The College of Physical Sciences has this week officially launched its new and expanded Graduate School web pages at: www.abdn.ac.uk/cops/graduate.
The new website, developed in partnership with the University's in-house Web Team, has been designed to meet the needs of prospective and current students, as well as academic staff involved in postgraduate education within the College.
Research and redesign of the site began more than a year ago with the project team designing the underlying information architecture to ensure that it was modular, extensible and flexible enough to meet future requirements.
Much of the information is stored in a series of databases, allowing content to be shared with other websites and plasma screens across the University, extending the traditional concept of a website and turning it into an integrated information platform for students, staff and visitors – both online and off.
In addition to learning more about the many taught postgraduate programmes on offer, visitors to the site are able to read profiles of current postgraduate students, browse through details of upcoming seminars and events, search for available bursaries and studentships, download student handbooks, learn about being an international student within the College and much more.
Head of the Graduate School, Dr Peter Edwards said: "We recognise that the web now plays a vital role in recruiting postgraduate students to the College, many of whom come from overseas. The new site is a major component of our recruitment strategy and we are already receiving enquiries for study from all over the world via the online enquiry facility. In addition, the site is home to our expanding portfolio of flexible postgraduate programmes available via distance learning, many of them targeted at the Energy industry."
The Graduate School was established in November 2003 and is the focus for postgraduate education, continuing professional development, and research training in Engineering, Physical Sciences and Geosciences. It manages all postgraduate admissions to taught and research programmes; in addition it is responsible for several aspects of research training including generic and transferable skills, and monitoring of research student progress. The Graduate School also plays a vital role (in partnership with the academic schools) in overseeing academic quality, and gathering and evaluating feedback on all aspects of the postgraduate student experience. In session 2008/9, there are over 700 postgraduate students in the College - three-quarters of whom are studying taught programmes.
For further details please visit: www.abdn.ac.uk/cops/graduate