After dropping out of his first high school, receiving a PhD scholarship to the University of Edinburgh was not what Thomas Davies originally planned, but that's exactly what he's done...

"I came to Hagley in 2008, after having dropped out of my previous high school at the start of 2007. Though I got reasonable grades, there was nothing that struck my interest and I tended to misbehave in class. I left school not intending to go back, but within a year of full-time working I became bored and began to miss academic learning. I enrolled at Hagley soon after. Psychology at Hagley provided an ideal environment for me to think critically. Though I did not know it at the time, Psychology at Hagley was the foundation of a six year tertiary pursuit. I didn't plan to go to university, rather, I had a compulsory meeting with a careers adviser who told me that I had scraped into University Entrance, literally having the bare minimum to get into uni. This came as a surprise to me, and I was pretty stoked, so I gave it a crack and enrolled at uni. 

Six years later, I have a Masters degree in Social Psychology and have been awarded a PhD scholarship from The University of Edinburgh, Scotland."

Well done Thomas, we wish you all the best in Scotland!