Academic faculties, schools and departments
A university’s online prospectus is the best place to find course information but if you want to find out about the people and personality of the faculty, school or department that runs the course, you need to broaden your search.
Primary page content
Youtube
Every university has a Youtube channel (Goldsmiths University of London). Here you can find department tours, taster lectures, student profiles, interviews with academics, research spotlights, showreels of student work, and recordings of guest lectures. Content may include university- and student-generated work. Check out both the videos and playlists. Some subjects may create their own Youtube profile, separate to the university, so bookmark this too.
X (formerly Twitter)
Many academics are active on X and post content that reflects their viewpoint on current issues and debates thereby signposting you to lots of useful subject content. You can search for an individual’s Twitter handle or look through the university’s list.
Design, art, media, digital computing, and theatre academics and students often use Instagram to both display their work, and share the influences, exhibitions, and productions that inspire them. The Instagram handle and description will help you see if it’s a student or university account (such as @BA.Design.Gold)
Blogs
The text-based format of blogs suits many academic subjects and they post a wide range of information and opinion-led pieces that are designed to spark conversation. To see the variety of content, visit the blogs for Law and Psychology.
Academics, who are active on LinkedIn, may provide links to articles and blog posts they’ve written, highlight seminars and conferences where they are guest speakers or chairing discussion panels, and provide links to the companies and other universities they collaborate with either through joint research activity or consultancy.
The list could go on and on. The Conversation, academics and PhD students publish, free of charge, short articles about their research areas and topics that interest them. You can access free short online courses at FutureLearn created by academics that provide an introduction to a subject area or a specialist field of study.