CorpComms Magazine

The archetypal British university is romanticised throughout the world for its dreamy spires, the billowing gowns of its dedicated students and academics reciting poetry as they gently punt along the river.

But while this stereotype persists to a degree, British universities increasingly employ the use of modern communication strategies to forge a new reputation founded on dynamism and innovation.

As the British education system moves towards a more US style fee-based model it can afford to borrow techniques used by big business. Indeed, recent figures released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency revealed this year that income for Britain's higher education sector exceeded £20 billion for the first time.

The numbers purport to show that income for the sector increased nine per cent from a total of £19.5 billion in 2005/6, while expenditure has also risen 8.8 per cent over the same period to £21 billion.

'I think things are improving,' says Jonathan Ray, director of communications at Nottingham University. 'But it's occasionally galling; the largest US universities like Duke, Harvard, Princeton and Brown have vast endowments and communications departments at faculty level that are equivalent in size to what we have at university level.'

With 36,500 individuals studying for a University of Nottingham degree, the university communications department has a formidable audience of prospective students. 'The team has expanded very quickly over the past year or so and that is probably linked to expansion within the sector generally,' Ray notes. The team's output is impressive. It receives around 2,500 notifications on research projects every month from its 3,500 strong academic staff and issues in excess of 300 press releases each year.

The rapid expansion of UK higher education has created more opportunities while making it more of an imperative to shout louder to be heard in an increasingly crowded marketplace. There are 325 higher education institutions included in the annual tome distributed by the Universities and Colleges and Admissions Service (UCAS).

The government targets for expansion and the competitive advantages of having a diverse student population are also forcing institutions to look outwards.

'There is definitely a growing acknowledgement that we operate in a global village and we need to get international coverage on a day to day basis,' comments Christopher Coe, director of communications at King's College in London.

Ian Rowley, director of communications at the University of Warwick, agrees. 'There is an international recruitment market and we are expected to operate on a global basis in a way we haven't really done so before,'

There is widespread agreement that international rankings like the Times Higher Education league table are changing the strategy of UK universities, while students from India, China and North America make up an important part of the UK university population.

Rankings are undoubtedly important for establishing international credibility but Rowley believes brand building cannot be done by these alone. 'As a communicator you need to win the hearts and minds of your audience,' he says. 'This is really where the communications department can add significant value.'

INTERNATIONAL VISION

The more enlightened establishments increasingly tie communication to overall corporate strategy. 'I played a full part in the development of our new corporate strategy, which was launched in September 2007,' comments Rowley. 'Our new mission is to position Warwick as a leading global brand but we can't do that without a corporate communications strategy that deals with all parts of the world.'

Britain's universities are stepping up their efforts to reach an international audience. King's are appointing an international press officer, Warwick has worked with an India-based PR firm and Nottingham will soon have two communication managers posted abroad - one in China, the other in Malaysia.

Not only is the drive for global attention about garnering the cream of the world's talent, it is also very lucrative. International students pay far above the odds for education at British universities and UK institutions have benefited from a steady supply of Chinese students looking for a western education. 'We see China as a pipeline for culturally skilled graduates,' Ray explains.

Some fear, however, that as China's universities improve and competition for international students heats up, British institutions may be left behind. Management at Nottingham may have been thinking along these lines when it set up a campus in Ningbo, a port city in the north-east Chinese province of Zheijiang. 'There are only a small proportion of Chinese undergraduates who can afford to study overseas but there is a real demand for a western education,' Ray explains.

UK universities are already investing heavily in their websites to reach a more global audience. Warwick estimates that it has invested around £160,000 over the last two years. 'We have focused a great deal on digital and video communications and we have a really impressive archive that lets people know what we're up to,' Rowley says.

Nottingham has also made an effort to embrace multimedia platforms piloting a scheme on the Telegraph's website. 'We've made a video for every element of the period table and we've got a filmmaker in residence who works with our team, who lives alongside scientists and brings their work to life,' says Ray. 'There is definitely a lot of demand from my academic colleagues to interact with audiences in new ways.'

As well as employing accomplished communicators and ploughing money into websites, many institutions invest in media monitoring and evaluation to test the tangibility of their efforts.

'Universities are increasingly seeing the importance of monitoring the media to protect their profile and reputation,' comments Nicholas Hayes, head of sales at Clipability, the media monitoring and evaluation agency.

'Two years ago we approached the Association of Colleges and put together some beneficial pricing for educational establishments and we now work with over 30 universities and as many colleges again within the UK.'

MONITORING PERFORMANCE

Nottingham says it receives around £1.5m of AVE media every month in broadsheet papers and publications like the Economist. Hayes notes that British universities tend to benefit from the fact that the press like to name check educational institutions in articles. 'The UK media is obsessed with mentioning the institution where a person once studied, whether it was last year or 30 years ago,' he notes.

Clipability has noticed a significant increase in universities using media monitoring and evaluation. 'While the colleges and universities don't have huge budgets they are working very hard to promote themselves when competing for students and funding,' comments Hayes. But he believes that budget constraints need not have to stifle communications efforts, adding: 'Some smaller organisations are particularly good at reaching niche publications.'

There are certain topics that are virtually guaranteed to generate media coverage. 'We find science stories and, in particular, those relating to climate change and emissions the most popular with the press,' explains Annie Ogden, communications manager at the University of East Anglia. But she also notes that rather less orthodox topics can generate a great deal of publicity.

'We ran a very popular study that examined the potential benefits of swearing in the workplace that captured the imagination of journalists all around the world. We also hosted an event recently on the negative way that the media treats female celebrities, such as Amy Winehouse and Britney Spears, that also won us some significant coverage,' she adds.

With the stakes getting increasingly and experts from credit agency Standard & Poor's warning that newer British universities could disappear if increased global competition from China and India continues, communications departments could have a critical role keeping institutions in the news and ultimately afloat.

As with all things, however, it is the senior management buy-in that will ultimately determine the fate of a communications departments. University communications warrants substantial investments, including expensive websites that should reflect the vibrancy and dynamism of UK institutions. With the exception of the most famous universities, communications departments that lag in this area could end up being left behind by the international academic and student community. 

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