Director of Student Recruitment, Rachel Atkin, invites colleagues to support and attend this year’s blended open days to recruit the next generation of students.

In line with our new student recruitment campaign, open days at Nottingham will be a little different this year to help us attract and select the very best students for study and research at the university. While national restrictions are easing, many remain in place at the present time and so we cannot resume our full programme of open day activities, talks and lectures just yet.

Instead, we have reviewed and reshaped the open day experience for staff as well as prospective students – whilst continuing to follow all national guidelines to ensure the health and safety of our staff, students and visitors.

Summer open days

We are already agreeing plans for our summer open days in late June and July to reflect Schools’ and Departments’ requirements, initially offering prospective students online tasters of our teaching and virtual tours of our campuses.

Anticipating the full easing of national restrictions from 21 June, we will also offer bookable half-day visits for managed groups to explore our campuses and speak with staff and students about life at Nottingham. I am very grateful to colleagues who have volunteered to join us for these events.

Autumn open days

Looking ahead to the autumn term, where we hope national restrictions will continue to be eased, we are planning a further round of campus open days in September and October that we anticipate will be closer to the way we have run open days previously.

Teams across Schools, Departments and External Relations will ensure that prospective students experience first-hand our world-class campuses, teaching facilities and accommodation, as well as opportunities to meet and speak with staff and students about their experiences at Nottingham.

We will of course continue to follow any national guidelines to ensure the health and safety of our staff, students and visitors and adjust our plans as necessary were there to be any changes nationally.

If any colleagues would like to be involved in our autumn open days to meet the next generation of prospective students, do contact Wenonah Barton and team at SREvents@nottingham.ac.uk

A full summary of our open day schedule is as follows:

• Saturday 19 June: a student-led, student experience day of live-streamed content and chat on social channels
• Monday 21 June – Friday 2 July: live, online subject sessions with Q&A for students to hear from and interact with academic colleagues and student ambassadors

• Saturdays 26 June, 3 July and 10 July: bookable half-day campus experience visits for small groups, providing an opportunity to explore our campuses, chat with students, view accommodation and facilities and get a sense for studying at Nottingham

• Friday 10 – Saturday 11 September, and Saturday 9 October: bookable full-day campus experience visits, providing an opportunity to explore our campuses, meet and interact with academic colleagues, chat with students, view accommodation and facilities and get a sense for studying at Nottingham

• Monday 20 – Friday 1 October: live, online subject and general sessions with Q&A for students to hear from and interact with academic colleagues and student ambassadors

• On demand throughout: taster lecture content, welcome video, facilities tours, student and city life videos