Attend a subject taster session either virtually or in person on campus and discover what it would be like to study your chosen subject at undergraduate degree level.
We offer them in a wide range of subjects throughout the year. If there is not an session in your subject area, please do register your interest and we will let you know when any new ones have been added related to your areas of interest.
Wednesday 19 November 2025, 16:00 – 17:00
Our academic from the Institue of Education, Laura Purser, will give you insight into the interview process for our BA Primary Education (QTS) course at the University of Reading.
Topics covered by this webinar will include:
Following the webinar there will be a Q&A session where you can ask us any questions.
Online webinar led by Rodney Jones, Professor of Sociolinguistics
This webinar explores how AI systems like voice assistants and chatbots are designed to sound “human”—and how that very design can reinforce harmful stereotypes. We’ll explore how language carries social meaning – how accents, dialects, and word choices signal identity and culture. When tech companies give their AIs friendly voices or tell them to sound “professional,” they’re tapping into these signals – but often in simplistic or stereotypical ways.
We’ll look at real examples of how people interact with these AIs, how they judge whether their voices are “authentic”. We'll examine what makes an AI voice convincing enough to sound human, but not so human that it feels “creepy”. Participants will think critically about technology and to reflect on how language, identity, and power are tightly intertwined – even in the voice of machines.
Following the webinar there will be a Q&A session.
If you sign up to the webinar, you will receive a recording of the webinar.
Join us for a one-hour online session designed for students interested in studying creative writing at university. This interactive session will introduce you to what it’s like to be part of a vibrant community of writers, exploring how creative writing is studied, practised, and developed at degree level.
Led by Professor Conor Carville, an award-winning poet, novelist, and literary critic, the session will combine practical and academic perspectives on writing today.
You’ll get a brief overview of how creative writing is taught at university – how students work across genres, engage critically with literature, and develop their own distinctive voices.
The second half of the session will be hands-on: through guided exercises, you’ll be taken step by step through the process of drafting a short poem, from first image to finished piece. You’ll leave with the beginnings of your own creative work and a clearer sense of what studying writing at university can offer.
Following the webinar there will be a Q&A session.
If you sign up to the webinar, you will receive a recording of the webinar.
Join Professor Melani Schroeter for this interactive webinar about languages and the history of lexical borrowing (focusing on French, German, Italian, and Spanish).
Professor Schroeter specialises on the analysis of public and political discourse, including comparative analyses across languages. Her analyses often entail a focus on lexical patterns, for example around the discourse keyword ‘woke’.
In this webinar she will discuss how no language is an island. In an interconnected world, languages come into contact with each other, and sometimes speakers of one language might encounter a word in another language that they find useful, for example because it denotes something new, or it succinctly labels a familiar experience. In such cases, words might get imported from one language into another.
This session will take place live so you will have the opportunity to ask questions throughout. If you register for the webinar, you will receive the recording via email.
This webinar will tackle some of the big questions in education, such as:
Thursday 30 October 2025,16:00 – 17:00
This event is closed for applications.
Want to be the first to know about events and activities in your subject area of interest?
Please email us at outreach@reading.ac.uk
Please visit our Activities for Schools page for more information about our upcoming sessions and resources for schools.
The University of Reading is committed to ensuring that its outreach programmes are accessible for all. We offer a Travel Bursary that prospective students may apply for to attend campus taster events, and if successful would cover the entire cost of their travel. Certain eligibility criteria apply.
