A group of Geology and Geography students from Island VI Form along with Mrs. Allen, were welcomed to Portsmouth University Open day last Saturday. The university funded our travel and we were met and greeted from the ferry and taken to the main buildings where Earth Science and Geography are taught.
We chose to look at Earth Sciences, Geography and Environmental Sciences and learnt about each of the courses that the students were interested in. The students were then given a tour of the department facilities. The course content was exciting with a big emphasis on work place skills and experiences as well as the in-depth knowledge of how Earth works. There were lots of opportunities for international travel, some of it funded within the course, as well as work placements and lots of fieldwork and site visits.
The students commented on how it was great to be able to visit the university with their peers and get a feel of student life in the city (and Greggs sausage rolls!). We also found out about the wealth of support on offer to students from the Wellbeing Service and the Student Disability Advice centre where students can apply for a range of support from IT packages to counselling to help them to achieve their goals.
The next step is to get those applications in and Student Services at VI Form are offering weekly help sessions with UCAS applications. The staff at Portsmouth commented on how attending an open day was an important factor when they decide who to offer places to. We are also setting up an outreach opportunity where staff from the University will come to visit VI Form to stretch and challenge our geography and geology students.
There are fantastic degree courses on offer at a range of universities and excellent career opportunities out there for Geology and Geography students. We hope that students will take the time to visit different universities and look at all the options available to them over the coming months.
