Where is your future heading?
Beyond the internship, I’d love to progress my career in communications or marketing, really making use of the skills I’ve developed at UEA as both a student and an intern.
The dream would be to find my way back to history, so I think my ideal future role would be doing communications for a museum or heritage organisation.
What will you miss most about being on campus or in Norwich?
I think Norwich is genuinely my favourite place in the world. I feel so at home and safe here, with so many happy memories dotted around campus and the city.
It’s also the history lover’s dream, with medieval churches for days – really there was no better place to study my degree!
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