First ever virtual open day goes live

Colleagues across the University have shown incredible initiative and ingenuity to launch our first ever online open day, showcasing all Leeds has to offer to prospective students around the world.

Our Virtual Open Days experience will give prospective students a flavour of University life at Leeds, despite lockdown

open, virtual, open day, lockdown, prospective, student, Martin Holmes, Karen Innis, portal

Following government guidance, our June open days did not take place on campus as initially planned.

Instead, we’ve created a Virtual Open Days experience, enabling prospective students to discover everything they need to know about Leeds from the comfort of their own homes. They can tailor their own experience and find out about their course, student life, accommodation, campus and much more.

And more than 20,000 people have already registered an interest in the event.

Martin Holmes, Marketing Director, said: “Despite facing the challenge of short timescales, the cross-campus collaborative efforts of colleagues has created an engaging and exciting online portal.

"It’s something we will be able to use in years to come, not only for recruitment to undergraduate courses, but also to Masters and postgraduate research courses.

“It has been an amazing effort from a huge number of staff, and they should be immensely proud of what they have achieved.”

open, virtual, open day, lockdown, prospective, student, Martin Holmes, Karen Innis, portal

More than 20,000 people have pre-registered for our first ever Virtual Open Days experience

Added value

Our post event feedback from past campus open days suggests ‘getting a feel for campus’ and ‘finding out about subjects’ are key to prospective students’ information needs. To address this, we needed to ensure the virtual experience added value for them.

This has been achieved by providing a personalised experience for users. Once prospective students have created their account, they’re able to view the live event schedule and book their place on more than 100 live talks, ranging from subject sessions to University and student life. Based on their subject and extra-curricular interests, the portal suggests recommended sessions that will be of interest to them. All live talks can also be accessed on demand through the portal after the session has concluded.

open, virtual, open day, lockdown, prospective, student, Martin Holmes, Karen Innis, portal

Explore campus using a newly developed interactive campus map

In addition to our live subject talks, prospective students can explore campus using a newly developed interactive map, with visitors able to select buildings that are relevant to their subjects of interest. They can also explore some of our facilities and view a selection of accommodation.

The opportunity to ask questions of current students and staff is also of prime importance. Current students are encouraged to share their experiences through a live panel, with Q&A sessions also incorporated into live talks.

New opportunities

Where lockdown has presented challenges, it has also provided opportunities. The ability for us to host a virtual open day has also opened our doors to prospective students from outside the UK.

Due to practical geographic constraints, we’ve traditionally attracted mainly UK students to our campus open days. However, the accessible nature of our Virtual Open Days experience means we’re able to showcase the University in a way we’ve never been able to before.

open, virtual, open day, lockdown, prospective, student, Martin Holmes, Karen Innis, portal

Prospective students can discover everything they need to know about Leeds from the comfort of their own homes

Director of Marketing Services, Karen Innis, said: “We’re excited to be able to offer such an innovative event.

“It has been a significant ask, and it is impressive to see what has been achieved over a very short timescale. Our Virtual Open Days are a fantastic showcase and give prospective students a real sense of what they can expect from their experience here.

“Despite these challenging times, we have kept the applicant at the centre of our thinking to help them make the very best decision possible and to support them in this process.”

Our Virtual Open Days portal was launched on Monday 22 June, with live talks taking place from Monday 29 June to Friday 10 July.

Posted in: