Gingerjo’s Blog

I was wanting to go to the full three days of the conference in Blackpool, but the first two days clashed with the North Wales HE Fairs.  I just went as a day delegate for the final day, today instead.  It wasn’t quite what I was expecting (I’ve never been before).  It was definitely more relaxed than conferences I’ve been to in the past - or perhaps I was just more relaxed.  I’ve only really been to science conferences before, where I always felt very self-conscious just in case I upset, offended or made an idiot of myself in front of a big load of professors who I then might want to work for one day. Since Admissions/Recruitment staff aren’t quite so mobile (they don’t move from university to university and country to country to find work) I think the pressure was off. 

I wasn’t that bothered about the first seminar which was about fair admissions in Wales although it was interesting because I hadn’t realised that the Welsh education system had diverged so quickly.  Pretty much the changes in funding mean that any Welsh students not choosing to study in Wales are either poorly informed or very wealthy because Welsh students studying in Wales will get an automatic £1800 discount off the tuition fees.  If I was going to uni now I would probably have ended up going to Aberystwyth rather than Manchester just because of the cash incentive.  Aber was my second choice at the time anyway.

The second workshop was the real reason I’d wanted to go to the conference and I wasn’t disappointed.  UCAS are developing a new social networking site for applicants and current students - it looks really interesting and my uni definitely needs to get students involved as soon as possible.  It will offer them resources that we can’t hope to provide because we are just too small to develop that kind of content.  Also our current students are our best ambassadors - who else can tell prospective students what it’s really like at our uni.  Some staff at other unis were really worried that negative comments might be posted about them and wanted the site censored.  To be honest though, if your students are happy and enjoying their studies they will probably respond to the negative comments for you, answering complaints and repairing the damage.  You shouldn’t undervalue that kind of loyalty.

The final workshop was a bit disappointing really - it was meant to be a workshop about getting the most out of UCAS data.  Actually though it was really a bit of a sales pitch for some new stats products UCAS are offering.  It was also a bit muddled as they jumped from product to product without really explaining that they were now talking about something else.  Our table won cream eggs though for getting the most questions right in the quiz - which was good.  The products also look interesting, but not really suitable for my uni.

Finally, the most important bit - meeting people I know.  It was great to catch up with one of my friends and colleagues from UEA and I’m looking forward to our holiday in Norfolk even more now because I know we’re still friends.  I was a bit worried we wouldn’t have much in common anymore, but no worries, it was just like old times. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 29th, 2007 at 04:03 pm and is filed under Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.