Higher Education Conference, Reading University

On a beautiful sunny spring day, first year IB students and members of staff attended the annual Higher Education Conference at Reading University organised by Connexions Berkshire and UCAS.

In the morning, students attended three talks of their choice by university lecturers - finding out about a wide range of courses at degree level, hearing about course structure, what admissions tutors look for and about options following on; and in the afternoon students visited as many higher education representatives as they could out of the 121 stands. Most came away armed with prospectuses for further reading, and all were further informed in their choices for the future.

Not only did it give our students an insight into university degrees, but also it meant that they could see a university campus and feel what it is like to be with around 4000 young people in one location, since many schools attend from the region. Feedback from students was insightful and positive.

This is what just a few students said about the day:

After listening to the philosophy talk, I want to actually study it. It just sounds so interesting and the university stands are very useful for us to collect more information. Madeline

I think that the higher education trip was a useful and informative trip to us. It familiarized us with the different subject choices we can study in universities through different speakers. The good thing was that we could choose the lectures that we wanted to attend. The most useful aspect was visiting the various university stands and speaking to the different representatives from each university. Gabrielle

I think it was very useful as a trip especially because it gives you the idea of how the university will look like and even though the lectures were very general and superficial they helped you to understand better the subject. The most useful aspect was visiting the university stands in sports park because there you could ask questions and get a specialized response from each university. Anna

I really enjoyed the Reading trip. It was both interesting and useful at the same time. I best enjoyed two of the lectures because the talkers gave much information about the core of the subject and also the jobs that might apply that subject. This gave me a deeper idea about the subject that I want to study. The most useful aspect I would say was the “Success in UCAS application” as it showed us in which areas we need to pay more attention while completing an application. Egi

It was a good day with loads of information which I would be able to use when choosing a university and the course I would like to do. The most useful aspect was the fact that I could hear about the subjects that I find interesting and then know whether I'm still interested or not. I've been starting to think about whether the topics I found interesting before this education day is still interesting to me, and still what I want to do. Sonja

Liz Reece, careers and higher education adviser

April