This past weekend I was a student helper at the University’s Open Day. These take place several times a year and they’re an opportunity for students to get to know their university and get some exposure to how it would be like to study their specific subject at the university. I didn’t know about open days when I was applying and deciding on universities so I never went to one as a prospective student even though I actually was in the UK the summer before I started studying here. This post will be a brief overview about how the open days are like (from the perspective of a student helper rather than a prospective student).

I arrived at the university around 8am, prospective students and their families were due to arrive around 9am. My role for the day was primarily talking to people and answering their questions but I helped with a few other tasks here and there. There were several general information talks taking place during the morning including a welcome to the university with students and staff, the UCAS process, career services and placement years, the student’s union, accommodation and study/work abroad opportunities.

In addition to the general talks there were subject specific talks that were roughly and hour long and some departments also offered tours of their facilities. There was a big information fair with stands for every subject where prospective students could talk to faculty members as well as get their questions answered about other components of the university including equality and diversity, Erasmus, global graduate award, street angels, students union, the sports park, accommodation, learning support, the chaplaincy, the library, unitemps and student finance (there might have been more stands but I don’t remember them off the top of my head). There were students giving tours of the university, there were self guided tours of the accommodation, a shuttle bus from the train station to the main campus and then from the main campus to the sports park so overall the open day gave prospective students a chance to see how the university was like, how studying their subject would be like as well as seeing the local area.

I hope this post was useful, if you have the chance to come to any open days I think it’s definitely worth it and in retrospect I wish I had taken the opportunity to visit the university and ask questions as well as maybe check out other universities in person since it seemed like a really good experience (plus I love visiting universities, even ones I’m not looking into attending).