Luke Nadin

Luke left VEC when he was 16 and enrolled on an IT Diploma course at Bournemouth & Poole College. This enabled Luke to pursue one of his life goals: to undertake a degree course at university.

Luke was given conditional offers from the University of Portsmouth, Bournemouth University and Southampton Solent University. He decided to study at the University of Portsmouth as he felt that this would give him the greatest opportunity to develop his independence; he considers this one of the best decisions of his life. He employed a team of personal assistants and coordinated the management of his PAs alongside his university coursework.

His first year of university was a challenge, and following consultation with his lecturers, Luke changed from a Web Technologies course to Business Information Systems; a difficult decision that made the world of difference to Luke.

“I learnt a lot from my previous experiences and was able to manage my time a lot better.”

Luke is extremely proud of his dissertation, an essay that combined his love for technology with his disability, entitled ‘Enabling the Disabled’. This took a year and a half to produce, and Luke’s relentless dedication and commitment paid off: in 2015, Luke graduated from the University of Portsmouth with an Upper Second (Hons) Degree. He considers this his greatest achievement to date.

Luke is keen to urge anybody in a similar position who is thinking about going to university to pursue it:

“It may just be the best decision you make.”