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Preparing
for
EDUCATION EXHIBITIONS
British
Education Exhibitions provide an excellent opportunity to make an
informed choice on where to study in the UK. However, attending
a British Exhibition should not be viewed as the first step to choosing
a university. You must carry out research before you attend the
event. An average exhibition will have representatives from over
100 institutions and will normally be busy, with many people wanting
to speak to the various representatives. You need to ensure that
you leave the exhibition with the necessary information to make
an informed choice on your destination. This article looks at the
steps you should take before you attend an education exhibition
and offers advice on how to get the most from the event.
 What
sources are available to you?
The secret to success is to decide on exactly what you are looking
for in a UK university well before you attend an exhibition. This
step is probably more important than any other stage during the
decision making process. There are many ways of doing this but the
easiest is to make a list of the key questions you want to consider
when choosing a university or course and try to determine the factors
that will be important when you make the final decision. Here are
some examples:
• What
is the main subject(s) you want to focus on? How important is each
of the subjects in the general area? If you want to study business,
do you want to take a general programme of study or specialise in
specific areas such as marketing, international business, human
resource management?
• Are you
looking for a taught course or research programme? What types of
teaching and assessment methods suit your type of learning? In the
UK most courses combine a range of teaching methods such as lectures,
seminars, tutorials, laboratory sessions, field trips and work placements.
Universities vary in how they assess students. Some universities
use exams, others course work or more commonly a mixture of exams
and course work.
• Are you
looking for a university that has research activity in your area
of study? Do you want to attend a university that has performed
well in the UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)? Do you know how
to get access to the information? If not, search the Internet or
contact your Local British Council office or a UK university to
find out.
• Is there
a particular member of staff you would like to work with? This will
apply to more students interested in research programmes than those
interested in taught courses.
• Does
it matter where the university is located? Do you have friends or
family living in the UK? Do you want to live with them or be within
travelling distance? Do you want to live in a large city, small
town or in the countryside? Do you want to attend a campus university?
• Do you
want the university to have any special facilities for postgraduate
students, such guaranteed residential accommodation, family accommodation,
pre-sessional English language classes, a graduate school or 24-hour
computing facilities?
• How important
is cost to your decision? Is there an upper limit on how much you
can afford on overseas education?
Some factors
will be more important than others. You will need to list them in
order of priority and state what you are looking for beside each
one. Remove any factors that are not important but do not forget
to add any which are important and not listed opposite.
Decide
on which university stands to visit at the exhibition
The next step is to find out which universities will be represented
at the exhibition. You will be able to get this information from
the exhibition organisers. Once you have identified the factors
to take into consideration when making your choice, you can identify
the universities that meet your requirements. If you visit your
local British Council office, or even your university library, you
should be able to get access to information that will help with
the selection. Start by identifying the universities that offer
the subject in which you are interested. Check to see if they offer
taught and /or research programmes. Start looking at the content
of programmes and find out more about the universities. This process
takes a long time and you must be prepared to spend a few days going
thorough the information to identify the universities that meet
your requirements.
How to get the most from the time you spend at the exhibition
Once you have identified the stands you would like to visit, you
should prepare a list of questions to ask the various university
representatives. Think about the key information you need to know
and the questions that have not been answered when you carried out
your research. Some of the key points to seek clarification on are
the length of the programme, entrance requirements, tuition fees,
living costs and availability of residential accommodation. Write
down the answers to each of the questions. Once you leave the exhibition,
it can often be difficult to remember the responses given by each
of the representatives.
Get a copy of
the postgraduate prospectus from each university and/or any extra
information they have on your chosen subject area. If the university
does not have any prospectuses left, leave your name and address
to the exhibition. This will ensure you do not waste time writing
down your contact details for each university.
Once you have
visited all the universities on your list, look at the rest of the
stands. In addition to other universities, there may be representatives
from the British Council, British Embassy or High Commission, local
sponsorship bodies and travel companies. It is always worth visiting
these stands to see if they can provide any useful information.
Education exhibitions
provide access to information and answers to questions that may
not be given in education guidebooks, university prospectuses or
on the Internet. However, they are often very busy events and to
get the most out of them you must be prepared. Good preparation
will ensure that you leave the exhibition with all the information
you require to make an informed choice.
Linda Cowan,
Assistant Director,
International Office,
University of Newcastle
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