How to explore universities and degree courses from your own home
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So, we are all now used to the idea of being at home, and even with some murmurings of returning to school this term, it seems we have to get used to the so-called ‘new normal’. When it comes to exploring university options There is a lot that is good in the new normal though, universities have speedily and impressively got their marketing and recruitment materials online and you can explore all your options from your own home. There are just a few things to consider before you start.
Choosing which university
Virtual tours
If you can’t visit a university but want to have a quick look around, many have created virtual tours of their buildings and campuses. UCAS has usefully listed these on their website:
https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/what-and-where-study/open-days-and-events/virtual-tours
The content has been created by universities so remember this is marketing as you watch it, you probably won’t see any peeling paint or get a feel for the student body, but it’s a good start. Some offer self-guided virtual tours of campus where you can enter any building for a 360-degree tour. Others guide you through their campus in a series of videos. Personally, I prefer the latter, I seem to go round in circles on the self-guided tours, but this is coming from someone who lost interest in video-gaming once 3D games became mainstream, was always dead in minutes wondering around aimlessly. Give me Mario or Sonic any day. You’ll probably all be fine.
Online events and Open Days
All universities should have switched to virtual events by now, so you can go to a number of live sessions from the comfort of your own home. There are lots of Open Days, but also sessions on the UCAS process, specific subjects and finance.
https://www.ucas.com/ucas/events/find
Just like attending an open day in person you need to prepare to get the most out of a virtual open day. You should go with pre-prepared questions and know what your criteria are for picking a university. You may need to sign up in advance so make sure you get checking now.
A good example is Nottingham Trent University, which is holding a virtual Open Day in June, you can sign up here.
The University of Westminster say that on their open day you can:
Speak to our academic staff and attend subject sessions to learn more about the courses we offer.
Hear first-hand from current students about what it’s like to study at Westminster.
Check out our excellent facilities on a virtual campus tour.
Visit the accommodation virtual booth to view our student halls.
Check what’s on offer at each event so you can see a variety of different talks, you probably only need to attend one finance talk for example. You may want to make a checklist so you can compare universities afterwards or it will be harder to recall the different institutions in the future when you have been sitting in the same place every time. Do check the location of an institution before signing up, if you aren’t prepared to travel five hours by car then you probably shouldn’t sign up. Though on the flipside of that you might discover that it’s the institution for you that you never would have imagined if you had to go there in person. Don’t forget too that at some point over the next year there will more than likely be a chance to go visit in person, so this is not the only chance you will have to decide.
‘Meeting’ undergraduates
Many people value finding out what a university is like by talking with its current students. This can give you a lot of information so is best done after you have already completed your own research and have specific questions.
Remember that students can only tell you their opinions. By asking a few different people you will be able to use what they tell you critically, alongside your research, to help you make up your own mind.
Some universities now let you do this in a safe way through pop up chat windows on their own websites. UCAS also hosts students from several universities on their own site.
Go to the UCAS ‘Chat to uni students’ page: https://www.ucas.com/chat-to-students
Choosing a course
Personally, I am way more excited by the offer that various universities are putting on to help you choose a course. A lot of this content was available before but now it seems much easier to find and the quality of it seems much improved.
Of particular note is the University of Sheffield, which has teamed up with Future Learn to run free taster courses in a variety of subjects; including Robotics, Dentistry, songwriting and Law, Crime, Justice, and Society. These are quite in depth but will then give you great material for your personal statement and demonstrate the commitment to independent study so valued by universities.
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/online-learning/futurelearn
A little less time-consuming is this one hour taster lecture in English at City University that I found whilst searching the UCAS events list: https://www.ucas.com/ucas/events/find. There is a lot of quite dry content listed here but then the odd little gem appears.
Most universities have a YouTube channel and there are often some good lectures there, the University of Warwick is packed with material. Look at the different subject departments.
So there you have it, an easy way to start exploring. Any good material you find, please do share it on our Twitter feed @Causeway_Edu, universities are constantly updating their offer so its hard to keep up.
