University open day puts focus on Rock’s academic offering

The University of Gibraltar held an Open Day on Wednesday afternoon aimed at showing potential students what the university has to offer, not in just in terms of courses but also the campus and student accommodation.

With information stalls set up in the main hall, members from the various faculties were available to answer questions and to explain what the courses involve.

The offered information on the degrees available at the university, which Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons) - BSc (Hons), Maritime Science with Cadetship programme - BSc (Hons), Adult Nursing - BSc (Hons), Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), Master in Marine Science and Climate Chang, Master of Business Administration (MBA) and MA in Leadership and Management

In addition, information on its two research programmes, PhD by Publication and PhD by Research Attendees was also available, as was information on the ‘Access to Higher Education’ course, a 12-week summer programme designed to assist students to transition on to an undergraduate programme.

Information on a new course starting in September this year on Computing and Entrepreneurship was also available.

The aim of this course is to provide a mix of IT skills along with business. This course has already attracted interest from international students.

“The main goal behind the open day is to invite members of the public up to campus especially with lock down and with Covid we have been quite isolated up here we haven’t been able to invite members up to campus just to get to know us and to explore the environment,” said Phoebe Kelly, Communication and Marketing Manager.

“So we think it is a nice opportunity to bring people up, explore the building, see what is on offer here, speak to the team, speak to some students and to just remind the public that we are a public environment.”

“We are here for Gibraltar, we aren’t a separate entity, we are part of Gibraltar’s education environment.”

She said people are welcome to come up and explore the university any day.

“Normally our academics are tied up with other students and classes but honestly our receptionists are always quite friendly and open and are willing to chat if academics or staff are not available to chat,” she said.

The response to the open day came from students who are currently in school or those who have already expressed an interest in one of the courses and wanted to get more face time with the academics they might be learning with come September.

“One course I think this year that will pick up a lot of interest will be our maritime programme. We have got our head of school Captain Sukhjit Singh who joined us before our first intake in September and he has an absolute wealth of knowledge about maritime so if anybody has any questions he will happily chat with them for hours and hours,” said Ms Kelly.