AUP Paris University Counselor Conference April

A two day seminar for European based School Guidance Counselors at the American University of Paris 

My impressions of AUP were that they were a very professional and organised University, with a clear vision of the type of students they sought to recruit. The Admissions department is led by Tim Rogers, formerly the head of Admissions at LSE. I felt priviledged to have been asked to attend the seminar being the only Counselor representing any international Schools from southern Spain. It was a great opportunity to meet their Staff and Students, as well as have the opportunity to meet fellow School Guidance Counselors. 

Entrance requirements for AUP, we were informed are on average a 3.3 GPA with approximately 3300 applications this year for 200 places. The University has links with George Washington and UCA universities in the US and an exchange system with them.
They are actively looking to recruit IB students over AP Students as they see them in their own words as more rounded "global explorers". As part of that strategic vision they are offering automatic scholarships for DP students, based upon their final point score with the highest point scores being potentially offered full scholarships to attend. This trend is definitely on the rise with a number of Universities that I have come into contact with this year.

Their methodology is based around research, and links with industry and is in turn flipped back through links with their own post-grad programme.

In relation to DP courses in general they have no specific subject interest in the dp courses and what subjects they choose, as they are offering a broad spectrum "liberal arts" programme in line with the rising demand for these in US Universities. Nonetheless the single biggest Major is in Business.

They do not profess to follow a teaching model: The Students need to be independent, learners, following syllabus outlines but pursung their own answers with the Professors facilitating the education. This flipped classroom model, and independent learning style resonates with the learning style we are pursuing at SIS.

Their academic support system uses a system known as Ebray for e books that perhaps we need to look at as it appears to be a very interactive method to work with published articles. 

I look forward to developing our links with AUP and they will almost certainly attend our University Convention in December. I have signed up one of them to lead  a seminar at our event on US applications and have made some valuable contacts.

Brighton University Seminar 15.4.15

"On Wednesday I was delighted to welcome Sue Perry from Brighton University, who presented and took questions from M5 and DP students on the process of applying to the UK, and in particular Brighton University. She also gave an overview of the study programmes and life at Brighton University, and the new methods that they have developed to support students through their degree and into their future careers. I was impressed with the modern methods that Brighton University uses, that are very much in line with our educational practice at SIS. For example turnitin.com the plagiarism checker is at the heart of the Universities academic rigour, mirroring our use of Managebac with turnitin. The move to online support sites in their VLE with the resources for each course, also mirrors our teachers work in developing google sites. Finally the support for their students to establish internships and work placements whilst still at University, in part through their Ambassador programme, is in line with our programme of Conventions that allow students to make connections for M5 work experience. Thanks goes to Sarah Burgess for making this link, and we look forward to seeing Brighton University return for seminars in the future." Jason Munges U&C Coordinator