Fantastic Day At Durham University and a Free USB Flash Drive
It’s that time of the year again when Universities up and down the country are throwing open their doors to prospective new undergraduates and although fees are set to go up in 2012 there seems to be no loss of appetite to attend univeristy.
These “Open Days” are an opportunity for the universities to showcase themselves and for prospective students to experience the university “first hand” and make a judgement on whether it’s the right choice for them. There will of course be the little matter of getting an offer from their preferred universities and achieving the required grades to secure any offered place but that aside students should find the time to attend the Open Day of their top 2 or 3 universities because it will really help them find the right university for them.
It was Durham University’s Open Day on Saturday 2nd July and as usual they put on a terrific show. The University (despite the on-going building works) looked fantastic and the helpers dressed in easy to spot purple tops and t-shirts were a credit to themselves and the university. As you’d expect from one of the top Universities in the UK the various teaching department representatives delivered passionate and clear arguments about why Durham is an excellent place to study – it would be hard for anyone to come away from the day not convinced about the merits of Durham. The day aptly illustrated why Durham is an incredibly popular choice for thousands of the best and brightest students year after year.
Most of the individual colleges and the Students Union staff were handing out “goodie bags” on the day. These contained a useful notepad, pen and pencil, a map (very handy if like many you’d never been to Durham before), a bottle of water to help keep the students hydrated on the day (boy it was hot) and a USB flash drive that had been pre-loaded with links to the university web sites and also included a PDF copy of the college prospectus.
Given many attendees of the Open Day will spend hours walking around the various colleges, department building and the City of Durham itself, it makes far more sense to give out the key information about the University on a lightweight flash drive rather than hand out thousands of heavy, printed prospectuses.
University Open day season is now in full swing and it’ll be interesting to see how many universities opt for an electronic version of their prospectus pre-loaded onto a flash drive rather than handing out heavy (and expensive) printed versions.