Woke up with more energy today and raring to go (well almost!). After a quick breakfast by the pool in the hotel Mark and I headed into the car where we were joined by Purnakala and Ashish along with our loyal driver. Our destination was the University of Mumbai to meet a contact there within one of the faculties.
The traffic was crazy as usual on the journey which took around 45 minutes. When arriving on the campus our first thoughts were that some of the buildings looked new and impressive whilst others were clearly old and earmarked for development. There were plenty of students milling about and the mood seemed relaxed.
We met the Head of the Department of Philosophy and discussed several possibilities for just over an hour. There was great interest on her behalf in the work of our Sociology team (Gideon, Steve, Enzo), the new Social Ethics and Public Advocacy MA and also the schools research work. We left feeling very positive about the meeting and the potential for further discussions which could lead to benefits for our school in numerous ways, including student recruitment.
From the University we went to the student fair for a few hours. As I had missed it yesterday I came away from it today with many thoughts. Firstly, it differs from UCAS fairs I have experienced in that the stands are far grander with more space for banners, posters and visuals (laptop demonstrations), as mark mentions in the video the parents come with their children which I haven’t experienced at any UCAS fairs.
I also noticed that we were the only westerners in the exhibition and this did draw extra attention to our stand – I noted many students walking past our stand seemingly uninterested, then glanced at myself and Mark, paused and came over to see what we had to offer.
I believe if we attended a fair similar to this again in the near future we can use this knowledge to be better prepared in terms of visual stands and also have something that is high in demand from the enquiries we have had (MSc in both Psychology and Health,Exercise and Nutrition).
There is a great belief amongst people we have spoken to here that these two courses have great potential in India especially at postgraduate level.
I had long discussions with one Indian girl who was interested in studying BSc Psychology, she seemed very keen and I spoke to her mother too, her brother was there and asked me about civil engineering – they have my contact details now so fingers crossed we will hear from them through NBeducational at some point!
From the fair we went to the NBeducational offices for another discussion with a student, again things were learnt about the demands of the Indian student.
We then headed back to the hotel, and even popped out for some shopping a couple of cold ones, just reward for another busy day.
Over and out from this sunny ex-colony.
I had long discussions with one Indian girl who was interested in studying BSc Psychology, she seemed very keen and I spoke to her mother too, her brother was there and asked me about civil engineering – they have my contact details now so fingers crossed we will hear from them through NBeducational at some point!
From the fair we went to the NBeducational offices for another discussion with a student, again things were learnt about the demands of the Indian student.
We then headed back to the hotel, and even popped out for some shopping a couple of cold ones, just reward for another busy day.
Over and out from this sunny ex-colony.
The clock tower at Mumbai University
Image supplied by Babasteve
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