When choosing programmes, first-year students often struggle to connect their personal interests and aspirations with the academic pathways available to them. This results in poor choices, reduced motivation and lost potential. As universities grow larger and more complex, this “early academic misalignment” becomes harder to address.
Opened in 2022, the XJTLU Entrepreneur College in Taicang offers a distinct “syntegrative education” model, which connects industry, academia, research and training. Its goal is to develop work-ready graduates who can lead change in specific industries using advanced technology.
After completing first-year foundational studies on the main campus, students can choose to remain there for certain degree programmes or transfer to a specialist campus for others.
This creates uneven access to information because programmes based on the same campus are easier to access and explore. Students have less insight into the courses run on other campuses, making it more likely that these may be overlooked.
Targeted open days to bridge the information gap
We developed immersive open days to help students understand potential pathways available to them and ensure they pursue the courses of greatest interest to them. The aims of the open days are:
- To spark curiosity and exploration
- To provide insights before final programme selections
- To reduce the risk of mismatched expectations.
To do this, the open days use four proven strategies:
1. Empower student leaders
We train first-year and senior students to design and run the open days. These students are involved in budgeting and logistics, which builds real-world skills and experience. At an open day last year, student teams created an “innovation ideas wall”, ran a quiz, and organised student-led campus tours.
The “innovation ideas wall” invited student participants to write down ideas for projects, ventures or problems they wanted to solve in their industry of interest. These were discussed with peers and facilitators. For the quiz, teams had to answer questions about university life, programme structures and industry-related facts. Senior students provided first-year students with valuable insights about the different programmes, building credibility and trust.
The open days are just the start. Students who attend often become advocates. They volunteer as “campus ambassadors” for later events. Follow-up activities include a student-run leadership lunch and online presentations, featuring undergraduate programme directors, current students and alumni who share their experiences. This builds a peer support network and shows that students are central to the university community.
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2. Practical learning opportunities
Instead of lengthy presentations, each specialist programme sets a practical challenge similar to those that the students would face on the courses, for example, the design of a 3D-printed speaker. For this, students had to consider technological limitations, design and market appeal to build technical skills, global awareness and entrepreneurial thinking. These challenges provide valuable insight into project-led curricula. Industry-academic staff, enterprise mentors and senior students offer guidance during these challenges, simulating the supportive learning environment.
Seventy-eight per cent of participants rated the activity as the most valuable part of the day, highlighting the power of “learning by doing”.
3. Smart data platform use
We use existing campus systems such as no-code platforms for registrations and post-event surveys and basic data analysis to track attendees and engagement. This is cost-effective and prevents the privacy risks that come with external platforms.
The data reveals genuine interest. Ninety-two per cent of participants said they would like to get involved in further activities, such as innovation, entrepreneurship and scientific research.
This information is crucial for follow-up. It allows us to contact students who show a strong interest in a particular programme and invite them to further sessions that dive even deeper. This transforms the initial spark of curiosity into sustained exploration.
4. Strategic timing
We hold two open days each year. The first is in the first week of semester one. The second is during the second week of semester two. The timing is designed to prompt “early inspiration” and “later confirmation”. The first event focuses on sparking broad interest and curiosity about different programmes and learning models. The second event happens closer to programme selection deadlines. It provides deeper programme-specific information and offers students a chance to ask last-minute questions.
This two-phase approach is proving effective – 81 per cent of participants said the open days helped clarify their academic path. Early intervention inspires and follow-up helps students solidify their choices. This model offers a framework to strengthen programme decision-making, reduce early misalignment and set students on the right path from the very start.
Shihuai Wang is senior marketing officer at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University Entrepreneur College.
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