Amy Dwyer

BA Politics and Modern History + MA Politics (2021)

Amy Dwyer is a Policy Advisor working for the Department of Transport. She graduated from Manchester with a BA in Politics and Modern History in 2020 and went on to complete an MA in Politics in 2021. Here, she talks about what she does now and how she got there following her time at Manchester.

My current role and how I got there

I work in the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, developing policy to support the consumer experience across the public Electric Vehicle charging network.

By third year I knew that I wanted to work in politics but given my lack of connections in this area, I had very little idea about how to get there. My course content fuelled my passion to work in politics, as did my student activism with Reclaim the Night.

Studying modules on the policymaking process, geopolitics, global governance and the EU have all helped prepare me with important background context for my current role. My studies have meant that while I came into my role with no relevant policy background, I had a political background and so I was able to quickly understand how to navigate the policymaking process.

My experience at Manchester

Initially, I chose to study at the University of Manchester because of the campus, it is essentially a campus university within a city, and I like this mix. I was also impressed by the choice of modules available.

The most surprising takeaway would be the real passion for political science that I now have. I was, of course, interested in politics when I chose to study the subject, but I didn’t realise when I started university that it would become a real passion of mine, which has been fostered by the rich modules that I was able to study, from geopolitics to the political commemoration of war.

My advice for future students

If I could offer one piece of advice to future students, it would be that although speaking up in seminars can be really intimidating, I noticed a significant difference in my confidence and engagement in my course content once I began to speak up more and my grades benefited too.