The 2023 Barton Peveril Higher Education Fair took place on Thursday 9th March for the first time in physical format since 2019.
This event was held in the sports hall at the College and had representatives from over 60 universities across the UK.
The Higher Education Fair gave Barton Peveril students the opportunity to find out more about the Higher Education options available to them, learn about the different educational institutions and ask specific questions about courses, university life, entry requirements and anything else they wanted to know before making decisions about their next steps after college.
Outreach Manager for the Screen and Film School at BIMM Brighton, Georgia Winstanley said the following about what the University hoped to achieve by being present at the event and gave some tips to future applicants:
By coming to this event we hoped to spread the word about degrees in the creative arts. We’re a film, music and performing arts school. We want to share the options available, and hopefully inspire students to choose a creative subject and go into a specialised environment. I would advise students to start prepping now in terms of portfolio, audition, and take the time to explore the different options available and consider industry engagement at the different places.”
Amber Ward, Art Studio Assistant & Technical Demonstrator at Barton Peveril Sixth Form College, was also present at the Fair to promote the Foundation Art Diploma course that students can apply for at the college after they have completed their A Levels. Amber discussed the benefits of the course:
Foundation is much more preferred by Universities in terms of portfolio. The work that you produce during foundation is much more experimental and provides a much more in depth breadth of work and skills that universities favour. It’s a good opportunity to become more independent and you work on your time management and you have a really great opportunity to be surrounded by lots of creative people whether they do the same pathway as you or not.”
Varan Houghton, UK Student Recruitment Office at the University of Southampton, spoke about what they hoped to achieve from being present at the event and gave advice on how to determine which university is right for you:
We are here to help students start to make decisions about their next steps once they leave college; whether they want to go onto university, if it’s the right step for them, or if already focused on a particular degree path, helping them figure out what they need and how they go about finding a degree. I would always say [that students should] try and visit places, regardless of whether you think you know the University of Southampton, as we are just down the road, it’s still worth coming to Open Days, going to subject talks, finding out if it is the right programme for you, and thinking about whether this is the type of environment you would want to spend three/four year in.”
Dan Lewis, Student Recruitment Manager for SOAS University London (School of Oriental and African Studies) gave insight into what the University offers:
SOAS is a university that has a focus of looking at Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, and that comes through into most of the subjects that we have available. We teach subjects around arts, humanities, modern languages, and generally the students that come to us are those who are interested in expanding their world view.”
Charlie Smith, Student Recruitment Manager at the University of Bath told us how they help their students prepare for life after university:
We focus on employability; we offer all of our students the option to do either a placement or study abroad, which really helps students to prepare for life after university. We are the Times University of 2023, and we are happy to be here talking to students.”
Barton Peveril students found the event beneficial in helping them determine which route they would like to take after college.
Ezra Downie, First Year student on the Aspire Programme:
I’ve spoken to the University of Aberdeen, University of Southampton, and University of Oxford. At this Fair, I have been able to ask questions that I maybe wouldn’t have been able to ask, just at random. I think also, because I wasn’t considering Aberdeen before, having a conversation has opened that idea up.”
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