Weather fails to dampen as open day numbers increase

Despite bad weather, DCU’s student recruitment officer Stephen Spierin has said that attendance at the recent Open Day event held on campus was up on last year’s figures.

Over 6,000 secondary level students visited campus on November 20 and 21, with the event drawing crowds of 4,000 on the Friday and 2,000 on the Saturday.

He said that although figures were quite similar to last year’s, the increase was significant considering certain outside factors that were expected to reduce numbers.

“We had expected a Friday decrease due to budget and staffing constraints in second level schools as well as bad weather conditions but this was not evident,” Spierin said.

“However as the figures show, neither had very little effect.”

Spierin also dismissed rumours from last year that the second Open Day event, traditionally held on the Saturday, would be scrapped this year due to low turnout last year.

“Rumours are rumours. Having organised this event for the last three years, there was never any suggestion that the event would not include Saturday,” he said. “We also have to consider those students whose schools do not afford them the day off to attend Open Days, in addition to those travelling a long way – from Cork and Galway for example.”

“Traditionally DCU always had an Open Day on the Saturday and this will not change,” he said.

Spierin says that costs for the open day have been reduced “by 50% since 2005” and that “further increases” are expected for this year. The marketing office account for a large amount of the financial burden, he said.

Head of the registry, Phylomena McMorrow told the College View that there are no early indicators as of yet regarding application numbers for next year: “Normally we would receive some preliminary data about applications in March, although I do not have the exact date for this as yet.”

Secondary school student Jonathan Harte was one of the 6,000 students who visited DCU on Saturday November 21. The student from Dunboyne, Co Meath said that while he enjoyed the day and plans to put DCU down as his number one choice on the CAO, he did not find it “that helpful”.

“The students were good for guiding on where to go and that sort of stuff but I couldn’t really find students that did the courses I was interested in order to get a real insight,” he said.

“It was worthwhile going in to get a feel for the campus, however.”

Spierin told the College View that Higher Education research suggests that Open Days are “extremely important” in attracting prospective students to a third-level institution, claiming that “the likelihood of a student going to DCU having attended the Open Day is much higher than those who haven’t.”

Aoife Walsh, a guidance counsellor from Malahide Community School, said that the large contingent from the school who attended the Open Day found it beneficial and heard “no downsides” about the event.

“They had a good day and most of them spoke to lecturers and students and that’s what’s important.”