“BridgeU gives us peace of mind knowing all of our documents are in one place.”
The Nord Anglia International School, Dubai offers a combination of the English National Curriculum and the International Baccalaureate. The curriculum and learning at NAS Dubai combines the best of British traditions, enriched by the IB and adapted to the local environment in Dubai.
In keeping with the Nord Anglia vision of giving students unique global opportunities to enhance every student’s learning experiences, NAS Dubai sends many students to universities worldwide.
When NAS Dubai was looking for a new university guidance platform to help administer student’s applications, Louise Brown, University Guidance Counselor at NAS Dubai, explains how BridgeU’s Document Sending feature was of particular interest to her, and her colleague Mary Ellen Simoni, a fellow guidance counselor at the school. NAS Dubai students mainly apply to the USA, the UK and Canada. This means that both guidance counselors and teachers at the school must administer the sending of many application documents overseas.
Staff at the school can use Document Sending to ensure that all the necessary documents for students’ multiple international applications are all administered through one platform. Louise explains how “BridgeU gives us peace of mind knowing that all the documents are in one place.”
“BridgeU makes the guidance process more individual, allows the students to be independent, but lets us manage things without being too intrusive.”
Louise notes how BridgeU is helping students create and write stronger, more personalised university applications. She observes how the platform has helped students to explore courses and destinations they might not have thought of before.
BridgeU has helped students to take a more holistic approach to university application writing; for example, writing their UCAS Personal Statements for UK universities and the Common App essay for application to the USA. BridgeU’s Strategy Adviser has helped students write Personal Statements and essays based on a greater understanding of their strengths and accomplishments.
For example, when writing their Common App essay, students can use the Strategy Adviser to uncover and reflect on things they’ve learned during the course of an activity that will help them stand out in a university application. Louise notes that using BridgeU has helped students “find their story” when it comes to writing their university essays, leading to more personalised applications.
The fact that students are able to be more self-aware in their applications also makes it easier for counselors to write stronger letters of recommendation. Louise explains that “BridgeU makes the guidance process more individual, allows the students to be independent, but lets us manage things without being too intrusive.”
“BridgeU gives us clarity very quickly if someone is falling behind.”
Louise and Mary Ellen are expanding BridgeU to Year 10 students. This will ensure that students have earlier exposure to the platform, creating a whole school guidance programme using BridgeU. Students are being set more and more tasks through BridgeU, ensuring that the whole career and university process is being managed through the platform.
NAS Dubai is a busy school and Mary Ellen explains how having BridgeU has meant that teachers have access to everything they need to manage students’ university and careers guidance in one place: “Teachers don’t have to email and check in, it’s all there. It gives us clarity very quickly if someone is falling behind.”
NAS Dubai is part of the Nord Anglia group of schools. Louise and Mary Ellen will be able to use BridgeU analytics to report on students’ university outcomes and ultimate destinations. This in turn will allow NAS Dubai to more easily report on its performance within the wider Nord Anglia group.
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