Staffing Open Days

Without students no university. Attracting new students is vitally important for any school! Open days are one of the ways of attracting them. And normally we have lots of peer guides to make these open days run smoothly. But the last time I sent the email out asking them to register for it, hardly any responded. Oh dear! I think this is due to the students generally going back to their parents over the summer. As soon as the exams are over they skedaddle! You can't blame them. But it left us with a problem. We have two open days over the summer. Now what?

We sent out a message to all postgraduates (MSc and PhD students). And all staff. We went properly scattergun! And it worked; after the Head of School added his voice to mine (not before, unfortunately) enough people came out of the woodwork. I hope it will go well! The thing is that peer guides are generally doing their MSc themselves, so they know what it's like to be a fresher at Ocean Sciences. But now we have lots of people with all walks of life! Lots who did their BSc somewhere else entirely, both inside and far outside the UK, and only have been here for a year. And a MSc is quite different from a BSc here! For instance, the BSc students are almost entirely taught in Bangor, while the MScs are almost entirely taught in Menai Bridge. Oh well! I'm sure all will do an amazing job! But it does show there's a flaw in the Peer Guide system. We sorted it now, but maybe we should think about how to tackle this in the future. A bit iffy to have to rely, in summer, on people who are generally away in summer!