How to Choose a University if You Can't Visit Open Days in Person

Open days are useful — but they’re not the only way to research a university, and they shouldn’t be a luxury only available to families who can afford weekend train fares across the country. Travel costs, work, family commitments, distance, disability, or simply being an international applicant can all make in-person visits impossible.

Here’s how to research a university thoroughly when you can’t go in person, and how to access the support that exists to make visits more affordable than you think.

First — check what financial help is available

A lot of families don’t realise this exists. Many UK universities offer travel bursaries specifically to help prospective students from lower-income backgrounds attend open days. The amount varies — typically £30 to £60 — but at universities further from home, some run higher reimbursements for students from specific regions or backgrounds.

Where to look:

• The open day booking page itself — often near the bottom, sometimes labelled “support” or “assistance”
• The widening participation or outreach team — they usually have a dedicated email address
• The university’s access agreement (search for the university name + “access and participation plan”)

Some universities will also offer:

• Free overnight accommodation for prospective applicants travelling long distances
• Reimbursement of train tickets with receipts after the visit
• Travel cards or vouchers sent before the visit
• Coach transport from specific cities (particularly for outreach events)
• Free meals during the open day itself

We flag bursary offers on every listing on FindOpenDays where the information is publicly available. A long train journey may be more affordable than you think.

For students with disabilities or specific access needs, every UK university also offers tailored support for visits — including private tours at less busy times, sensory considerations, BSL interpreters, and accommodation viewings adapted to specific needs.

What virtual open days actually offer

Virtual open days have evolved enormously since 2020. Most major UK universities now offer at least one of the following — often all of them — for free, online, available on-demand:

A virtual campus tour — usually a 360° walkthrough with hotspots for accommodation, libraries, sports facilities, student union, key teaching buildings. The best ones include narration from current students.

Live streamed Q&A sessions with academic staff and current students, typically scheduled at fixed times. You can join from anywhere and ask questions in chat.

Recorded subject talks — same content the in-person attendees get, available to watch in your own time.

Online chat with student ambassadors — most universities run a chat service where you can message current students directly. Often available on the university’s “study with us” page year-round, not just on open days.

Webinar series — many universities now run regular online events on specific topics: student finance, accommodation, specific subject areas, mature applicants, international students.

A reasonable approach: watch the virtual tour, attend at least one live Q&A, message a current student on your course. That’s substantially more than a passive prospectus read, and it’s roughly equivalent to about 60–70% of what an in-person visit gives you.

Talking to current students directly

This is the single most underused option. Most prospective students don’t realise how willing current students are to talk — and how easy it is to set up.

Through the university:
Email the admissions office or the department’s student support office asking if a current student on your course would be willing to have a 15-minute video call. Most will say yes. Universities like this kind of contact because it converts applications.

Through student ambassador platforms:
Many universities use third-party platforms (Unibuddy, The Ambassador Platform) that connect prospective students with current ones for direct messaging. Free to use.

Through The Student Room and Reddit:
Subject-specific subreddits (r/UKstudents, r/6thForm, course-specific subs) and The Student Room forums have current students happy to answer questions. Be specific in what you ask.

Through your own school:
If your school has alumni at the universities you’re considering, ask the careers team to put you in touch. Recent alumni at the universities you’re targeting are gold.

The questions that work best:

• What surprised you about the course in your first term?
• What’s the most frustrating thing about studying here?
• Where do most second-year students live, and how much do they pay?
• If you could redo your university decision, would you pick the same place?
• What did you wish you’d known before accepting your offer?

Those questions get honest answers. “Do you like the uni?” gets you a sales pitch.

Doing serious online research

If you can’t visit, you compensate with much more thorough research. A checklist:

Official data sources:

• Discover Uni (discoveruni.gov.uk) — the official government data on every course, including student satisfaction, employment outcomes, and salary data 15 months after graduation.
• UCAS course search — full course details, entry requirements, structure.
• The Office for Students — the university’s regulatory data and any open conditions.
• TEF rating (Teaching Excellence Framework) — the university’s overall teaching quality rating.

Student-generated content:

• The university’s TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube — most universities now have current students producing day-in-the-life content, accommodation tours, and city guides.
• StudentTube and individual student YouTubers — search the university name plus “vlog” or “day in the life.”
• The Student Room subforums for each university — long threads on accommodation, courses, social life.
• Recent Reddit threads (sort by “new”) — more honest than year-old reviews.

Course-specific information:

• Read the full module list for your course, year by year.
• Check the academic staff list — see what areas they research in and which modules they teach.
• Find recent academic publications from the department — gives you a sense of what they care about.
• Check whether the course has the right accreditation for your career plans (BPS for psychology, ARB for architecture, etc.).

The wider context:

• The city itself — cost of living comparisons, transport links, what to do at weekends.
• Travel time and cost back to your home town.
• Local employment market if you want to stay after graduating.

Visiting the city without setting foot on campus

If you can get to the city but the open day doesn’t work for you, a self-guided trip is genuinely useful. A weekend visit lets you:

• Walk around the campus and surrounding area on a normal day, when no one is putting on a show
• See where students actually live in second and third year
• Get a feel for the city, the weather, the high street, the transport
• Check out the supermarkets, the bus routes, the GP options

Many universities will arrange a free self-guided tour or a small private tour if you contact admissions in advance. It’s a less polished version of the open day, but for the questions that matter most (atmosphere, fit), it can be just as informative.

What you’ll miss without a visit

Be honest about the limits of virtual research:

• The gut feel. Whether you can imagine yourself living there.
• The scale. How walkable the campus is. How long it takes to get between buildings.
• The atmosphere of teaching spaces. A modern lecture theatre vs a tired one looks very different in person to in photos.
• The accommodation in detail. Pictures flatter; in person, you’ll notice the wear.
• The other prospective students. Open days are a useful sample of who else applies here.

For your top one or two choices — your likely firm and insurance — try hard to visit at least once. Save up, use a travel bursary, combine with a family visit, attend an offer holder day instead. The cost of going to the wrong university is much higher than the cost of a train ticket.

For everything else on your UCAS application, thorough virtual research is genuinely enough.

A research checklist if you can’t visit

For each university on your shortlist, work through:

1. Watch the official virtual tour
2. Attend or watch one live Q&A or webinar
3. Read the full module list for your course
4. Check the latest student satisfaction data on Discover Uni
5. Find at least two student-made videos about the campus and accommodation
6. Have one conversation (chat, message, or video call) with a current student on the course
7. Read recent (within last 6 months) Reddit or Student Room threads about the university
8. Map your accommodation-to-teaching-buildings walk on Google Maps
9. Check the local transport, supermarkets, and GP options for the area you’d live in
10. Compare the cost of living against your home town

By the end of that, you’ll know more about the university than many students who attended a single open day.

FAQ