GraduateSchool
21 March 2007
Agenda Item 9(ii)
Paper GS/07/22
Graduate Student Recruitment Group
13 December 2006
Present:The Dean (in the Chair), Victoria Bartholomew, Shohini Chaudhuri, Maria Fasli, Tim Gutsell, Bob Mack, Phil Scholfield, Robert Wight
Apologies for absence were received from Wendy Clifton-Sprigg, Laura Middleburgh, Christine Temple
Minutes of the meeting held on 28 February 2006
The minutes were confirmed as a correct record.
Matters arising
Publicity on the Robert money
ACTION POINT: Joan Busfield is to speak with Wendy Clifton-Sprigg about this.
Report on admissions figures for 2006/07 entry
The Group received admissions figures for October 2006 entry. It was noted that there has been a 7.9% fall in applications for 2006 entry, although there was a slight distortion (due to the inclusion of new EU countries and large numbers of applications for schemes with a limited number of places within HHS and E15). There is also an obvious decline in overseas applications, particularly from China.Tim Gutsell confirmed that this decline was in line with other institutions in the UK and is evidence that markets can fluctuate.The figures also showed some growth in PGR numbers and it was noted that action had already taken place regarding these admissions figures, with the introduction of an outside agency (Hobsons) to deal with OS PGT enquiries and the setting up of the HEU PGT Task Group.
Phil Scholfield commented on the number of visiting scholar requests that the Department of Language and Linguistics receive from Chinese students who are below MA level and would instead be better suited for Masters-level study. He suggested there were possibly ways these enquiries could be converted into applications for MA study. It was agreed that the University could do more to make the most of visiting scholars toEssex.
ACTION POINT: It was agreed that Tim Gutsell would obtain a list of the University’s visiting scholars, in order to meet with them.
Shohini Chaudhuri asked if there were ways to help PGR students who were unable to afford the cost of study. The Dean spoke briefly about the University of Essex scholarship scheme and about a new approach to tuition fee levels for postgraduates. Tim Gutsell explained that this followed research on competitor institutions and the discovery that Essex was typically more expensive. Instead of introducing a lower fee, which could cause marketing problems, the Tuition Fee Group were looking at offering a bursary (based on academic criteria) to students from Nigeria, Pakistan and India, for selected programmes, which meant their tuition fee would be slightly lower. This was still in the early stages of discussion and at present aimed only at undergraduate and PGT students, although the Group asked that PGR also be considered.
Rob Wight voiced concern that admissions figures circulated shortly after registration for the Department of Law seemed initially disappointing,although it then transpired that the Department had done quite well at recruiting. The Dean explained this was often simply because students hadn’t registered and suggested that departments encourage students to register as soon as possible, so they are included in these statistics.
Bob Mack asked about issues relating to visas. Tim Gutsell explained that the introduction of postal applications has made the situation less complicated although did result in a higher rejection rate (due to lack of complete documentation). However students can now re-apply if their visa is rejected. It was agreed that this is where good agents are important, for example one agent in Nigeria has a 90% success rate with visa applications.
Report on applications for 2007/08 entry
The Group were shown reports for applications for October 2007 entry, although it was noted that it is still very early in the application cycle for postgraduate students.
ACTION POINT: It was agreed that a meeting of graduate recruiters and administrators would be held in January/February to discuss postgraduate admissions and recruitment matters.
Concerns were raised about the overseas decline for departments like Computer Science and ESE. There were also concerns about Economics, which is the only non-lab based department that seems to be experiencing a drop of over 50% for home, EU and overseas applicants.
ACTION POINT: Victoria Bartholomew and Tim Gutsell are to speak with Economics about this issue.
Rob Wight explained that Law have a number of new initiatives to increase recruitment, such as introducing a Centre for Commercial Law and new LLM programmes.
ACTION POINT:Tim Gutsell and Rob Wight are to meet outside the Group to discuss this further.
Update on the new enquiry management system by Hobsons
The Group were shown reports from Hobsons on the new enquiry management system that they are running for OS PGT enquiries to the University. This showed the number of new prospects (enquiries) that Hobsons had dealt with since the project went live at the start of October as 1422. The top enquiry countries were the USA, India, Nigeria and Pakistan.
A preliminary report on the first month, which showed a breakdown by department and scheme showed the most popular departments to be Law, AFM and Computer Science.
Tim Gutsell reported on his recent visit to the Service Centre that Hobsons operate in London. Despite reservations, based on his previous contact with Hobsons, he was impressed with how the Service Centre operated and with the work that the Essex enquiry manager, Raghini Gami, was doing in tailoring e-mail templates that have been produced by the University and using time pockets at the beginning and end of the day to contact students overseas. He described their workload as busy but manageable.
Report on the Postgraduate Open Afternoon
Victoria Bartholomew reported that the Postgraduate Open Afternoon in November had been successful, with over one hundred students (mainly current Essex students but also people from outside the University, as the dates for this event had been set in June so that publicity, including a note in the 2007 Graduate School Prospectus, could be generated). In a change to previous years, the event took place in the old Lecture Theatre Building Foyer and visitors were asked to record their name, e-mail address and area of interest so that marketing and departmental staff could send follow-up information.
The Group discussed appropriate venues for the Postgraduate Open Afternoon in March and it was thought that the new Lecture Theatre Hall might be suitable.
ACTION POINT: Victoria Bartholomew is to check the availability of the new Lecture Theatre Hall.
Report on the new HEU PGT Task Group
Victoria Bartholomew explained that a new HEU PGT Task Group had been set up to look at issues around the fall in HEU PGT numbers. This Group had met once and identified possible factors contributing to the decline in registrations (such as schemes on offer, finance, publicity etc) and information is to be collated to inform future discussion of these factors. In light of this, Sonia Virdee is to analyse market trends, Victoria Bartholomew is looking at competitors institutions (to assess how they promote their schemes, tuition fee levels etc) and Neil Cox is to speak with graduate administrators about good practice. The results of this will also be reported to the Graduate Recruitment Group at their next meeting.
Results of the questionnaire sent to new postgraduates
The Group looked at the results of a questionnaire sent to postgraduates on marketing and admissions related issues that has been produced by External Relations. Victoria Bartholomew explained that this is the fourth year the questionnaire has been produced and the results have remained fairly stable over the years. They show that most students chose Essex because of the good reputation of the University, their department and the degree scheme offered. The vast majority of students visited the Essex website when researching postgraduate options and received a copy of the Graduate School Prospectus. Views on such marketing tools were generally very popular.
ACTION POINT: Victoria Bartholomew reported that the results of this survey would be circulated to departments so that they are aware of the factors that attract students to Essex for postgraduate study.
Any other business
There was no other business to report.
Victoria Bartholomew. December 2006.
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