Virtual Open Days

Lauren Edwards: Welcome to Marjon.

Professor Rob Warner: We're a different sort of university where staff and students work in partnership with each other.

Lauren Edwards: I'm Lauren Edwards, the President of the Students' Union.

Professor Rob Warner: And I'm Professor Rob Warner, the Vice-Chancellor of the University.

Lauren Edwards: In this introduction, we're going to tell you a bit about Marjon and what to expect from today's virtual open day.

Professor Rob Warner: We're a tight knit community with a fabulous green campus, set right between Dartmoor and the sea. We've got a grassy quad, sports pitches, woodland, our own herd of deer wandering through, and plenty of fresh air and open spaces for you to study and socialize.

Lauren Edwards: As students, we all support each other, you tend to know everyone's name, but that means you always have someone to talk to. We all talk about the Marjon family, and it really does feel like a family. We're there for each other.

Professor Rob Warner: As a university, we do all we can to involve students in decision-making. We want to make learning a safe, fun, and challenging experience in which we work together to help you be the best that you can be.

Lauren Edwards: The class sizes are small, so there's always loads of debate and discussion and the chance to have your voice heard. It's brilliant to build your confidence in what you know and how to talk about it.

Professor Rob Warner: Our small class sizes are designed to support you in your personalized learning in ways that stretch you and enable you to prove what you're capable of, and every year we see our graduates move on to incredible careers with the skills and confidence they've developed at Marjon.

Lauren Edwards: At the Students' Union, we've got loads of ways to help you get involved in helping you get jobs at the uni, being a rep for your course, to running for an election as an officer. We can definitely say that Marjon wants to hear your voice and we'll help you find it.

Professor Rob Warner: On this open day, we've got a great range of events. You might want to hear about student life or our sports activities and facilities. You might want to do a campus tour or understand how we can support you if you have particular needs. You'll almost certainly want to attend an academic course talk to hear more about the program or programs you're interested in.

Lauren Edwards: Please spend time on this open day asking questions you have, drop them in the chat during the talks, and everyone will do their best to answer them. Or if you've got general questions, including about how the day will run, you can live chat to one of us now. We really hope you enjoy the day, time to get comfortable and ready to start.

Professor Rob Warner: If you choose to join Marjon, we'll be delighted. We very much look forward to welcoming you in person to Marjon soon.

Ben: Hello, and welcome to Marjon. My name's Ben. I'm a musical theater student and today we're going to give you a guided tour around and tell you why I, like everyone else on this campus, chose Marjon as our university. Welcome to Marjon On-Demand.

Ben: First up, we're in the Hub. It's the main walkway to access the rest of the campus. Just behind me, you can see the Student union office where our president and deputy, Lauren and Joe, are hard at work ensuring that all the students are heard. Let's catch up with Lauren and see what the student union is all about.

Lauren: We act as your highest level of student representation and we also put events on during the year, like Maple, Christmas Party, and freshers. You should go to university because it's a great opportunity to have more job options, expand your horizons, and get away from home for a little bit.

Lauren: We also work with all of our student sports teams, including netball, water polo, football, any sports team you want to play, we probably do it here at Marjon. I myself play netball and water polo and I absolutely love it.

Ben: An integral part of Marjon life is the societies that we offer. Let's hear from the man himself who makes all of this run smoothly. Over to you Joe.

Joe: We have a load of societies that we run, which range from Mature Students Society, to aerial and pole exercise. Here are the student union, we work alongside the university in a range of different ways to support you, whether this is with student support, the counselling centre, the chaplaincy, or personal development tutors, which are people assigned from your course to support you.

Joe: Why I chose Marjon was for the community feel. Because it's a small university, you really get to know everyone here and make so many lifelong friends.

Ben: When I stood outside Student Support and Wellbeing, this is home to our Student Life team. We couldn't make this video without talking to one of our Student Life officers, as they are on hand 24 hours a day, seven days a week to talk to our students. So, now I'm going to hand over to Sophie.

Sophie: Living on campus is a really unique experience. You get to live with people from all walks of life and backgrounds, and you also get to make use of all the large open green spaces.

Sophie: What I love most about Marjon is that it's a small and inclusive campus and there really is a sense of a Marjon community.

Sophie: To anyone considering university, I would encourage you to ask lots of questions to lecturers, to current students, to staff, make sure that you get a feel for where you're going and that it is right for you. You're the one that's going to be coming, you're the one that's going to be living it, you're the one that's going to be learning, and so make sure that it all feels like you should be there.

Ben: I'm now stood in the quad. This is the center of the campus. In the southeast wing of the campus we've got the heart of the university, the chaplaincy. Next, we'll be speaking to our chaplain, Michelle.

Michelle: One of the first things I have to say is that a lot of people when they think chaplain, they think, "Oh my goodness, I'm not religious. I can't go in that building." So, the first thing you should know is the chaplaincy building is for everybody. It's not just for those who are religious. Everyone who knows me around here knows that I say it all the time, "You will not get struck by lightning if you walk through these doors."

Michelle: There's two things I'd like you to know about the chaplaincy. Firstly, it is the building that we have a room called The Snug where you can come and make yourself tea and coffee, or there's a tuck shop in there, but basically, it's just a place to hang out if you have time between lectures or anything like that, and microwaves, if you've made yourself lunch and you want to warm it up. It's the kind of place where you can just make yourself at home.

Michelle: Then the rest of the building, we have the chapel, which is where I am right now. And again, it's not only used for services. It's used for lots of different things. So, if you are in acting and things like that and you want to rehearse, then you can come and book out this place too.

Michelle: There's also the nap room. If you're absolutely shattered and you want a 10-minute break and just put your head down, there's the nap room, and then there's two offices where Claire and I are.

Michelle: That's the second thing. There's Claire and I. We're both at the chaplains, but mainly we're here just to support students as much as we can. There's not many places that you can just walk in and say, "I want a chat." That's what we're here for. Students can just walk in and if you're having a bad day, you can come and tell us about it. You can make appointments to speak to us too. One of the things is that we're not really part of the uni, so anything you speak to us about, we don't have to go and tell anyone unless you want us to. But we're also advisors so that we know where you can go if you wanted to get some help.

Michelle: So, really, that's what the chaplaincy's here for. We're here to support and care for students. We want to be a safe place where people can make themselves at home, they can rest up here if they want to, but also we can be a place where you can come and talk. Ben: And there we have it. I came to university just over a year ago at the age of 23, and I've never looked back. It really just goes to show that you can restart your life whenever you want. Ben: This is Marjon On-Demand and thank you very much for watching our video. We hope to see you again soon.