Record interest in the open house

Susanna Löfgren, project manager at the Communications Office at Umeå University. Photo: Hans Karlsson.

"It's a solid programme that meets the more than four thousand people interested in studying, teachers and study and career counsellors who come to visit. There will be over one hundred and thirty information sessions on study programmes, and a lot of university staff are working to the last minute on the preparations," says Susanna Löfgren, project manager at the Communications Office at Umeå University.

In addition to lectures on different programmes, visitors are invited to try out various activities and clever experiments. Guided tours are also offered to the Artistic Campus by the river and the Iksu training facility, as well as the neighbouring Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), which is also present in Lindellhallen at Umeå University. Student and career counsellors and other staff also receive their own skills development during a lunch meeting with the university's education leaders.

"We know from our evaluations that the open house is both an appreciated and effective way of communicating our activities, so even though it's a lot of work and a lot of people involved from Umeå University, it's really worth all the effort. It is also very rewarding to meet all those interested in studying, who are often very curious about both student life and what it is like to study at a university," says Susanna Löfgren.

One part of student life that always gets a lot of attention is student housing, and the municipal housing company Bostaden is therefore also on site, showing what a student room looks like and telling everything about how the prospective students should go about solving the housing issue.

"Students are a very important target group for us and for us it is very valuable to meet prospective students, partly to tell them about our more than 4,200 student housing units, but also to hear their thoughts and expectations. At our stand, the focus is on getting as many people as possible to join our housing queue and we also show what a student room looks like in real size. Of course, we also take the opportunity to welcome all young people to our beautiful city," says Anders Hugosson, Marketing Manager at Bostaden.

The student room in real size at Öppet hus 2023. Photo: Lizette Gunnesson.

"We look forward to welcoming all these visitors to the university and hope that everyone who comes will have an informative and inspiring day. Our hope is that many will be so inspired that they will return in a year or two as students at Umeå University or at another university," says Susanna Löfgren.