How important are virtual events for international audiences?

Assorted coloured flags. Photo by Nareeta Martin on Unsplash

At the Higher Education Conference - Fixes to Foresight: What’s Next for Student Recruitment? we spoke to a panel of HE marketing leaders. 

The conversation was thick and fast and we received so many questions from the audience that we weren’t able to answer them all. 

Since then we’ve followed up with our panel to cover all the outstanding questions and delve deeper into some of the topics we covered. 

The pandemic forced virtual open days front and centre for all universities. For institutions with existing significant international audiences, online open days were a well-trodden path. 

For others, it was a push towards a more cost-effective and sustainable way of communicating with growing numbers of prospective international students.

Virtual reach 24/7

Simon Pride, head of recruitment and marketing at Arts University Bournemouth, says, “it will be really important to maintain online open days in support of international recruitment. [As a result of the pandemic] we've all learned that we can reach out all over the world without having to get on planes and go to in-person fairs and events.”

Emma Leech, director of marketing and communications at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) agrees, “they open up opportunities for brand awareness and exploration at an early stage of the decision-making process and help students get a sense of what a university is like without the significant expense of a visit. They enable great reach at minimal cost and provide a 24/7 shop window for students.”

The pandemic has somewhat levelled that playing field for international student recruitment. As Simon explains, “there’s no competitive advantage here because everyone's doing it. And in fact, I think what we discovered was that bigger universities were doing it beforehand anyway. It’s just, we've never done it before now.”

Hybrid challenges

Although many universities have got the virtual format down-pat, the shift to a hybrid model has proven to present some challenges. 

Head of student recruitment and market development at the University of Suffolk, Karen Hinton, shares an experience of a lesson delivered in-person and online simultaneously. 

Although not a virtual event or open day, the experience illustrates the challenges institutions face when taking a hybrid approach to interactions can cause complications that an in-person meeting would not. 

A small classroom scheduling mix up, a familiar experience in every institution, proved more complex because of the hybrid format.

She explains, “an academic and a group of students needed to move to a different room. There was a lot of back and forth about it with the academic, which seemed ridiculous because there were only eight people in the room. 

“Eventually, he turned to his computer and said, ’do you hear that? We’ve got to move.’ I had wondered why it was such a big deal to move to another room and only then realised it was because he had another 20 students online. He was going to have to shut everything down, move rooms, set things up and get the students all back in again.” 

Managing hybrid events and using them effectively is a challenge that Simon has seen other universities grapple with. He says, “we all try to make formal open days online, but they're not really the same. There are people trying to create a learning experience where you could wander around and all that kind of thing. They're all valiant attempts, but I'm not really buying that.

“I think that with most of the material you can think about making a nice video and can have it accessible all the time. You don't need to get people to come to an event to access that.” 

Inclusivity, accessibility and sustainability benefits 

Daniel Nyirenda, marketing and recruitment officer at De Montfort University, highlights some of the key benefits of virtual events “I think it's very important for us to ensure that we can reach as many students as possible now that so many countries have internet access. Developing countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and India all have systems now, whether it's 3G or wifi. 

“Aside from trying to meet recruitment targets and getting more international students in, it's very important for us to reach people in places where perhaps they wouldn't have known about a university of X before unless a person physically went to that space.”

In addition to the inclusivity and accessibility benefits, Daniel also points out the positive impact less air travel has on the environment. 

He says, “with a virtual event, you can actually reach someone without being in the same physical space as them. If we think about sustainability, we don't need to go to the place in person, we don't have to jump on a plane anymore. So, we're helping the environment at the same time.”

Open days of the future

The in-person experience will always have its place, the consensus among HE leaders is that the virtual open day is not a substitute for the in-person experience. But virtual open days are now very much a solid part of the recruitment marketing mix.

The plan for Arts University Bournemouth is a three-pronged approach, Simon explains, “there’ll be the 24 hours, always open online event. 

“There'll be an appointment to meet the course team and to meet some students, which could be an hour or a two hour event. You can do them much more frequently than you could do a full-blown open day - which is a huge, great bloody performance! You can do it two or three times during different times of the day to match different time zones. It’s much easier to organise. 

And then you have physical open days for people who can make it. They’ll tend to be more popular among local or regional prospective students.”

Virtual events are here to stay for all audiences 

The benefits of virtual events for international student recruitment are clear. Now, all universities have an online offering and can access prospective international students.

As Emma says, “I don’t see any sense in not continuing to leverage virtual platforms if we have the opportunity to do so.” 

If you want help to tell your university’s story, get in touch: trina@stori.works