Agri-College Conference Success

Hundreds of teenagers from across Northern Ireland, the Irish Republic and from Great Britain turned out earlier this month for the biggest ever 'Higher Education Choices' conference to held by the UK's leading provider of higher education for the land-based industries.

The visiting students at Harper Adams University College in Shropshire all had a great time, getting stuck right in whether they were gathering general information about study and careers, attending lectures and activities, getting painted up in their team colours for the high-spirited Red Shirt Challenge, partying in the Student Union bar or enjoying a barbecue feast.

Richard Jopling, Head of Liason and Marketing at the college said: "HEC 2008 will go down as the best one of all the previous 20.

"Not only were we up to 350 students attending but the quality of advice and information available to students was first class. I am sure that all the students learned something to their advantage as well discovering just some of the delights of student life," he said.

HEC offers 16-18 year olds a real university experience. They stay in halls on campus, get advice on courses for rural, animal, engineering, business, and land-based careers, take some lectures and seminars, have a party and discover a whole new world of opportunities.

Free buses from Ireland, East Anglia and the South West transported the first batch of arrivals to the college on Sunday night, with more arriving the following morning, many taking advantage of free transfers from Stafford and Shrewsbury train stations.

HEC offered teenagers advice on a range of courses connected to rural industries, including some offered outside Harper Adams, for example by Reaseheath College, which is in Nantwich, Cheshire.

It sent along members of staff to run equine sessions, and Liverpool University ran a seminar on veterinary science, to complement Harper's own veterinary nursing sessions.

(BMcC/KMcA)