Universities host virtual visits

With a ban on large gatherings due to COVID, universities have taken their open days online.

Griffith University is running an 11-week-long virtual open day for new students.

Prospective undergraduates have more choices than ever before, with most universities finalising virtual open days to run over the next three months.

Online events are not new, but just as the COVID-19 pandemic forced remote teaching and accelerated plans for cloud campuses, institutions have had to translate their biggest marketing exercise of the year, usually assisted by with crowds, colour and activity, into an experience to satisfy someone who has never set foot inside the gates.

They also know that without the imperative to front up to a street address, students can now easily “attend” dozens of universities’ open days.

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“We’re very aware of that,” La Trobe University acting chief marketing officer Tim Skellern said. “That plays to two big aspects. The ‘cost’, if you like, of going to an open day is massively reduced because you can just log in and have a look.

“But equally, it’s also easier to just leave if you’re not interested in what we’re saying. So we’re hyper aware that it’s very important we make it a genuinely good and interesting experience for people.”

Griffith University vice-chancellor Carolyn Evans said considerations included a sense of welcoming and easily accessible and relevant information and resources for specific degrees students are interested in, as well as delivering that on the best platform available.

“The platform has been built around the idea of the experience that it is simple, personalised and supportive,” she said.

Institutions are taking the opportunity of trying something new. The University of Western Australia, for example, whose virtual open day is Sunday, August 2, is launching a suite of new courses, including undergraduate and postgraduate degrees as well as majors and minors in areas such as automation and robotics, artificial intelligence and international cybersecurity.

And for every institution that has opted for a more traditional one-day immersion, there are plenty more offering two, three or more days, in a row or over a period of weeks. Griffith University has created a self-styled “Open House” that started on 14 July and runs to 1 October, ensuring “virtual access to every campus and everything we offer from the comfort of people’s homes and the ease of a personal device”, Professor Evans said.

The lengthy duration was “to ensure potential students and their parents could access the information they needed when they wanted, making it on-demand”.

Griffith expects attendance to equal the average of 15,000 people the face-to-face version attracted in the previous four years, with 200 courses and live sessions including virtual classes, webinars, panel discussions, demonstrations and individual discussions with study area experts.

La Trobe, whose virtual open day is also on Sunday August 2, has hosted about 25,000 at its open days in the last few years, Mr Skellern said. “One of the wonderful things about being there as a staff member on the day is seeing these families come. The energy from that is amazing.”

That can’t be replicated, he said, but a massive effort has gone into engaging content and some headline events, such as the offer of a barre class with David McAllister, artistic director of The Australian Ballet.

The personal advice sessions the university routinely offers are also advertised as part of the experience and are expected to be popular. “Since was March-April when we’ve gone into virtual land, the demand for those one-on-one consultations has been enormous, thousands more than normal.

“I think it reflects people’s general anxiety level, about the disrupted Year 12 — the worry as to what that will mean for their prospects at the end of it and getting into university — as well as a desire to learn about what they can do.”