CAT’s Graduate School of the Environment has recently developed and launched our first Virtual Open Days giving an overview of the Graduate School and our postgraduate courses.

Our nine postgraduate courses cover a wide variety of topics relating to sustainable solutions and are offered at different levels and can be studied part or full time, on-site, via distance learning, or a mix of both. This flexibility allows us to cater to students from a wide range of backgrounds, which helps to enrich the course due to the diverse range of experiences, skill sets and opinions present amongst our student body.

So far we have welcomed over 100 attendees to our Virtual Open Days from across the globe with an interest in studying with us, and we look forward to welcoming many more as future dates are booking out fast.

Developing the Virtual Open Day

Because we’re all staying at home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, our on-site Open Days were postponed back in March. As a result we pushed forward developing our Virtual Open Days to make sure that we can continue to showcase how our courses can help our students develop the knowledge, tools and skills to make a difference and help society rise to the climate and biodiversity emergency.

Adrian Watson, Head of the Graduate School said:

“After the cancellation of our on-site Open Days, we immediately set about developing a virtual alternative, but we weren’t quite prepared for how popular they would be! We’ve all really enjoyed meeting our attendees and talking with them (albeit virtually!) and it’s been wonderful to be able to give an overview of CAT’s postgraduate courses to prospective students from as far away as Columbia and Hong Kong, as well as people closer to home.”

How do the Virtual Open Days work?

With our courses already available via distance learning, our panellists, including Programme Leaders and Support Staff from the Graduate School, are already used to presenting via video conferencing, and with the addition of informative slides, a virtual tour and videos showcasing CAT and the student experience the response we’ve received has been overwhelmingly positive.

The hour and a half long live webinar session gives prospective students the opportunity to hear more about studying with us at CAT through an introduction to CAT and our history and a courses overview. They can then ask questions live to our panel through an interactive Q&A session.

Feedback

So far we’ve had lots of really positive feedback, with some useful comments that have helped us improve our sessions going forward.

Amy, who joined us from Bristol, found the Virtual Open Day, “Extremely useful and informative! It was really great to (virtually) meet the CAT Team, everyone seemed very warm, friendly and happy to help, which is definitely encouraging! Extremely well organised and had quick responses to all of my questions too, thank you so much!”

Emma, who attended a Virtual Open Day from East Sussex, said she found the session, “great, better than expected and gives me confidence in trying to complete an MSc using elements of distance learning.”

Paul, who also joined our first MSc Virtual Open Day, said: “Excellent, very informative and has left me wanting more!”

Katie said she found the Virtual Open Day, “more helpful than I expected from a virtual open day, the chat and Q&A functions were used well and it didn’t feel just as if I was being talked at or advertised to.”

Interested in attending?

If you’d like to join a future Virtual Open Day then do sign up to one of our upcoming dates:

• MArch Sustainable Architecture Part 2 – Friday 5 June, 2020 10:30am
• MSc Courses – Friday 5 June, 2020 2pm
• MSc Courses – Friday 19 June, 2020 11am
• MSc Courses – Monday 29 June, 2020 11am

Staff from CAT’s Graduate School of the Environment will also be taking part in some of our upcoming free public webinars, which will cover topics usually discussed during student module weeks.

If you have any questions about our Virtual Open Days or need any further information about our courses or the Graduate School do give us a ring on 01654 705953 or email gsmo@cat.org.uk

Related Topics

• Graduate School
• Education