Higher Education (HE) sector in the UK is now facing a challenging time. Research has shown that HEs, which has moved to a more ‘digital first university concept’ of embedding of digital technologies including Extended Reality (ER) throughout all processes and operations are more likely maintain and gain market share compared to those that do not. Geography disciplines within HE, are disproportionately affected, with many departments’ closings, downsizing and/or merging with other disciplines to survive. Geography departments are having to change the way they deliver courses, convey this message to potential applicants, to encourage enrolment and increase retention. Using questionnaires, interviews and focus groups targeting current geography students, alumni and staff (academic and marketing), this research explores the role of ER in student recruitment and retention. The research highlights that ER is highly valued by students as both part of their learning and decision-making when choosing university. However, they indicate ER current use in recruitment and student engagement is limited. Staff interviewed believe that whilst ER is a valuable tool for recruitment and student engagement, there is limited resources and too many institutional barriers for its effective implementation. Whilst ER influenced their decision, it is not the overriding factors for choosing the university to study. When ER is used as part of the recruitment toolkit, over 80% of students valued the experience and wanted more. Where there is highly complex ER content (games, Metaverse, high specification computer requirements) University websites that is not easily accessible by phone, they viewed this as negative and do not engage. However, during open day visits students are more likely engage with ER content, for example virtual tour of fieldwork/labs/local area, Simulation games and sandboxes. A high proportion found channels such as the Metaverse two complex and intimidating to engage with. Most students (78%) indicate ER motivated them to engage more with their studies and show their willingness to continue using ER within their programme of study. Approximately 50% of student respondents said they would like to use ER more. Only 3% said less. 40% said ER should be used about the same amount. Students are mostly motivated to use VR when it is directly related to assessments, for example reflecting on simulations exercises, preparation for field course, introduction to sites overseas to learn about geographical phenomenon. However, student did express concern of ‘too frequent use of VR’ in some instances, systems that do not work, cumbersome and uncomfortable headsets, limited ER content and sometime too generic (off the shelf material) content that had little relation to course assignments. Student also felt that the novelty of using the ER wears off quickly and they stop seeing its relevance of continue use as the course progress. Less than 10% of respondents (32) had experience with using the Metaverse in their studies. Overall, the experience of using the Metaverse was negative, student citing unrealistic scenes, navigating around the metaverse being difficult and ‘freezing’ graphics as being very frustrating. They enjoy ‘playing around with their avatars and having fun interacting with students in the Metaverse, but did not believe it strongly enhance or motivated them to engage with the subject area and/or contribute to their knowledge.

Keywords: Extended reality, geography, metaverse, engagement, technology, teaching, learning.