The student recruitment space is undergoing a theatrical shift. It has never been more important for colleges and universities to find innovative, engaging ways to connect and interact with prospective students. Proven, traditional methods of campus visits and university fairs, while effective, are increasingly evolving to modernize their approach to engage a new crop of students who experience the world in a completely different way from their predecessors. New-age technologies like 360-degree campus virtual tours offered by Mass Interact are growing in popularity, thanks to the unique offerings they bring to students. Universities around the world are using this as an opportunity to step up their game plan and find new, innovative ways to meet the evolved expectations of their students and embrace new-age technologies to capture their intrigue.
What do universities need to do differently to redefine the student recruitment process?
Step into the future. Embrace whatever comes with the territory of virtual engagements, wholeheartedly. Immersive Campus Virtual Tours are opening up a new avenue of engagement that hasn’t existed before. Embrace virtual engagement and make it meaningful and relevant to your prospective students. The student recruitment teams can start by taking a closer look at their annual strategies to identify areas where students can truly take advantage of virtual tours and gauge the universities’ offerings against that. Important questions to ask would be: Is this campus experience better because you’re here in real life? Is it one of those aspects of university life that is better if you were there? If the answer to those was yes, then that’s exactly where you need to curate a 360-degree virtual tour. The generation that is entering university right now already treads a fine line between virtual and real. They expect to experience campus tours like this. Get into the mindset of delivering in digital-first.
How do you adapt to the change with Virtual Events and Social Media Outreach?
The evolution of any technological advancement comes with its set of pros and cons. Rarely has it left anyone unscathed. But it doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Universities have this incredible opportunity to build a compelling narrative about what they currently offer and have the potential to offer their students. They are no longer limited by the confines of school schedules, venue restrictions, geographical locations, traffic or weather. What was once a crucial roadblock to organizing student events is no longer a deal-breaker. Virtual Events and Social Media presence give universities the chance to showcase their facilities, courses, faculty, sports teams etc in the best way possible, all year around. Instead of 1 digital prospectus, students have a 360-degree view of the everyday events, campus life, curriculum and more delivered to them where they spend all their time– in the digital space. While it does not take away the merit of in-person interactions, it expands what you can truly deliver to students in the way of virtual engagement.
Enrollment has always been a numbers game. Engagement doesn’t have to be. In revolutionizing campus recruitment, what virtual engagement by way of 360-degree virtual campus tours has done so effectively and authentically is democratizing the university experience. Captivating prospective students wherever they may in the world and bringing them a step closer to their future promises meaningful engagement. Universities are often at a loss of clarity in understanding what students prefer to see and end up offering out-of-touch, dated content that the students may not necessarily need. Bringing students closer to the university experience and providing them with a view of campus life, opens up apprehensions or questions they didn’t know they had– giving universities the opportunity to address them or dispel any myths and help improve enrollment conversions while building a meaningful connection authentically.
