UCAS Exhibitions and Open Days

So last week we hosted the UCAS higher education exhibition at our Bedford campus. For anyone that hasn’t heard of this event before, it’s our biggest recruitment event in the year. Located at our Bedford campus, we host many other universities and higher education institutions on campus, and are visited by approximately 10,000 students from schools and colleges within the region.

This year I was one of the staff working on the University of Bedfordshire stand. Over the course of two days I spoke to many students about the various courses that we offer, provided information about our accommodation and transport links, and was asked by a couple of students what was the best thing about Bedfordshire (to which I replied “Go Global – I wish my university offered something like that when I was a student!).

There were a couple of questions however that have really stuck with me.

What exactly am I meant to be doing here?

Excellent question! Stupidly I assume every year (well, this is the third year I’ve worked at the UCAS exhibition), that students will come into the exhibition with a plan of action, but not all students know exactly what they want to do at this point – I certainly didn’t. So for those students who don’t know what, or where, they want to study, or even if they want to go to university, it’s a chance to attend subject talks, which will give you an insight into what you may learn from a degree in that area, and where it could lead you. It also gives you a chance to speak to universities and find out a little more about them. Even if you’re not sure what you want to study at this point you may be able to find out what universities offer placement years, internships, scholarships, and opportunities to work abroad, to name just a few, which may influence your final decision.

I don’t need to attend an Open Day now do I?

At the exhibition I invited many students to come along to our next Open Day and a couple asked why they needed to, if they’d spoken to us at the fair – another excellent question! Although the UCAS exhibition is a great way to gather information, you will probably end up speaking to many universities and institutions, and you may feel like you have been overloaded with information. I would recommend using the UCAS exhibitions as a starting point – speak to as many universities as possible and, from this, choose your favourite universities and book to attend an Open Day at those institutions.

At an Open Day you’ll be able to take a tour of the campus, which will help you to really get a feel for the university. You’ll also be able to meet current students and hear about their experiences, and find out exactly what that university offers in terms of extra-curricular activities, career support, internship opportunities and facilities etc.

At the exhibitions the stands are typically run by someone from the Recruitment team. At an Open Day you’ll have the opportunity to speak to academics from your chosen department – the people that you’ll be dealing with on a day-to-day basis if you chose to study at that institution – and they’ll be able to talk in detail about your subject and how it is taught at that institution.

And finally, I can't talk about Open Days and UCAS exhibitions without talking about the freebies! Most institutions will at least have some free pens which you can stock up on. And if you do attend our UCAS exhibition next year make sure you grab your friends and visit our photobooth. 

Content is king

This week I've had the opportunity to attend the Postgraduate Marketing Forum in Manchester. It was my first time attending one of these forums and, as I've heard lots of good things about them, I was very excited. The theme of the day was content and tracking - as even the name caused debate I knew that I was in for an interesting day!

Content comes in all shapes and sizes, to your traditional printed collateral to a social media post - content can be anything that we produce. But what about things that we're not responsible for - a tweet or blog post by someone outside of the university? Well, it's still about us, it could affect the decision of a potential student - and therefore it still counts as content - just content that's a little bit harder to control!

One of the guest speakers was from a copy writing agency and he presented us with this picture, a scene from the movie The Incredibles. He suggested that many universities often describe their facilities and their key features in the same way, raising the issue that if everyone is saying the same thing in the same way, is anyone really standing out?

It's an interesting challenge that the higher education sector is faced with - students tend to want to know about the same things: location, facilities, accommodation, teaching, research, careers etc. - so it's understandable that universities are talking about similar things. And it's not just as easy as just finding something that's different - it has to fit the context - it has to be right for that particular situation, for that particular audience. 

It was an interesting concept, one of many throughout the day, and I've certainly come away with many thoughts and ideas to explore. 

What's in a building? Or something OTHER than Clearing

Right, so most universities and a host of other organisations will talk about "state of the art facilites". Hands up - we do, here at the University of Bedfordshire. "State of the art" is almost certainly the cliche of all cliches when it comes to describing estates and facilities, but looking round our (and others') campuses these days, there is some justification for feeling proud of our shiny buildings.

I first set foot on the then University of Luton’s campus as a member of staff in February 2002. I couldn’t believe it. I had thought that the terrible, terrible building in which I was being asked to work had been part of the tests during the interview, The hilariously named “Fairview” House – which still looms uncomfortably in the memories of many colleagues on the payroll – looked for all the world like a low cost location should anyone have wanted to remake The Shining or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in Luton. Sick building disease? Oh yes; even the pot plants threw themselves off the windowsills.

The old SU in Luton. It was horrid.

It was one of a number of weird, awful buildings on the estate. Former colleagues and alumni will shudder recalling:

•  the decrepit Student Union, whose most popular method of entry involved ducking down and squeezing through a missing railing;
• a much fabled, long since disappeared and possibly totally fictitious toilet, specially installed for HRM The Queen when she visited the University of Luton;
•  the eye poppingly daft Ambulance Station, which survived a £10s conversion to briefly become the Uni’s Post Room;
• various portacabins, containers, cupboards and other undesirable places, used for a whole host of daft reasons;
• the old Student Centre, whose undercroft was a favoured place for rats to overeat, get themselves stuck, then die.
  

Sub 2; one of the new Beds SU venues in Luton

Since then, the University of Bedfordshire has emerged and come a long way. Those fond of the monstrous 60s and 70s buildings of old might sneer at what they may see as the clinical ‘airport terminal’ campus feel, or the trendy 'Manhattan loft' feel of the School of Art's new facility in an old textiles warehouse in Luton town centre, while muttering about an over-abundance of cafes and thematic décor.

This is how campuses look these days and students – whether viewed as ‘partners’, ‘customers’, ‘consumers’ etc. - make a hefty commitment to higher education and have a quite justified expectation for universities to match.

And so, we have: the new Gateway building in Bedford, PG Centre in Luton, modern Nursing faciltiies in Aylesbury and Luton, an expanding UCMK (Milton Keynes) campus. And that's even before our brand spanking new library which is due to open its state of the art facilities early next year....