Case Study: University of Galway

Back in June 2020, Eventbrite reported that their users were spending 28x more time attending virtual events than they had been in January 2020. The constantly changing regulations around event management made it almost impossible for universities to host their typical calendar of in-person Open Days, Applicant Welcome events, and Freshers’ Fair activities.

Fast forward to our “new normal” hybrid world and the message is loud and clear - online events are here to stay. Although domestic applicants may now take advantage of the opportunities to visit campus again, for many students, having the flexibility to learn about your institution online offers convenience and the ability to fit their university research around other commitments.

The flexibility that online and on-demand events offer students is valued by many applicants - none more so than those applying from overseas. It can be difficult to get a sense of what the university is really like and have the opportunity to hear from current students as an international prospect.

University of Galway’s International Office decided to address this challenge by hosting a series of online events using The Ambassador Platform’s Streams feature in the lead up to their main September 2023 intake. Facilitating connections with their prospective students that were meaningful and presented the University of Galway in an authentic way was incredibly important. The team aimed to amplify student voices on webinar panels, but also deliver information from key staff members across the institution to offer well-rounded insights on the topics covered.

Simple scheduler

Creating, editing, and hosting online events can be time consuming for university staff. Our Stream scheduler is fully integrated within the admin dashboard to make it easy to manage upcoming, past events, and recordings from one place.

Private and public events

Deliver public events to a wide audience, or run smaller sessions for closed communities such as groups of offer holders - our Streams feature allows you to do both.

Repurpose the event content

Your event content doesn’t have to be single-use. Once a Stream recording has ended, it can be posted to the Feed to capture more prospect sign ups and give future students an insight into life at your institution.

Fanshawe College started their journey by building their Digital Ambassador team. They wanted their ambassadors to come across as authentic and personable without being overly institutional. Diversity of representation was also incredibly important to them. To select their ambassadors, they took into account the student's program of study, and asked each candidate to send a short video talking about themselves and why they wanted to be an ambassador.

When they started the program, they recruited 18 ambassadors hosted a workshop on how to use The Ambassador Platform, and provided guidance on how to approach chat conversations with prospective students; the team also created a WhatsApp group to foster a sense of community among the ambassadors and exchange advice.

To ensure their ambassador program ran smoothly, the Fanshawe team built a fantastic incentivization system, including a certificate of participation and weekly giveaways for the ambassadors who spoke to the most students.

In only 18 months, Fanshawe College scaled its ambassador team from 18 students to 78 without scaling its admin team. If you want to find out how they did this, check out our Customer Spotlight webinar with Priyank Mistri, Digital Recruiter at Fanshawe College.

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Between 1st April - 23rd July, University of Galway’s International Office has hosted 17 Live Streams through the platform; delivering informative sessions to 539 prospective students from 86 different countries in the process.

They have covered topics such as what the accommodation options are like at University of Galway, how international students should prepare for their studies and life in Ireland, and student welfare and wellbeing advice in their series of live events.

"Streams has proven to be an indispensable tool not only for recruitment endeavours but also as a vital component of our pre-arrival schedule. Through a series of pre-arrival webinars, Streams has played a pivotal role in forging a sense of belonging within the University of Galway community even before students set foot on our campus. By facilitating interactions with key staff members and encouraging active participation with our diverse group of international student ambassadors Streams has ensured that incoming students feel a strong sense of inclusion and camaraderie, thus setting the stage for a seamless transition into their university journey."

Ailish Walsh

Admissions and Conversions Executive
University of Galway

Out of the 539 prospects that signed up to attend a Live Stream, 96 prospects also took part in a public group chat. Applicants were also likely to participate in multiple sessions.

And best of all, 331 prospects (more than half!) registered for more than 1 live event to find out about different aspects of student life at University of Galway.

In hosting these information sessions through the platform, incoming postgraduate students have been fully supported in their journey to higher education and had the opportunity to connect with current students, staff, and fellow applicants pre-departure.

University of Galway

The challenge

Simple scheduler

Private and public events

Repurpose the event content

The journey

Results

The impact