Dear Year 1 Parent / Carer
At the end of last term, I emailed all Year 1 students to let them know about the annual UCAS Discovery Fair taking place at the Brighton Centre on Tuesday 30 April. The college has secured 500 free tickets. This is the main university fair that our students can attend. As it is organised by UCAS, it is the one the vast majority of universities have in their calendar. If your young person is excited by the prospect of going to university, is not sure or is even feeling less than keen, it's a really good event to attendto help them with their decision making.
Before attending, it would be good preparation for a student to know roughly (or precisely) what subject interests them, whetherthey want to study locally or further afield, what a Russell Group university is and whether they would prefer a 'campus' or a 'city' university. This will help them pinpoint the stands they want to chat to on the day.
To get a list of universities that offer a particular subject, students should type their subject of choice into the search bar on www.UCAS.com, this will then give a list of all universities offering the subject in alphabetical order. This list can then be whittled down by geographical location and the entry requirements for the course.
Please do encourage your young person to chat to their friends and 'book' a friend to go with. In order to book an E ticket, they will need to create their own UCAS Hub 2025 account. Instructionson how to do this have been sent to them. StudentsMUSTfollow the instructions accurately for setting up their UCAS 2025 cycle Hub account. I have included the email with the instructions I sent them below.
If you have any questions, please email me atcvd@varndean.ac.uk
Best wishes
Cordelia Dobbie, Careers Manager
Copy of email to students with instructions:
Dear Student
Every year UCAS holds a University Fair at theBrightonCentreand this year, Varndean College has booked 500 (free) tickets. These tickets are forYear 1 studentsand are given out on aFirst come, first serve basis. Well done to those of you who have already booked.
If you are not sure if you want to go to university (either straight after Year 13 or after a gap year), or if you know you definitelydowant to go, this is the university fair to go to - it is run by UCAS, so it is the one the majority of universities will want to attend.
In order to get your free E ticket,you will need to create your own UCAS Hub. Please follow the instructions below.It is important you follow them accuratelyas any student who decides they want to apply to university will use this Hub to complete their university application form... (if you get stuck, please come to Room 14.3 and ask for Cordelia, Kirsten or Juliet).
- First visit; https://accounts.ucas.com/account/login?returnUrl=https%3A//www.ucas.com/dashboard%23 to set up your UCAS Hub account.
- When you have the pic of a woman with a bicycle, select 'register' and fill in your details.Please make sure you USE APERSONAL EMAIL ADDRESS.Make a note of your password - you will often need to use this.
- The next page, put in your date of birth and select 'undergraduate study'. If you are planning on going to university and are not interested in oions und 'Which opportunities are yointerested in?' ignore this question and then select 2025 (even if you might take a gap year . You must selec2025 …continue.
- Select Varndean College. 'Consent to share my data' -please select YES otherwise the college can't see where you are applying and support you.
- Complete the 'Interests' and 'Preferences' pages and click on Save.
- You have now registered and have your own UCAS Hub.Please make sure you keep your password safe as this will be needed if you want to complete a university application form(or open the E ticket for the fair!)
Then - to get your ticket...
- Login to your UCAS Hub account and go to the following:
- Scroll down to the 'Your Events' tile and type 'Brighton' into the search bar select 'UCAS DiscoveryBrighton2024' - you may need to click on the little down arrow to get the full listing of UCAS events
- Click on the BOOK NOW button.
- Then click STUDENT
- JOIN GROUP BOOKING.
- Enter the booking reference your teacher has provided:UCASBKN934720
- Choose which time you would like to attend09:30 - 11:30 or 13:30 - 15:00 on Tuesday 30 April.
- Fill out the registration form.
- You will receive a confirmation email that has a link to your personalised ticket.
- Download and save your ticket to your phone or wallet.
- Please bring your personalised ticket to the event, either on your mobile phone or as a printed ticket.
If you would rather do this in tutorial time, wait until next week and your tutor will help you register on the hub, and get your ticket...
See you at the Fair.
Cordelia Dobbie, Careers Manager
