During my time as part of the first cohort of Q-Step students at the University of Glasgow I won places in three Q-Step internships. They were with the Urban Big Data Centre, the School of Education at the University of Glasgow, and the Scottish Human Rights Commission. All three provided me with unique indispensable skills and opportunities. 

The first internships, with the Urban Big Data Centre, led to a publication in Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and the City. As an intern my contributions to this publication were cleaning and analysing data collected over multiple years from cordon counts in Glasgow and crowdsourced data from a popular cycling app. This experience taught me a great deal about working wiht big data and designing research. It also provided me with insight into what its like working in academia, which I now call upon as a first year Phd student. 

I am grateful that I was able to gain these skills while earning a living wage, without which these internships wouldn't have been accessible to me. I would particularly recommend Q-Step internships to any student but particularly those interested in a career in research after graduation. My internship experiences have aided my career progression further than I could have imagined when I first started the Q-Step course. 

First published: 9 June 2025

<< Student Stories