Playbook, university
Open days, tours and visit days, and how to route each one
A university runs several kinds of visit and calls them different things internally, which nobody outside knows. Somebody typing wants to see the place; the assistant's useful job is working out which event that means, saying what happens at it, and pointing at the right registration.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for appointment booking holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- There are usually at least three visit types: a large open day, a self guided or small group campus tour, and an applicant or offer holder day that only invited applicants may attend.
- The invited one is the trap, because an assistant that describes it warmly to somebody without an offer has created a disappointment the admissions team has to absorb.
- Visit dates are published far ahead and change, and departments run their own subject sessions on top of the central programme.
- International applicants ask the same question meaning a virtual event, which is a different set of pages entirely.
How it arrives
- when is the next open day
- can i visit the campus without booking
- do i need to register for the open day
- is there a tour of the halls
- can my parents come with me
- is there an online open day
What has to be indexed for this to work
| The visit calendar | Every event type on one page with its date, who it is for, and whether registration is required. Separate pages per event are how a visitor ends up reading about the wrong one. |
|---|---|
| What happens at each event | The shape of the day: talks, subject sessions, accommodation viewings, who can come with you. This is the anxiety question underneath the logistics one. |
| Self guided visit information | Whether somebody can simply turn up, where to park, which buildings are open, and what is not accessible without a host. |
| Virtual and international options | Named clearly as an alternative rather than buried, since for an overseas applicant this is the only realistic option. |
The reply
There are two kinds of visit open to anyone: the university wide open days listed on our visit calendar, which need registration, and self guided campus visits, which do not. Applicant days are separate and are by invitation once you hold an offer. Guests are welcome at open days, and the calendar page has the dates and the registration form.
It draws the three way distinction in the first sentence, which is the thing nobody outside the university knows, and it answers the guest question without being asked because it is the next thing everyone asks.
Where it stops
The trigger. An access requirement for a visit, a request to attend an applicant day without an offer, or a request for a departmental visit outside the published programme.
That one needs a person rather than a page. Leave your name, an email and what you need, and the visits team will arrange it with you directly.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- That somebody can attend an applicant or offer holder day without confirming they hold an offer.
- That a date is confirmed when it is listed as provisional.
- That a particular building or residence will be open, since which ones are varies event by event.
- Anything that implies a visit affects an application decision.
Questions
- Can the assistant register somebody for an open day?
- No. It does not write into any system, so it explains the event and points at the registration form. That is usually enough, because the thing stopping people registering is not knowing which event they want.
- How do we stop it recommending the wrong event?
- Write the visit calendar so each row states who the event is for in its own words. If the page says who is eligible, the answer will too. If eligibility only lives in a staff process, the assistant cannot know it.
- What about departmental open days run by individual schools?
- Index them if they are published, and expect questions about them. If they are not published centrally, say in the calendar page that departments run their own and who to ask, so the assistant can route rather than guess.
Keep reading
- Everything for a universityApplicants and enrolled students ask different things. What a university assistant can answer about entry, fees and visas, and what it must never predict.
- Handling appointment booking in generalIt cannot write into a calendar. The job is removing every reason not to book, then handing over with the details already gathered.
- Access questions from applicants, and the line between information and supportTwo different questions arrive as one: is the campus accessible, and will I be supported. The second must never be answered from a web page.
- Data requests on a university site, and why silence is the failureDeletion, access and correction requests arrive on the enquiries channel with a legal clock attached. Explain the route and never close the conversation.
- The three things a university assistant must never try to handleWellbeing, visas and anything about an individual application. Three triggers that must be rules rather than judgements on a university site.
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