Post-grad - students' needs

Owned by Anne Nelson (Unlicensed)
Last updated: May 25, 2016 by Nick Butler (Unlicensed)
3 min read

PG students: Audience information

 

Notes from meeting with Charlotte Deans, PG Liaison Officer, Student Recruitment and Anne Nelson and Paul Seiler

15 May 2015

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.

 

2. Transferring from other universities

Eg, Massey, Canterbury…

Likely to make contact by email

  1. Returning to Wellington after living somewhere else
  2. Transferring: coming to Wellington – eg, from Auckland – may be because of the flow to work after their PG (eg, government, public service). Likely to be looking for detail about enrolling.

 

3. Community

  1. Returning students
  2. Changing jobs – self-development can be important too. Mums
  3. New migrants – eg, husband and wife from India. Often want to upgrade their qual so they can work here. This is an emerging/target market.

 

4. Post-experience

  1. ‘Professional’ students – a different and important audience group. PG diploma, Masters. Tends to be commerce, IM, public policy. Most will have a degree (if don’t, will be terrified of going to uni).
  2. Going teaching (or similar)
  3. New programme.

 

Other groups

Prospective PhDs - she sends these enquiries to Theresa.

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

  1. Difficult to find PG info on the home page.
  2. Key info is on school sites. Incredibly difficult to find it.
  3. Course finder not useful for PGs.
  4. Cannot easily access PG info through ‘Future students’.
  5. Enrolment info on website is really tricky. Recommends specific steps for your choice, with non-relevant options being hidden.
  6. Need a specific PG programme page with info on how to apply and enrol.
  7. Questions the usefulness of some of the current search result filters.
  8. 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).