Applicant Taster Days

After you receive your offer, we may invite you to an Applicant Taster Day (ATD). Attending an ATD is a great way to find out more about us and your chosen course.

What is an Applicant Taster Day?

An Applicant Taster Day is more in-depth than an Open Day and gives you a more tailored experience. You’ll find out more about your course through taster sessions and have the opportunity to meet academic staff and current students. You can also visit our accommodation and chat to our support services. If you have already been to an Open Day, this is your chance to explore your course and department in more detail and if not, you’ll get an in-depth introduction to studying here.

Booking your Applicant Taster Day

After you receive an offer of a place to study, you will receive an email inviting you to book an Applicant Taster Day.

Questions about your Applicant Taster Day

If you have a question ahead of booking or attending your ATD, please see our frequently asked questions.

Travelling to your Applicant Taster Day

We're currently offering a range of discounts to help you to travel to your Applicant Taster Day.

By bus or coach

Once you've booked your place, look out for your confirmation email as it will include details of how to claim free bus travel in the West Midlands and free national coach travel (valid for you plus one guest).

By car

If you're travelling to us by car, you'll also be able to claim free parking at our City Centre campus and close to our City South, School of Art and School of Jewellery campuses.

What can you do at an applicant taster day?

Meet current students

Our students will be on hand to give you their honest opinions. Ask them anything about life at BCU!

Hear from our experts

Find out all you need to know about finance, accommodation, student support and BCUSU.

Explore the campus

Take tours of our modern campuses and innovative, industry-standard facilities.

Meet your tutors

Ask our teaching staff all about the course, previous students’ success, life in their department, and more!

How is an Applicant Taster Day different to an Open Day?

If you’ve already attended a BCU Open Day, you might wonder why we’re asking you to visit our campus again before joining us. Attending an Applicant Taster Day means you can:

Experience what it’s really like to study your chosen course. You can get involved with a taster session delivered by our academic team that gives you a taste of the exciting things you’ll be learning.
Meet people you could be studying with! Everyone invited to an Applicant Taster Day will have received an offer to study with us, so there’s a good chance you’ll be studying together in September. This is a great chance to make friends before starting your course.
Get to know the campus. Even if you came to an Open Day, you might have forgotten your way around the campus. Coming to see us again before September gives you a chance to get your bearings before your first day.
Take a look around our range of accommodation*. You might have more of an idea about where you'd like to stay now that you've applied to us, so you can make sure to view the halls of residence that are at the top of your list.
Explore your future home. An Applicant Taster Day usually lasts for half a day, giving you lots of time to see Birmingham and what your life as a student could look like.
Get advice from our student support teams*. Our helpful members of staff will be on hand to provide any information you need about disability support, mental health support, finance and much more.
Ask your future tutors or current students your questions. Since you came to an Open Day, you probably have more questions about your course and student life, an Applicant Taster Day is the perfect chance to get all your questions answered so you feel ready to join us in September.

*These options will not be available to Stage Management applicants attending on Thursday 21 March.