Postgraduate Recruitment Events: Diverse Options for a Diverse Audience

“What events are we doing for postgraduates?”

It’s a common question asked to Higher Education events professionals.

Nobody asks about undergraduate recruitment events because everyone knows the answer. It’s a foregone conclusion. We’re having open days, followed by offer-holder days, all on-campus.

Large on-campus events make sense for our enormous prospective undergraduate audience. They want to visit, bring their family, maybe a pet. The demand is there.

And it works. It’s always worked. Why?

Because prospective undergraduates are broadly similar. The vast majority are school students, based in the UK, with the flexibility and support to spend a day with us. Most plan to study a 3-year degree. They want a course talk, a campus tour, an accommodation tour, and perhaps a conversation at an information stand.

We can cater to the needs of this vast audience with a small number of big, catch-all events. The staff community rallies together. Of course they do. It’s an undergraduate open day. When it comes to undergraduates, we put the open into open day.

But postgraduates? Well… 

Postgraduate Pluralism

Prospective postgraduates aren’t an easy audience to categorise. They are significantly more varied than our undergraduate audience.

Prospective postgraduates could include:

• People aged 21 to 101

• Full-time employees

• Current students

• Parents

• CEOs

• International audiences – more so than undergraduates

Their study interests will greatly vary too. They may wish to study a:

• Taught course

• MRes

• PhD

• PGCE

• Part-time course

• Distance-learning course

• Second undergraduate degree

• Graduate-entry medicine degree

Their questions are likely to be just as varied. More bespoke, more personal.

With such dizzying diversity, it’s no wonder there aren’t any catch-all solutions for postgraduate recruitment events.

Virtual Postgraduate Events

For a while, I thought virtual postgraduate events was the answer. After all, prospective postgraduates are less likely to come to our campus. They have complex commitments: jobs, families, dependents, dissertations to finish, or companies to run. And they are scattered across the globe.

Switching to virtual made sense. Thankfully, our ability to deliver virtual events has vastly improved since COVID. Internal colleagues are now more familiar with the concept.

However, virtual events still retain a major challenge that we face with in-person events: When exactly should we offer a virtual event? Evening to avoid work commitments? Daytime to avoid family commitments? Weekend to avoid as many commitments as possible? Only, then we’re asking colleagues to work another Saturday, all for an event which is likely to have low attendance. Goodwill diminishes.

Postgraduate Event Programmes

Even if we could agree on the perfect where and when, there is an even bigger challenge: What do we offer at our postgraduate events?

There are endless options: talks, panels, tours, information stands, accommodation viewings…

Our vastly varied postgraduate audience have equally vast wants and needs. For instance, many will grow impatient during a course talk. They have already gained the course information from our detailed webpages. They would find themselves drumming their fingers, just waiting for the opportunity to ask questions unique to their own circumstances.

Furthermore, if seeking a PhD supervisor, this opportunity to ask questions, have a nuanced 121 conversation, build a relationship, is even more critical. And it’s difficult to do this at a live event – in-person or virtual – with other attendees waiting.

We almost need a different event for each individual. Is there a solution?

On-Demand Postgraduate Events

More recently, it feels that on-demand content makes the most sense. With a multitude of preferences, prospective postgraduate audiences will surely want to access information 24/7. Therefore, we need pre-recorded talks, interactive virtual tours, and comprehensive webpages.

We need to allow people to ask a question whenever they wish. We should offer AI bots, enquiry forms, and always-open chat platforms. The latter isn’t always a real-time conversation, but they can at least expect an answer relatively quickly, usually within 48 hours, from a real student or staff member.

And we can offer a version of on-demand for in-person events too. For example, we can offer frequent visiting opportunities, like campus tour afternoons that occur every month. Or better yet, we can create self-guided tour instructions, so people can tour themselves any day of the year. We’re certainly moving forward with this at Nottingham.

I’ve sense-checked this with entire panels of postgraduate students. They unanimously agree that on-demand content is their preference. And yet…

Postgraduate Persistence

Our sector persists with a wide portfolio of postgraduate events. Some universities are still offering in-person postgraduate open days, on a similar scale to undergraduate open days.

Other universities are continuing with live virtual events, often repeated multiple times to cater for different time zones and commitments.

Many colleagues are touring the country, and the world, to attend in-person postgraduate recruitment fairs.

Each of these options attracts attendees. Numbers might be modest, but low numbers are better than no numbers.

And my peers report back positive interactions and good attendee feedback. Questions are asked. Codes are scanned. Materials are shared.

Which brings us back to the big debate. In-person, virtual, on-demand? Maybe we need to keep all three postgraduate plates spinning.

Takeaways for Postgraduate Events

What advice can I offer to my fellow Higher Education events professionals?

I don’t have a definitive conclusion about what postgraduate recruitments events we should be offering. I’m not sure there’s an answer to that question.

Instead, here are a few thoughts on how to approach a postgraduate events strategy…

• Experiment – Allow yourself permission to experiment, to pilot, to fail. Exploring different options, and combinations of options, is necessary for such a complex audience. 

• Measure – Keep measuring success. Not just the QR scans, the attendance, the survey results, but the transactional outcomes too. How many of your attendees apply, accept, enrol?

• Share – Let’s keep talking. Our event strategies will improve at a faster rate if we share our experiences and test ideas with each other. It will also save us the hassle of secret-shopping each other’s events!

• Simplify – If you’re going to keep all three postgraduate event plates spinning – on-campus, virtual, on-demand – then simplify where possible. Be cautious with your budget, your time, your materials, your processes. It will allow you to deliver a wider portfolio of events.

“What events are we doing for postgraduate students?”

Well, perhaps a little bit of everything.

And for now, that’s okay.

About the author

Simon has almost 20 years of experience in the higher education sector. This includes student recruitment, marketing, and events roles at Nottingham, Birmingham, Warwick, and Coventry, and a consultancy role at Pickle Jar Communications.

Simon is the Head of Community Engagement at UniTasterDays. Their platform helps teachers, careers advisors, prospective students, and parents discover university taster events, whilst offering a range of valuable HE guidance and resources.

Simon has spoken at a variety of international HE conferences, including CASE, ContentEd, EFMD, HighEdWeb, and PSEWeb. He was Chair of the Newcomers Track at CASE Europe Annual Conference from 2020 to 2023.