University has a lot to offer prospective students

By Justin Seward on November 1, 2022.

Herald photo by justin seward University of Lethbridge's administrative support for housing services, Erin Lyster, spoke to prospective student Quinten Albrecht about his options at the university's open house on Saturday.

The University of Lethbridge held an open house for prospective students on Saturday.

“We had a really exciting program this year – really robust,” said Asheley Cowie, U of L’s manager of national recruitment. “A lot of our focus has been on experiential learning. How students can apply their learning and we wanted that to translate to the programs. So there were a lot of opportunities for students to get hands-on experience, really engage with our institution, with our colleagues. And rather than just information sessions, we had a lot of interactive sessions, we had a lot of opportunities and games and giveaways for students who wanted to participate.”

Students saw all of U of L’s faculties, school of grad studies, student service areas, and had the opportunity to apply for admission and a campus tour.

“I think it’s just meeting the need of where students are at right now,” said Cowie. “A lot has changed in the last couple of years, in terms of how people learn, in terms of what people expect. And so we wanted our audience (and) wanted our students to know we’ve changed and we are trying to meet them where they’re at. So that means making connections, that means showing them how they’re going to learn on this campus and sort of setting the bar for the expectation in terms of the service they will receive when they’re on campus here.”

Cowie thought the key messaging is the campus has what they need in terms of what they’re looking to learn and that university degrees are employable.

“And that we have tons of opportunities for students to get involved while they’re learning and experience work, whether that’s through co-op or whether it’s through internship opportunities, practicums; there’s a ton of different ways for students to work while they’re learning,” she said.

The other piece Cowie wanted to reiterate is letting students know they are important.

“That our faculty, our staff, all of our university colleagues want to be here to support them,” said Cowie.

“And that’s what they’ll get when they come to the University of Lethbridge. I think it was a really important message for our prospective students to see us and to get to talk with us and to get to engage with us outside of the classroom.”

Cowie agreed the U of L gives students that small community type of feel, as class sizes are still around 35 students at the senior level.

“We’re still an institution where a professor will know your name, where student services are readily available (and) where the opportunity to get involved is here,” she said.

The open house saw its highest registrants ever with over 700 pre-registered students.