Open days, taster days and summer schools

Attending an open day, taster session, or summer school at a university is a great idea because:

• You can decide if you like what you see by experiencing it first-hand
• You can write about it in your UCAS personal statement
• You get to visit a university and check its facilities

Visit university websites for different and unique opportunities: shadowing a student for the day, taking part in a competition, social or networking event.

Open days

Visit a university, check out the facilities, meet staff and students, and ask questions about courses. You can also figure out how you feel there, would you be happy if this was your university?

Open days are often free and usually do not have entry requirements.

Find out more about our open days.

Taster sessions

You visit a university for either a lecture, some workshops, or lab sessions to experience academic teaching in your area of interest. You may consider going to more than one university to compare. 

Taster days are often free and usually have no entry requirements.

Search UCAS’ taster courses.

Summer school

If you choose to, you can do a summer school between year 1 and year 2 of a Level 3 qualification. Summer schools are a great way to engage in activities related to academic subjects, and social events and get to know university life.

Remember to check the entry requirements when applying to summer school, as some may require specific GCSE grades.

If there is a fee for summer school, you may be eligible for financial support to help with it, depending on your circumstances.

Do you know the university you are interested in?

You can also find information on each university’s website.​ Type ‘taster day’ or ‘summer school’ into the search tool on their website. If you can’t find it this way, you may have to browse the website as every university will have the information laid out differently. Try finding:

• An ‘events’, ‘visit us’ or ‘what’s on?’ page
• Look under ‘courses’ or ‘prospective students’
• The ‘department’ pages on the university website may list their own events

If you want to discuss open days, taster days or summer schools, speak with your personal tutor or an advisor from the Careers and Employability team.

Other resources