Dundee scores record student intake

University of Dundee has scored its highest intake of students in 2002 following the highly successful 'Serious Fun' campaign implemented by the student admissions and recruitment team. Overseas entries have increased by 24% and UK admissions have a further increase of 21%.

The new courses in innovative project design, interactive media design and sports biomedicine attracted double their initial target recruitment numbers. University of Dundee is the professional university to pursue a professional education, and the success of these courses demonstrates that students are increasingly attracted by courses that are provided across different faculty disciplines.

Gordon Craig, head of admissions and student recruitment said: "This year's student numbers are very pleasing. The new courses, which combine expertise across the University, are very popular with school leavers who are looking for more specific skill- focussed degrees in the current job market.

Enabling departments to work together to design new courses that are inter-disciplinary has enabled us to reach our targets right across the University. Much of this success is due to the refinement of the student conversion process - converting applicants into University of Dundee students. All applicants are now immediately sent a copy of the University's student lifestyle magazine re:fresh. In addition, the welcome that academic staff give our future students on the 12 post-application days in the Spring help us enormously to secure their conversion."

Overseas entrants shot up by a quarter this year as a result of recruitment visits to China, India, Malaysia and Korea by the international office. The team plans to extend its programme to Kenya, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Latin America this academic session.

The first intake from the USA on the 'study abroad' scheme in arts and social sciences will start this session. It is envisaged that this will be extended to other faculties when semesterisation and modularisation will enable the University to recruit widely in North America.

Gordon Craig explains: "We have sent our international team to countries that we believe are good recruitment targets for the University of Dundee. At the offices of the British Council we interview students and find that as a result of this one-to-one interaction we are often in a position to make the successful candidates an offer there and then. Visits such as these are much more cost effective than international recruitment conventions, which are a mass of stalls and literature. Along with institutional links and presentations we are able to target the right applicants with the courses which are right for them."

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