My articles
My weekly articles cover everything from thinking about your future career, to choosing a course or university, and on to making an amazing application.
Browse through to find something of interest, or better still, put a keyword in the search box and find everything I’ve written on that topic.
Articles
‘I just liked the logo’: How branding can help you make your university choice.
I expect at some point, you will all look at a university website and think ‘Yes, that’s exactly what I’ve been looking for!’, or perhaps ‘Nah, this isn’t for me’. And trust me, a lot of that will be to do with their brand, and how they have presented themselves.
Because of this, I wanted to give you just a few thoughts about university branding.
Bear with me; I promise there will be some useful take-aways at the end, and along the way you’ll learn some new stuff about marketing and strategy.
University rankings and league tables: just how useful are they
You will probably be familiar with the concept of university league tables: they are rankings of universities, listed from best to worst, published so that you can easily identify the top universities in the country, and in the world - right?
Well, let's see…
Top 10 things I learnt at the University of Cambridge Open Day
A few days after I’d been to the University of Oxford Open Day I had a message from a long-standing friend that he’d be attending the University of Cambridge Open Day with his son the following week. Did I want to meet up?
I thought for at least half a second before replying a very positive “yes”. After seeing Oxford, what better than to see their nearest and dearest rival on equal terms. And of course to catch up with an old friend who I hadn't seen for a couple of years (you know who you are!)
So off we went, on a beautifully sunny day to visit the University of Cambridge!
Top 10 things I learnt at the University of Oxford Open Day
At the start of the summer, I was staying with my brother in London, and his niece had booked to attend the University of Oxford Open Day. “Would I like to go along with them?” they asked.
In my 30+ years working in universities, I’ve visited Oxford numerous times, and I’ve shared a stage with University of Oxford admissions tutors even more often. But I’ve never been to an Open Day there, and I’ve never been right inside any of the individual colleges. I couldn’t resist the opportunity!
Embrace the chaos: Nietzsche and choosing a university
Ever read any Nietzsche? Nope? Me neither! But I have read a little bit about Nietzsche, and one of his ideas particularly resonated with me when it comes to choosing a university. The quote that caught my eye was this:
“You must still have chaos in you to be able to give birth to a dancing star”.
When is a top university not a top university?
Back in the spring, I used to keep seeing an advert on Facebook suggesting I should study for a British Masters degree at the “9th Best University in the UK”. The university in question was Liverpool John Moores University.
Now, I mean no disrespect to Liverpool John Moores, but it is not a university that has troubled the top 10 in any of the major league tables, so I was naturally curious about this claim to be ninth best? By what measure were they making this claim?
Well, the small print on the advert gave the source…