Archive for August 13th, 2008

It’s Open Day at the University of New England early next month – a day when UNE and the wider community can tell potential students all about the benefits of living and learning in the university city of Armidale.

The University is expecting more than 1,200 potential students to visit the campus on Open Day, Friday 5 September. They will be coming from throughout northern NSW and southern Queensland – and beyond.

UNE is inviting local clubs and businesses to become involved in the day by setting up information stalls in the UNE Bistro, which will be one of the hubs of activity for Open Day visitors. This year’s emphasis on the role of the University within the wider community is a new direction for Open Day at UNE. The online program for the day (on the UNE Web site: www.une.edu.au) will include a list of participating clubs and businesses, with links to their individual Web pages.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Graham Webb, will welcome Open Day visitors during a short ceremony at 10 am in Lazenby Hall. Professor Webb will urge the visitors to take full advantage of opportunities available during the day to find out about the benefits of living and learning within the UNE and Armidale communities. UNE staff will be available in Lazenby Hall throughout the day to answer all questions about courses, enrolment, and studying at UNE.

The day will begin at 7.30 am with a breakfast in the dining halls of all seven of the University’s residential colleges, when visitors can gain an initial insight into life within UNE’s unique residential system. The college breakfast is free, but bookings should be made by visiting UNE’s virtual community for potential students, UNExtra, at: http://www.une.edu.au/unextra. (By registering for Open Day on the UNExtra Web site, potential students can enter a blog competition.)

A day-long program of information sessions in various locations around the campus will deal with areas of study including Natural Resources, Social Work, Accounting and Finance, Rural Science and Agriculture, Nursing, Economics, Medicine, Management, Computer Science, Law, Arts, Humanities, Education, and the Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences. These will be interspersed with information sessions on subjects such as careers, HECS and applying for a university place, and tours of individual Schools, the Dixson Library, IT facilities, support services, Sport UNE, and the student radio station TUNE! FM.

Tours of the residential colleges will begin at 8.30 am (after the breakfast), and will run throughout the day. Later, in UNE’s Central Courtyard, the social side of college life will be highlighted in a high-spirited inter-college tug-o’-war competition, lunch will be provided, TUNE! FM will be conducting an outside broadcast, and musical entertainment will be provided by DJ “Rusty”. Visitors to Open Day can enter the draw to win an iPod Nano.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here was taken at last year’s UNE Open Day.