The high quality of entries to this year’s Future Campus Awards stands in stark contrast to the narrative about the sector.
At a time when the voice of professional staff is all but submerged and marketing and metrics are conflated with opposition to sector corporatisation, the entries demonstrate some of the best of us – patient, professional work which is thoughtfully presented, hubris-free and critically, delivering measurable results.
The point of the Future Campus awards is to encourage a thoughtful examination of evidence-based effectiveness across a range of practical areas, and we will bring a brief spotlight on shortlisted entries over coming weeks before the winners are announced at the HE FEST 25 conference dinner.
Each entrant has submitted a two minute video relating to their entry, and we will share videos from shortlisted entries.
The first shortlisted entry is from Victoria University’s Brand and Marketing team in the Best University Marketing Campaign 2025, with an entry titled No One Sees You Like VU – all about the student.
The VU team took the judges on a journey, describing how the university faced a steep decline in enrolments in 2022 and with a lower media spend than competitors, risked being drowned out.
To reverse the trend, VU conducted research and found that universities were seen as homogeneous, too often talking about themselves. The team changed tack with their message, turning away from talking about VU to telling the stories of grit and resilience of their students.
The entry stood out, describing how VU had turned to a campaign based on values rather than status, apply market research insights to create the ‘No One Sees You Like VU” campaign, resulting in a 91% increase in unique Open Day registrations between 2022-25 and a 25% increase in applications.
The VU team will present insights from the campaign at HE FEST 25.