University Open Days - views/insights/opinions etc.

Can I ask a question from the other side of the visit? I'm an academic and I'm currently responsible for running the open day offering for our department. We have a talk from a very charismatic professor for a range of related degrees - he is genuinely one of us, not bought in. I am amazed that a university would buy in presenting talent when public speaking is meant to be something we can all do! Then we have lab tours, which I do, and I mostly devote these to talking about where the subject is going, career prospects and our philosophy and approach to teaching. I specifically don't talk about the structure and content of our programmes because that is all in the literature we give out, although I happily answer questions on that aspect. Also in my subject the differences between programmes at different universities are not pronounced. There is also a stand where specific questions can be answered. Does this sound like what people are expecting? Anything missing?

hellsbells we were at that Life Sciences talk in Manch too. Were you the mum who pulled her daughter's hand down? I didn't realise until we came home and looked him up that Ben isn't actually a lecturer/scientist there. He's just a PR guy hired by the dept.
Ds was very taken with the course though (basically because he doesn't know what subject to choose).
Then we went to the chemistry talk yawn. Much less well-presented and very dry with lots of rambling about how close the peak district is but afterwards ds toured the labs and was impressed.

It's hard to extract the truth from the spin

Thanks hardest, that's really useful. Will look at unite if she decides to go there (and gets an offer...and the grades!!)

Hi. Just to say I went to Liverpool Uni not that long ago and had an absolutely fantastic time. It's an amazing student town and I loved the Uni campus being all together and in walking distance of the town. Admittedly the student accommodation is shabby when I was there so is probably worse now! In my 2nd and 3rd years I stayed in 'Unite' student halls. I stayed in Grand central which were opposite Lime Street Station. Altho slightly more expensive the rooms were soooo much bigger, nicely decorated, ensuites, much more secure and better set up. Also have common rooms and people to contact most hour of the day. I would definitely recommend looking at them for Liverpool uni as I found them much more pleasant and convenient for nights out on the town (no taxi or bus journeys home).

My DD and I did Liverpool on Friday. She loved it, and I was pretty impressed. The campus us a mix if old and new buildings, and there's a pretty impressive, newly refurbished students' union. She's looking at Economics, and there's a course with a year in industry that appeals to her. The business school (Economics/ marketing etc) seems to have good links with industry. There's a year or a semester abroad option, with some Erasmus funding available if within Europe.
We were not impressed with the halls. Pretty much all the halls in the off campus student village are catered, and the meal choices look very 1970s school dinners to me ( with quite restrictive serving times as well). They are building new s/c accom on campus which will open this year, but we were told that the rooms were small - and I reckon that means miniscule, as the catered room we saw looked cell- sized, and badly in need of some TLC.

Off to Birmingham and Newcastle next week!

Hellsbells99, I'll be the fraught looking parent at B'ham & Nottingham!!!

DH & DS went to M'cr yesterday. DH very impressed with Comp Sci Dept; he said the teaching was impressive. DS thought it 'good' (he rarely shows enthusiasm though) but less impressed with the accommodation that he saw.

Birmingham & Nottingham this w/e.

Most students I have seen on open days so far seem to have parents with them. Some of the presentations are specifically designed for parents.

I went by myself. The thought of taking my Mum would have horrified me!

Don't your teen Dcs mind you going with them? Mine objected strongly to the thought of having mum there, so sorted themselves out.

I went to Liverpool with DD yesterday. I was also struck by the lack of ethnic diversity in the city centre and also among the current students and applicants. I come from London by the way.

DD is applying for Vetmed which tends to be white, female and middle class dominated, but I noticed this among other courses as well.

Compared to other Vet schools I have seen (RVC, Notts) etc I thought Liverpool was a bit shabby. DD went to Leahurst alone and thought it was great, but I though the main campus was not exactly impressive.

I must say though that all the staff and students were very pleasant and helpful.

There are lots more posts on Open Days on the Higher Education section too.

Good idea, hellsbells99!

We went to Warwick yesterday and ds was pretty impressed!

The campus is huuuge (998 acres, apparently) and it is about 30 mins by bus from Coventry station. It is like a little town, quite cut off from everything else really. A number of people we spoke to said it was definitely a "bubble" so students were happy to move out into the "real" world after 1st year.

The architecture is standard 1960s concretesville but it is beautifully landscaped and there is a lot of greenery. The accommodation is off to one side of the site. Sadly we didn't get inside any accommodation as the queues were massive but from the photos online it all looks pretty standard. After 1st year students tend to live in Leamington Spa or Coventry with a few living in Kenilworth (about 10 mins away). Both areas are well served with buses to the university. The buses all follow a circular route around the university and there is more than one bus stop (giving an indication of the size of the site!!). Students told us that the difference between Leamington and Coventry is that, in the former, the students have colonised particular areas, including whole streets, and in the latter students are more dispersed amongst the "ordinary" population. I was assured that both areas are safe.

The Arts Centre was fantastic - apparently it is the biggest outside London and is frequented by ordinary folk as well as students. There was quite a large Costcutter shop on site. There were quite a number of eating places on site including a cafe at the library.

We visited the science block which was very well equipped and all of the staff and students were friendly and chatty and seemed pretty honest! Everyone was very approachable and no question was too dumb to ask.

One thing ds immediately picked up on, though, was a lack of ethnic diversity. We live in London, though, so our perspective may be a bit distorted and the ethnic mix may have been pretty standard for anywhere outside London!!!! I would say that about 95% of the people we saw were white which seemed tiny to us but it could be that more of the white students just happened to volunteer that day, who knows?

This post is now massive but if anyone is interested in Chemistry in particular I can provide some further info on that.

Here endeth the sermon.