1. XIa PROJECT
Uni Social Life
Living up to expectations part one
You’ve read about the fraternities in American universities, but what else do you expect
universities to offer in way of a social life? Compare your ideas, and if you know anyone
who is studying at uni either in Portugal or abroad, tell your group any stories you’ve
heard about what your older siblings or friends get up to.
Living up to expectations part two
Below is a list of links to various universities’ pages about their students’ unions etc. Each
group should select a different University and you will then have about 20 minutes to
have a look online to see if the info you find there matches your expectations.
http://www.harvard.edu/student-life
http://www.gla.ac.uk/studentlife/
http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/life/
http://www.manchester.ac.uk/undergraduate/studentlife/
http://www.juilliard.edu/student-life/index.php
http://studentlife.mit.edu/
http://www.rca.ac.uk/Default.aspx?ContentID=160500
http://www.ed.ac.uk/about/video/edinburgh-life
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/admissions/ug/Studentlife/
http://www.swansea.ac.uk/undergraduate/student-life/
Now, you will only have 20 mins, so you are not expected to read everything, or
remember everything. Try to form a general overall impression of whether it sounds as
good (or as bad) as you expected. You can make notes of Positive + Negative things that
are offered socially by your Uni, but you don’t need to (and shouldn’t) copy and paste
anything. NB Each person in the group should be working individually.
When your 20 minutes are up, your group can share ideas about what they found out. As
well as talking about what you thought were good or bad ideas, discuss any things you
think the University should offer but doesn’t seem to.

2. Report
Each member of the group now needs to write a report on one of the following:
Quality of Social Life at x University
Range of what you can do socially at x University
Shortcomings in Social Life at x University
Help and Support offered by x University
Surprising Things you can do at x University
Obviously, there will be some overlap in what you write about in each report. That’s ok,
just remember to link what you’re writing about to your specific topic.
Open day for prospective new Students
It’s now time to let your colleagues know about your University. Imagine they are trying
to decide which University to go to – they already know all about the courses, now they
need to know as much as possible about everything else that is on offer!
Decide together what are the most important and useful things you want to talk about.
Make it clear whether you are trying to encourage or dissuade people from choosing
your University.
Of course, you will also have a chance to be a prospective student and listen to your
colleagues talk about their Universities. When they have finished their presentation, be
ready to ask questions about any of the things they have mentioned.
Finally, everyone can say which Uni they think sounds best!