All in a day's work
Having received his PhD in Classical Archaeology at King's College London, Philip Baker started work in Sussex's Planning Office in 1991 and became International Officer in 1994. Here Philip tells us about his role in the International and Study Abroad Office which was established in Arts B last September.
"What happened was that three offices merged together, the European Programmes Office from EURO, the North American Programmes Office from EAM and the International Office which was based in Sussex House. All three offices were essentially dealing with similar things, so students and overseas advisers were finding it confusing knowing who did what.
Some of the things we do here are welfare and social support for all international students: the office organises induction programmes to help the international students settle in when they arrive; we produce an international handbook which is sent to all students before they arrive; and we have pages on the Internet which have useful information; we run a social programme where we take students on trips to places like Oxford and Cambridge, and organise social events to help them mix. The Office is also involved with outgoing students, which means providing them with information to help them choose which university to go to, fixing up their programmes abroad and liaising with international advisers. Another thing we handle is the recruitment of full fee-paying overseas students, and within the office I am the main person who deals with that.
My job contains bits of most things that go on in the Office although I'm not heavily involved with the exchange side of things. In terms of recruitment I do spend a bit of time abroad, but it's not as much as people usually think. I mainly go to countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Cyprus, and Turkey, and I usually go with an academic. The academic can give the specific course information that students require - first hand information on how the course is taught and assessed. As the administrator I can also give a picture of the University as a whole: accommodation issues, social support and that sort of thing.
Invariably we attend exhibitions organised by the British Council - big events that have between 100-180 institutions attending from the UK. They are very busy events, with quite long hours. We also visit schools and colleges where we meet students and advisers. There they ask not just about Sussex but often want to know about the application procedure to the UK, or about the higher education system in general.
I think the Research Assessment Exercise result will be an enormous benefit to me in recruiting students. At the fairs abroad a high proportion of students and parents ask what our ratings are for particular subjects or the University. They are so geared up to the American system where there are national league tables of universities published. They need something to base their evaluation on, so they'll grab anything they can: teaching quality assessments, research assessments, articles published in newspapers. So the RAE is obviously a big selling point which is going to become increasingly important in the years to come.
I enjoy my job immensely, and not just because I get the occasional trip abroad. Most satisfying is meeting the students abroad and talking to them about Sussex, and then seeing them happy when they are here."
Members of the International & Study Abroad Office l to r back row: Suki Pollard, Betty Pettifer, Sarah Freedman, Chris Hogarth, middle row: Liz Wingfield, Sara Dyer, Liz Akerblom, Janet Baker, Sam Martin, Philip Baker, front row: Beatrice Merrick and Margaret Saunders.