We interviewed one student who had recently transferred to Victoria on 6 August 2015

Notes from interview with E

From the UK, emigrated when she was 12.

Went to secondary school in Hamilton.

Journalism was her first interest for uni - but she wasn’t sure, so she looked at a conjoint with something else. Did Comms with Business at AUT. But after 1 year decided Comms wasn’t for her and felt journalism was ‘a cut throat’ industry - also there were entry restrictions for this. So she decided to focus on business.

Moved to Wellington recently because her partner got a job here. ALSO: she really likes Wellington and her twin brother lives here.

Process for choosing a uni when transferring

Looked at Massey and Vic

Discarded Massey because their website is so hard to navigate.

Vic website was easier but “there’s lots going on: lots of clicking away from the home page”. Needed to find:

1. Dates - because transferring mid-year. Had to download a huge PDF calendar (Academic year dates 2015). (Semester 2 at Vic starts a week earlier than at AUT.)

2. Majors - wanted to check that HR and Management were both available.

Spoke to a ‘course planner’ at Vic and got everything sorted.

Speaking to someone worked for her because:

• It was a little urgent - she was starting this semester.
• She was transferring and needed to understand what could be cross-credited and so on.

Why HR? Has always had that interest. Thinks it’s a good fit for her personal characteristics.

Why Management? “Something I’ve always wanted to do.”

Also looked at Marketing. But was only interested in some of it, and didn’t want to study all parts of it.

Employment

Started thinking about a job in first year of uni. “For me it’s absolutely crucial.”

Considered earnings? Yes. But also considered the corporate world in general - “where you want to work in - fit with who you are”.

Recognises value of experience alongside education. “I just really want that practical experience now.”

Career plan - finish uni, get a job in HR.

What would be her ideal job? Said it would be ideal to go directly into a management role, but this was unlikely. So: “Something ideally where I was in a big environment where there were a lot of levels above me where I could watch and learn.”

Has she researched job availability and earnings?

1. Yes - mentioned a couple of vague sources, including guest speakers at AUT.
2. Checks TradeMe and Seek regularly - is looking for a part-time role in HR while studying. But they are few and far between.

Vic website: Would have looked at Careers info if it was there. Sees it as useful for 2nd and 3rd years - but recognises that Careers info can also be off-putting (eg: read something about it that doesn’t sound like them so change their mind).

Expectations of uni

AUT was pretty much what she expected. Especially the self-directed study. Lecturers: “if you don’t turn up they don’t care - it’s completely up to you”.

Vic experience - how has it been?

AUT is more modern.

Enjoys the content of papers here.

Doesn’t like the tutorial lecture system - having to sort out tutorials. “To be given a timetable at the start of the year then find I had things to add.” “Was one of the biggest disappointments.” Had to book tutorials on My Allocator. Had clashes, had to go and talk to people to ask to get in. AUT was bigger and it was easier there. It also offered business courses as night classes.

AUT was “flexible” while Victoria is “strict”. “You have to make this class or you can’t do it.”

Terminology

OK with university language and concepts as coming from another university environment.

Just the degree name - it’s called a BComm here, not a BBus.

Faculty

How much does she know about it?

“Not much at all.”

“Faculty is portrayed as a thing on a higher level than you. There’s you then there’s your lecturers and so on then there’s that higher thing.”

Does she know the name of her faculty? No. But turned out she did after all, but not the name of her school. (She’d got them muddled up when we asked the question.)

Where would she go to look for information about academic transcripts? "Probably MyVictoria. When I left AUT I had to get one and I found out about that on Areon (sp?) which is like AUT's version of it."

Social media

1. Facebook - “big user”
2. Dabbled in Twitter when at AUT but not very interested now
3. LinkedIn for business reasons.

Channels

Preferred/main are BB and F/bk.

1. BB - “definitely”. Two papers she does are weekly blog posts on BB “so it’s a bit different”. Used it at AUT. Can be a bit slow but apart from that it’s OK.
2. Facebook - thinks she follows the Vic page?

Other:

1. Email - misses a lot of Vic info. Perhaps because she doesn’t check her Vic email?
2. MyVic - has used it.
3. Has signed up to an e-newsletter from Vic Careers.

Hears about news and events:

1. Via BB
2. Occasionally on Facebook, maybe? As a secondary source.

Thinking about PG?

Thought about it early on because her sister did PG. But she’s more interested in skills than theory so doesn’t want to stay at uni longer than she absolutely has to. So her PG research was to check that she didn’t have to do it.

Victoria website

Used when enrolled. Wanted to know about majors; then papers (what were core, then what were electives). Also timeframe.

Subject/topic stuff? Wasn't interested in that.

Exploring Vic site:

Generally had difficulty, but didn’t use in-site search.

We asked her to show us how she looked for information when she first considered transferring. 

She started at Google and searched "Victoria University", chose the first link, landed on the homepage. 

The homepage appeared very "geared towards new undergraduates".

Went to Future Students, looking for information about transferring. Nothing obvious. Used the programme search widget to get to the Bachelor of Commerce programme page. "It's good to see first-year information. I wanted to see whether my courses matched." Didn't have much trouble with the course codes as they were quite similar to those at AUT. "If I was new I would have had no idea what they meant."

Looked at information about duration, requirements, list of majors. Saw the one she wanted - HR - listed and that was enough. Didn't really need to know more, just wanted to see that it was there. 

Found the degree example confusing. 

Scrolled to the footer, still looking for something about transferring. Found nothing. Went to Apply and Enrol. Found it confusing. Thought that because she was transferring, she would be a special case but there was still no information. Later (after talking to a student adviser) found out that she could apply under a standard entry requirement set. 

Went back to Future Students looking for key dates. All she really wanted to know was when the courses started. Had trouble finding it. Eventually found it in the footer listed under "Students". The page was unhelpful. She had to download the full academic timetable. "I just wanted to know when my course started." She seemed to use "course" for "programme. 

Did eventually click through to major pages but not initially. Found the home button confusing - it took her to the School of Management instead of Victoria home.