What We've Learned From Running Student Recruitment Events

Open days remain one of the most important touchpoints in postgraduate student recruitment. But the challenge universities increasingly face is not whether open days matter, it’s whether the right students are attending, engaging, and converting as a result.

At FindAUniversity, we also face this challenge. Through our Postgrad LIVE student recruitment fairs, and via our websites FindAMasters.com and FindAPhD.com, we sit at the centre of postgraduate decision-making: attracting students, shaping their journeys, and understanding what drives them to engage with universities in person.

And that gives us a clear perspective on one thing:

The success of any open day or recruitment event is decided long before the event itself begins.

What Postgrad LIVE tells us about student behaviour

Our Postgrad LIVE fairs bring thousands of prospective Masters and PhD students into direct contact with universities across the UK and these events often precede the open day journey.

Our recent Spring 2026 Postgrad LIVE fairs attracted 1,600+ students across five events, delivering high-quality, in-person engagement between prospective postgraduate students and universities.

This scale of engagement gives us a clear, real-time view of how students behave when they are actively considering postgraduate study and what drives them to attend events in the first place.

What we consistently see is:

• Students rarely attend “just to browse” - they respond to relevance and timing

• Early-stage awareness drives attendance more than last-minute promotion

• Clear, targeted messaging significantly improves engagement at events

• Students often attend multiple events before narrowing their decision set

In other words, attendance is not accidental - it is engineered.

And that’s exactly where many open day campaigns lose momentum.

The open day challenge: visibility is not enough

Most universities already invest in open days and event promotion. But visibility alone doesn’t guarantee attendance from the right audience.

From our experience running high-volume student recruitment fairs, the difference between a well-attended event and a high-performing one comes down to three things:

1. Targeting the right intent

Students don’t all arrive at the same stage of decision-making. Some are exploring whether postgraduate study is even for them, while others are actively comparing institutions.

Successful campaigns recognise and segment this intent early.

2. Meeting students where decisions are forming

Our platforms - FindAMasters and FindAPhD - reach students at the exact point they are researching options, not after they’ve decided.

That early-stage visibility is critical. If students don’t know your open day exists at the point of initial consideration, they often never re-enter the funnel.

3. Removing friction from the journey

At Postgrad LIVE, we see higher engagement when students can immediately connect curiosity with action - speak to universities, scan relevant options, and understand next steps clearly.

The same principle applies to open days:

The easier it is to understand, register, and attend - the higher the conversion.

What universities can take from Postgrad LIVE

Because we run both the platforms that generate student interest and the events they attend, we see the full journey:

Search → Discovery → Engagement → Attendance → Enquiry → Application

That gives us a unique perspective:

Successful open day campaigns don’t start with promotion - they start with positioning.

Universities that maximise impact tend to:

• Integrate open day promotion earlier in the decision journey

• Use high-intent platforms (like FindAMasters and FindAPhD) to drive awareness

• Align messaging between listings, ads, and event pages

• Treat events as part of a wider recruitment funnel, not standalone activity

Why this matters now

Postgraduate students are more informed, more selective, and more comparison-driven than ever.

That makes open days even more important, but also more competitive.

The universities that win are those that:

• Show up early

• Show up clearly

• And show up in the right places

How we help

Through FindAMasters, FindAPhD, and our Postgrad LIVE events, we help universities:

• Reach students actively exploring postgraduate study

• Drive high-quality event attendance

• Convert awareness into meaningful engagement

• Connect digital campaigns with real-world student recruitment impact

Open days are not standalone events. They are the outcome of a journey.

And the better that journey is designed, the more powerful every event becomes.

That’s what we see through Postgrad LIVE -  and it’s why we believe open day campaigns are most effective when they are built with the full student journey in mind.

 If you’re planning upcoming open day activity, we’d be happy to share how universities are using FindAMasters and FindAPhD campaigns alongside Postgrad LIVE to increase visibility and maximise impact. Send us an enquiry below!