News from the management: Student recruitment in progress!

Unfortunately, last autumn saw a clear dip in the number of applications and admissions, meaning that for the first time in a long time, several programme places weren’t filled. Since the pandemic, we’ve seen a clear trend where young people favour the bigger universities. We can only speculate as to the reasons for this, but the desire for a solid degree and a secure future in a troubled world are possible factors.

LTV recruitment campaign

This is why the faculty’s recruitment campaign to attract more students is now in full swing! There is a long-term and a short-term plan. The short-term plan has a 15 April deadline, the last day for applying for the autumn semester. Here, we’re advertising in industry magazines, organising open-door days on campus and using students’ social media.

The long-term plan includes building a stable foundation for student recruitment, in cooperation with SLU’s Division of Communication. We need up-to-date and inspiring information on web pages, alumni film clips, face-to-face meetings at schools and more. Is the latter perhaps something you can help out with? Could you offer schools (upper secondary and independent adult education colleges) a lecture on something in your research or teaching you are passionate about? Have a think about it and get in touch.

In only a few days, we will be receiving the first prospective students in Alnarp; on 2 February in the afternoon, in parallel with the landscape engineer event. It’s going to be an inspiring day! We have informed study counsellors around the country that we’d like to invite interested students to our campus and give them information, a chance to experience the study environment and not least be encouraged by what we do here. Administrative officers, programme directors of studies and students will be acting as hosts for our visitors. Another three days are planned before it’s time to apply for the autumn semester.

In Ultuna, where we run courses on three programmes, the challenges are somewhat different. There, we’ll need different ways of increasing the attractiveness long term. One initiative is about making film clips with alumni who now have solid careers and can exemplify the kind of future you can expect as an SLU graduate. Planning is in progress.

All contributions count!

As with all marketing, the impact can be difficult to predict, but not doing anything just isn’t an option. All contributions count, even if it’s just about forwarding an email about our programmes to someone you think would be happy to study here.

Karl Lövrie, Deputy Dean