University Information Day

The University of Cambridge was just one of many universities from the Eastern Region and the London area that were strongly represented at Dunstable College’s first University Information Day, which was held on Thursday 23 November in the main hall on the College’s Kingway site.

‘The purpose of the day was to help our learners make informed choices by bringing representatives of a number of universities together in one place. In addition, I wanted to particularly encourage our students, who do not come from families that traditionally go into higher education, to think about higher education, perhaps for the first time’, noted Maureen Asher, the College’s Careers Advisor, who along with Ruth Slack, the College’s Marketing Manager, was the main organiser of the information day.

The event lasted all day and was mostly targeted at College students who are currently studying for level 3 qualifications, such as A levels, BTEC National Diplomas and Access courses for older learners. A series of 30 minute talks on such topics as ‘Student Finance’, ‘Money Management’ and ‘Entry to Social Work’ were also scheduled and well attended throughout the day.

‘I went around at lunchtime and spoke to all the institutions represented and they were all extremely positive, both about the event itself, but particularly about the maturity and general attitude shown by the Dunstable College students as they made their way around the different stands’, observed Jerry Goodwin, the College’s Deputy Principal.‘Furthermore, you could tell the event was a great success from the request I received from Lal Joshi of the University of Bedfordshire, who asked us to repeat the event again next year, but on a slightly larger scale to include parties of students from the local schools’.