UCAS VISIT DAYS 2011 ENTRY
Introduction
This paper provides information regarding the UCAS Visit days held between December 2010 and April 2011, analysing feedback regarding these events and provides information and proposals for the upcoming UCAS days in 2011-12.
Overall, feedback has been positive and has improved on last year, although the campus tours are still not as high as other areas in the programme. Discussion can be found below.
This report also provides information for next year’s UCAS Days, for your information.
Action: Academic departments are asked to take note of the following:
- The dates for 2011-2012 are available at the end of this report to aid you to plan and prepare for your departmental sessions. Please can you inform Lucy Wade () which dates you would like to use by Friday 2ndSeptember 2011.
- Please note the issues arising from the feedback that are of concern to departments. Individual detailed departmental feedback will be circulatedin due course.
- Further information and instructions regarding Wednesday parking will be available to departments from Student Recruitment shortly. Departments are asked, where possible, to make further use of the Saturday events to alleviate the problem.
1.Overview
a) Dates
UCAS visit days were held between December 10 and April 11. One date was available before the Christmas break, and 17 after. Six dates were Saturdays and the remainder were Wednesdays.
Each Department decided which dates to participate in, and invited their applicants. Departments participated in between three and fifteen dates each, with most opting for three, five or 6 dates in total.
b) Programme
Wednesdays
A Welcome presentation was offered in the morning, which also included sections on Student Finance and Student Life. This was followed by a Campus Tour. On some dates two or three Welcome talks took place simultaneously due to the number of visitors and the capacity of the lecture theatres. In the afternoon applicants attended their departmental programmes. These were followed by the Accommodation Tour of 1 1/2 hours, which departed from outside the Students Union on Mayors Walk.
The Wednesday programme was as follows:
From 9.15Registration
10.00Welcome, including Student Finance and Student Life
11.15Campus Tour
12.00Lunch
13.00Department Talk/Visit
14.00/14.30/15.00 Accommodation Tour
15.30/16.00/16.30Return to campus, end of visit.
Departments were asked to select a slot for an Accommodation tour for their visitors at 14:00, 14:30 or 15:00, depending on how long they wanted them to spend with the department.
Saturdays
Two programmes were in operation on Saturdays to better manage the number of attendees. Each department selected which programme they followed. The start of the day was brought forward 30 minutes to bring it in line with the Wednesday programme. All applicants attended a welcome talk on arrival and then split into thefollowing programmes.
Programme A
From 9.15Registration
10.00Welcome, including Student Finance andStudent Life
11.15Campus Tour
12.00Lunch
13.00Department talk/visit
14.00/14.30/15.00 Accommodation Tour
15.30/16.00/16.30Return to campus, end of visit.
Departments on Programme A were asked to select a slot for an Accommodation tour for their visitors at 14:00, 14:30 or 15:00, depending on how long they wanted them to spend in the department.
Programme B
From 9.15Registration
10.00Welcome, including Student Finance andStudent Life
11.15Department talk/visit
12.45Lunch
13.45Campus Tour
14:30Accommodation Tour
16.00Return to campus, end of visit
Each Accommodation Tour took in the three main sites at Oadby – John Foster Hall, Gilbert Murray Stamford Hall and Beaumont Hall, showing 2 different types of room, plus the JCR and dining rooms of each hall. Digby was not used for logistical reasons, as it is a little further away from the other buildings.
c) Attendance
A total of 3567applicants are registered as having attended a UCAS Visit Day. Attendance figures kept from the previous year indicate that this is a 4.6%increase on the 2010 entry cycle, where3410 applicants were registered as having attended visit days.
As in 2010, the busiest dates were in mid-February and mid-March, with Saturdays being a popular option. Typical attendances at this peak period were between 189 and 393 applicants, plus parents and other supporters. The first date in January and the one date in December were the least well attended, in that order, followed by 9th February and 9thMarch. This is mirrored in the attendance for 2009-10, however the numbers of attendance are lower on these days than in the previous cycle, with only 46 applicants attending the January 19th day.
Feedback from staff suggests that on some of the busiest dates the large numbers of visitors created some logistical problems, mainly large queues at the catering facilities.
From the perspective of the centrally organised aspects of the day, the optimum attendance for logistical purposes is around 220 applicants on a weekday or 350 on a Saturday. This year, 2out of the 12 Wednesdays went over these numbers, whereas 2out of 6 Saturdays went over these numbers (with the highest attendance on a Saturday being 393 on 26thFebruary, which was during half term).
2.Evaluation of UCAS Visit Days 2011Questionnaire
All attendees, excluding Engineering applicants, were sent a post-event evaluation questionnaire to be completed on-line. A total of 1012 were completed – a response rate of 33%.
a) Ratings of different aspects of the day.
Below are ratings given by the applicants for the different aspects of the day (including ratings given in equivalent surveys for the last five years).
These show a very slight increasein most areas on last year’s ratings by students. The new combined Welcome, Student Finance and Student Life talk has seen an increase for the Student Life talk, receiving the highest rating in five years, although the Welcome and Finance talk have experienced a slight decrease in ratings.
If a benchmark of 4 (which indicates “very good”) is set as the minimum expectation for each aspect of the day, then the one area which continues to require attention isthe Campus Tour.
2007 / 2008 / 2009 / 2010 / 2011Information received prior to your visit / 4.03 / 3.92 / 4.04 / 4.05 / 4.18
Information received on the day / 4.31 / 4.30 / 4.25 / 4.29 / 4.34
Maps and directions / 4.16 / 4.09 / 4.02 / 4.1 / 4.02
Ease of finding your way around / 4.31 / 4.20 / 4.23 / 4.27 / 4.24
Friendliness of staff / 4.67 / 4.61 / 4.62 / 4.64 / 4.65
Student Guides / 4.57 / 4.48 / 4.43 / 4.44 / 4.41
Welcome Talk / 4.11 / 4.17 / 4.21 / 4.41 / 4.44
Campus Tour / 4.09 / 3.91 / 3.91 / 3.78 / 3.96
Accommodation Tour / 3.94 / 3.80 / 3.71 / 3.96 / 4.01
Departmental Programme / 4.27 / 4.21 / 4.25 / 4.2 / 4.29
Student Life Talk / 4.27 / 4.11 / 4.19 / 4.17 / 4.34
Finance Talk / n/a / 4.15 / 4.27 / 4.41 / 4.37
b) Departmental Ratings
2010 / 2011 / 2010 / 2011American Studies / 4.00 / 4.17 / Historical Studies / 4.24 / 4.46
Archaeology & Anc. History / 4.56 / 4.56 / History & American St / 4.57 / 4.5
Biological Sciences / 4.13 / 4.44 / History & Politics / 4.38 / 3.17
Chemistry / 4.33 / 4.42 / History of Art / 4.38 / 4.71
Comms, Media & Society / 3.17 / 4.43 / History of Art & English / 4.00 / 3.5
Computer Science / 3.88 / 4.05 / Interdisciplinary Science / 4.46 / 4.31
Contemporary History / 4.17 / 3.33 / Law / 4.34 / 4.53
Criminology / 4.46 / 4.21 / Law with French / 4.67 / 4.25
Economics / 4.02 / 3.84 / Management / 3.32 / 4.16
English / 4.14 / 4.37 / Mathematics / 3.69 / 3.84
English & American Studies / 4.48 / 4.39 / Modern Languages / 4.26 / 4.4
English and History / 4.30 / 4.12 / Physics & Astronomy / 4.43 / 4.64
Film Studies / 4.00 / 4.38 / Politics & Intl. Relations / 3.60 / 4.05
Film Studies & English / 4.19 / 4.29 / Psychology / 4.42 / 4.13
Geography / 3.83 / 4.4 / Sociology / 4.40 / 4.29
Geology / 4.81 / 4.72
The majority of subject talks and events are well received, though a number have had consistently weaker feedback than others. This feedback will be given to departments in due course.
c) Other issues arising from applicant feedback
When asked what they liked about the day, applicants commented positively on a range of different aspects to the day, including good overall organisation, friendly staff and students, and very strong feedback for departments.
A recurring theme in the feedback is that visitors would like the campus tour to be more thorough, entering buildings and especially visiting the library. We plan to review the campus tours for next year, offer extra training for ambassadors and speak to the library staff about gaining better access.
More information about sport and music at Leicester was also sought. This can be added in more detail into the Student Life talk.
Although the Accommodation tour did receive positive feedback in the comments section, and the rating has improved since last year, many visitors still wished to see more types of accommodation, especially more self-catered rooms.
Once again, there were comments from a number of applicants on joint honours courses who had only found out about one aspect of their prospective degrees during their visit. Departments may wish to rethink their sessions again to address this issue.
Departments who are based off the main site may also like to include information as to where teaching takes place in their presentations, as there were comments from students showing confusion and disappointment at not having seen their department buildings.
Also, there were comments requesting more information for mature students, and particularly information for mature students in the Finance and Student Life talks.
3.Conclusionsand Plans for 2012 entry
a)Conclusion
There has been an improvement in the quality of the visitor experience, compared to last year, although the campus tour still proves to be problematic.We shall provide extra training for the campus tour and will be more selective when choosing ambassadors to give them, monitoring performance and providing feedback where necessary. A meeting is to be set up with the library regarding UCAS Visit Days.
We will also have to carefully select ambassadors with ideal rooms in the halls for our accommodation tours in October, especially with rooms in self-catered areas such as Bowder Court.
b) Overall structure and Dates
We propose a similar programme:
- Use all Wednesdays from late January to late March, and this year, have two April dates to take advantage of the Easter holidays.
- One Saturday before Christmas and 5 Saturdays after Christmas.
Dates selected for next year are:
- Saturday 10th December 2011
- Wednesday 25th January 2012
- Wednesday 1stFebruary 2012
- Wednesday 8th February 2012
- Saturday 11th February 2012 – Half Term
- Wednesday 15th February 2012 – Half Term
- Saturday 18th February 2012 – Half Term
- Wednesday 22ndFebruary 2012
- Saturday 25th February 2012
- Wednesday 29th February 2012
- Wednesday 7th March 2012
- Saturday 10th March 2012
- Wednesday 14th March 2012
- Saturday 17th March 2012
- Wednesday 21stMarch 2012
- Wednesday 28th March 2012
- Wednesday 4th April 2012
- Wednesday 18th April 2012
c) Programme
i)Programme for Wednesdays:
9.15 Registration
10.00Welcome Talk (including Finance and Student Life)
11.15Campus Tour
12.00Lunch
13.00Department Visit
14.00/14.30/15.00 Accommodation Tour (staggered start time)
15.30/16.00/16.30 Finish
ii)Programmes for Saturdays:
Programme A:
9.15 Registration
10.00Welcome Talk (including Finance and Student Life)
11.15Campus Tour
12.00Lunch
13.00Department Visit
14.00/14.30/15.00 Accommodation Tour (staggered start time)
15.30/16.00/16.30 Finish
Programme B:
9.15Registration
10.00Welcome Talk (including Finance and Student Life)
11.15Department Visit
12.45Lunch
13.45Campus Tour
14.30Accommodation Tour
16:00Finish
d) Student Ambassador Training
New recruits and existing Student Ambassadors will be involved in robust Campus Tour training, to include presentation techniques. Accommodation Tour training continues to be available to new recruits regardless of their experience at Oadby halls. A recruitment, selection and training event for new Ambassadors was held on 13th-15th June, and the next recruitment event will be held at the beginning of the Autumn term, primarily to recruit ambassadors with rooms in the Oadby halls for our accommodation tours.
e) Parking
Visitor parking on Wednesday events has been impacted due to the redevelopment of areas across campus. Last year, a limited number of spaces were provided at coach drive (Victoria Park) on specific days. Student Recruitment will provide further information in due course regarding parking, and departments are recommended to make further use of the Saturday events, to ease the burden on the facilities during the weekdays.
Lucy Wade
Student Recruitment Officer
Division of Marketing and Communications
17 June 2011