The summer term support programme for Year 12 girls making university applications later this year was launched this week with a talk on making the crucial decisions over what and where to study.
Georgina Linton-Smart made sense out of some of the bewildering statistics surrounding Higher Education in the UK where there are currently around 35,000 different course choices on offer and well over 300 institutions to read for a degree.
“An absolutely key thing is to make sure you do your research so that you know exactly the details of any course you are taking,” said Georgina, student recruitment officer at the University of Birmingham.
“For example a history degree at Birmingham is likely to mean a lot of medieval and ancient history modules whereas elsewhere it might focus on war studies, archaeology or the history of a particular part of the world. Knowing about these differences is really important when making your decisions.”
Georgina also covered the different environments that UK universities can offer from campus based institutions to city universities and also universities in more rural or seaside locations.
The Queen’s UCAS support programme takes place during Wednesday afternoons which have been used for the QUEST enrichment activities earlier in the year.
Speakers normally attend in person but under lockdown conditions the school made good use of Zoom conference software so that all of Year 12 could take part from home.
Future events will include workshops on personal statement writing, university study skills, interview preparation and studying at Northern Ireland HE institutions.