UNIVERSITY is often the first experience most 18-year-olds have of life in the real world.

Besides moving away from home, there are the additional pressures of making new friends and adjusting to a new form of study.

So imagine how much more intense it must be if you had a television crew in tow during your entire three years at university.

Prestwich's Laura Paskell-Brown did not have to imagine, because she experienced it first hand.

Viewers who watched Channel 4's new documentary series, College Girls, will recognise Laura.

And over the next six weeks they will be able to follow her progress at St Hilda's College, Oxford.

The series explores the lives of six girls at Oxford's last remaining single sex college. And Laura, whose family live on Church Lane, is one of them.

"When I started at the college in 1998 all the girls received letters asking them if they would be interested in taking part in a documentary, and I said I would," explained Laura.

"I was invited to meet the programme maker and spent about 90 minutes chatting to her. Shortly afterwards I was invited to take part in the series.

The former Prestwich High School pupil and Holy Cross College student studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford.

She chose to study at St Hilda's, not because it was an all-girls college, but because her mother, Judy, had also studied there.

"At first being filmed felt quite strange but it became easier and easier to ignore the camera. My friends thought it was funny going out with me and a five-man film crew. Actually, the crew themselves became good friends, too."

Laura has seen preview videos of the entire series and her verdict is that it is a truthful portrait of her life at university.

"I'm 22 now so it's really weird seeing myself as an 18-year-old," she said.

"I don't miss the cameras because I associate them with university and that experience is over," said Laura, who is about to embark on a career in journalism.