PG students: Audience information
Notes from meeting with Charlotte Deans, PG Liaison Officer, Student Recruitment and Anne Nelson and Paul Seiler
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Charlotte works with prospective PG students. (Note that students coming to her for help have specific needs: doesn’t see some types/groups of students.)
Audiences
1. Current students
- Know what they want to do but unclear on details – eg, BSc – but Hons or Masters?
- May be unsure who in Faculty to speak to.
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International enquiries - these are dealt with by VI. Note that prospective international students are considering Aust and NZ.
Current site: Her views, based on student feedback/enquiries
- Difficult to find PG info on the home page.
- Key info is on school sites. Incredibly difficult to find it.
- Course finder not useful for PGs.
- Cannot easily access PG info through ‘Future students’.
- Enrolment info on website is really tricky. Recommends specific steps for your choice, with non-relevant options being hidden.
- Need a specific PG programme page with info on how to apply and enrol.
- Questions the usefulness of some of the current search result filters.
- Calculating costs - students want to do this. Per point method doesn’t work for them. Calculating by course not relevant.
Content recommendations for PG area
- Admission criteria
- Duration
- Part-time options (most have this. - and post-experience courses are pretty much part time only)
- Cost
- Starting times (varies)
- Job opportunities (she refers people to Careers NZ. Tells them to look at jobs on TradeMe and Seek).
- Coursework or research - options.
- Can I do it by distance? Esp. relevant for mature students. (Education is doing very well in this area.)
- Can I do it at the Auckland campus?
- What support services are available?
- What can I do ahead of time, to prepare for starting? Eg, returning student: learn how to write an essay.
- Student learning
- Orientation (related to study) - what’s required? (eg, may need 2 days off work). Charlotte runs a uni-wide orientation programme. Each programme runs its own orientation.
- ‘Research stories’ eg in Vic’s news - good for attracting students.
- Infographic to help PGs know whether to go to FGR or F/S.
- Often refers students to p.19 of PUG - make into web content?
- Enrolment/enquiry time - enquiries for PG come in after Christmas. This is related to the Christmas break, when people think about new directions.
- Not everyone knows the academic timetable - migrants and people who don’t have kids at school, in particular, are unlikely to be aware of it.
- Summer/trimester - confusing.
Misc
Auckland enquiries: why choose Vic?
- Law school, government, public policy
- Living in Wellington, creative capital, relevant facilities.
- Want to live away from home.
- Jobs in Wellington
- Cheaper (for individual who must live away from home).