‘After seven long years, I’ve completed my degree’

As our 42 new Longford Scholarship holders begin the autumn term at their chosen universities, our recent graduate George is prompted to reflect on his own long journey to a degree, with hiccups and the occasional bin along the way. But with support, including from the Longford Trust, he has now graduated, is out of prison and is busy building a new life and future for himself.

My education was not the best. At school I would sit in classrooms dazed, not knowing what the teachers were talking about. Don’t get me wrong, I was not daft. I understood history and things happening in the world, but with grammar, maths or science, my head was fried.

This spilled out into bad behaviour, disrupting classes and fighting teachers, leading to my expulsion at 15. At the same time, I was living a criminal life on the streets and by 18 I received my first prison sentence. Prison, with no education or rehabilitation, only worsened my criminal behaviour and by 21 I was serving a life sentence.

For years I had no direction, avoiding education because it was so hard for me, not knowing the root cause. In prison I found out I had dyslexia.

‘I got the same marks, if not higher, than some Cambridge students’

After years of madness in the system, I realised I couldn’t live this way any more and began the road to rehabilitation. This led me to HMP Grendon in Buckinghamshire, the therapeutic prison, where my peers challenged me to educate myself. They noticed my reading and writing was that of a child, but my way of communicating was intelligent.

At this time there was a course being delivered by an organisation called Learning Together, a phenomenal environment where Cambridge students and prisoners from Grendon studied criminology together. After some nagging and resistance, I decided to take part, but first I needed my English and maths Level 1 and 2. No mean feat for someone who left school with the spelling of a seven-year-old, which remained the same until I was 27. After a year I gained my qualifications and off I went to Learning Together.

The course was amazing. I knew nothing about criminology but would go on to get the same marks, if not higher, than some Cambridge students.

I became curious about criminology and psychology, so I started A-level psychology but I hit the same barriers as when I was young. One day I dumped the whole course in the bin, literally. However, the Longford Trust funded me to do an Access module with the Open University. At the same time, I attended a Westminster University criminology reading group, again studying alongside university students.

Under what’s known as convict criminology, their work was remarkable. Inspired by the reading group, I applied to the Longford Trust for funding and started a criminology degree.

‘I lay awake hoping the bins hadn’t been emptied’

This proved the toughest part of my journey as COVID kicked in. Banged up in a cell 23-hours-a day, studying a degree with little academic background, was hard, seriously hard. It even led to the bin again, but that night I realised I needed my studies back. I lay awake hoping the bins hadn’t been emptied. Thank Allah they hadn’t. On that module I got a distinction.

Credit needs giving to my good friend. He knows who he is. I would slide essays through his door, only to have them slid back with instructions to rewrite, which nearly broke me. But his intentions were good. He was helping shape my much-needed academic skills.

After seven long years of study, I completed my degree. I’m now out of prison at 38. After 19 years behind the door, I am studying a Master’s in criminology at the University of Westminster with support from the Longford Trust.

A new part of the journey begins.

If George’s story has inspired you to think about university education and how it can play a part in rehabilitation, or if you know someone it might help, please contact Clare Lewis, our scholarship manager, for more information.