The Importance of visiting universities

International students are at an obvious disadvantage when it comes to visiting their chosen universities ahead of their actual arrival.  Distance and cost can be an effective barrier and virtual visits, online tours and in person meetings with university representatives cannot replace the feeling that a student might get from stepping foot onto a campus.

Consider this – imagine that you are thinking of buying a house or apartment – would you do this without making efforts to view the property?  And yet international student so often have to reply on second hand information before committing to spending in excess of £100,000 on their studies.  

Continuing my analogy, a property might look wonderful online on an agents website, you might have a great conversation with the agent over the phone/internet, but actually setting foot over the threshold can make a huge difference.  If you have ever bought a house, you know what I mean by this.  When we were buying our home, we looked at several good-looking prospects on the agent’s books.  Visited at least 6 where went into the property and had a look around.  Not just at the facilities, it was important to look at the potential, the neighbourhood and whether we could see ourselves living there.  None of this we could do online or virtually.