It was an output of a @leverhulme.ac.uk funded project, their ability to fund this type of research means that step changes in scientific approaches are possible. The impact of these types of project are only really recognised many years later!

It has supported lots of funded research

but so have lots of lother people from all over the world

It's fair to say @simon-blockley.bsky.social, and I have used it... a lot!

I was a lucky recipient of one of these studentships and wouldn't have been able to afford the course without it. With no family background in Higher Education and no real understanding of academia, I think my life would have been very different without it.

In the early 2000s the course attracted support from the NERC in the form of studentships, to recognise it importance and the gaps in training that existed at that time. These funds encouraged students with less financial support to undertake PGT studies.

The course data has recently been used by the Quaternary Research Association to try and better understand gender equality trends in Quaternary studies, it highlights that since 1996 54% of graduates were female with that figure rising to 58% in the last decade.

Astonishingly, 221 of our graduates went on to study for a PhD, that's 58% of the Alumni. It's often joked that you cannot attend an international conference in this field without bumping into a graduate of the course... in my experience this is true!

In the early years of operation, our data are limited, but we have a record of around 380 graduates since 1996. By my calculations, 58 of these have jobs in academia around the World, with another 17 undertaking or having just completed doctoral research.

Taught in conjunction with UCL and a raft of World experts, it instilled a sense of scientific rigour and precision alongside a critical approach to palaeoclimatic studies...