An applicant chooses between two courses with almost identical titles. One is heavily theoretical with two essays a year, the other is practical with continuous assessment and a placement.
Nothing in either description makes that clear. She chooses on the campus, discovers the difference in November, and either endures two more years or transfers.
1. List the actual modules
By year, with titles that mean something. An applicant comparing two courses can only do so from content, and most descriptions offer adjectives instead.
2. Describe what each module involves
Two or three sentences each. What is covered, what students do, and what it leads to. This is the page applicants read most and institutions write least.
3. State what is compulsory and what is optional
By year. Applicants choosing a course because of an interesting sounding option should know whether they can actually take it.
4. Explain how choice works in practice
Whether options run every year, whether they are capped, and what happens if something is oversubscribed. Published options that never run are a genuine grievance.
5. Publish the assessment methods
Examinations, coursework, presentations, group work, practical assessment and the proportions. Students differ enormously in what suits them.
6. Give the contact hours honestly
Lectures, seminars, laboratory or studio time, and expected independent study. This is the question every applicant and parent asks and few institutions answer plainly.
7. Describe the group sizes
Lecture cohort against seminar group. The difference between a class of twelve and a hall of three hundred is what applicants are actually asking about.
8. Cover the placement or year abroad
Whether it is compulsory, how it is arranged, whether it is guaranteed and what it costs. This frequently decides between two otherwise similar courses.
9. Explain the final project
What it involves, how it is supervised and how much freedom there is. Applicants think about this more than institutions expect.
10. Be honest about the first year
Many courses have a broad first year that does not resemble the title. Saying so prevents a student concluding in week four that they chose wrongly.
11. Say what the course does not cover
Applicants assume a title covers a whole field. Naming the areas that belong to a different course prevents a mismatch.
12. Explain any professional accreditation
What it means, what it requires and whether particular options must be taken to retain it. Students discover this too late and lose the accreditation.
13. Describe where graduates actually go
Specific roles and sectors rather than a statement about career prospects. Applicants and parents are making a long decision.
14. Answer the transfer question
Whether it is possible to switch course in the first year and how. Publishing this reassures rather than encourages, and it prevents withdrawals.
15. Keep it joined up with the rest of the decision
Course questions arrive alongside everything in entry requirement questions applicants ask repeatedly and prospective student questions that arrive after open days, and the practical questions in insurance and contents cover questions follow soon after.
16. Help applicants choose rather than browse
An assistant that asks what they enjoy, how they prefer to be assessed and whether they want a placement can recommend between two similar courses. That guided comparison is what an AI shopping assistant for product fit describes in a different setting. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under education.