The winners of the 2026 Future Campus Awards were announce this week, drawn from a record field of entries. Judges were impressed by the depth and quality of submissions, with entrants able to demonstrate strong strategic planning and execution, delivering some remarkable results.
Category winners and highly commended award entrants are listed below.
Best use of AI outside of Learning, Teaching and Assessment 2026
WINNER: Advanced Cloud Ecosystem (RACE) and Research Reporting and Systems, RMIT University: ResearchMate – RMIT's Purpose-Built AI Assistant Transforming Research Support
This is a great example of an in-house AI solution, developed in collaboration with users, implementing ResearchMate as an in-house resource for RMIT researchers. The system has had 3,000 conversations since use began and the system integrates into Microsoft Teams. It provides a sophisticated solution that solves a significant internal problem – reducing the time that it takes staff to understanding policies, resourcing, and key knowledge insights
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gnPPPoobHI
Highly Commended: Andrew Douglas and Joshua Carrozza, Digital Operations, Western Sydney University Odie: Western Sydney University’s Open Day assistant.
The Western team built an AI capability in-house for Open Day to improve and personalise student experience, which could also be used for subsequent events. The platform freed up staff by providing answers to frequent questions, and a live monitoring platform enabled staff to keep an eye on emerging themes and address them in real time.
Best Agency Partnership 2026
WINNER: University of New England, Tag & Carat: Like It, Lock It In: Giving Regional Ambition an Earlier Start
The University of New England's 'Like It? Lock It In.' campaign was bold in colouring and execution, but tailored beautifully by Michaela Lobb and the team, as well as agencies Tag and Carat.
UNE’s entry demonstrated a remarkable example of creating a community of professionals inside and outside of the organisation all hell-bent on driving serious improvement in results.
Research showed that UNE weren’t getting as many early entry applicants as some competitors, and prospective students liked the concept of locking in a uni course before they had finished their exams.
The campaign process was a textbook execution of building great results out of market insights, and the surprise was not so much for the team – who realised they were creating something great not only in their campaign execution, but also their community. The surprise was really for the wider UNE world – and a pleasant one at that.
The campaign resulted in an 11% year on year growth in Early Entry applications and critically was achieved for a modest spend.
Watch: https://lnkd.in/g78rm3Nj
Highly Commended: University of Canberra and Born The Agency: "U CAN @ UC"
The University of Canberra recognised they needed a new approach to turn their accessibility into a positive for the brand. Vice-Chancellor Bill Shorten sat with Marketing Director Renee Murphy to listen to pitches from a range of agencies. The moment Born The Agency delivered their pitch, the UC team knew they had found a campaign solution that would change their world. The teams collaborated to achieve exceptional results.
Best Tertiary Education Recruitment Initiative 2026
WINNER: Undergraduate Domestic Recruitment Team, Macquarie University: Schools Partnerships Strategy: deepening engagement and building a sustainable pipeline.
Doing simple things really, really well is too often overlooked in the recruitment space. With this schools partnership program, Macquarie went back to the drawing board with its schools relationships, co-designed a new program and increased school engagement activity by 39% and student interactions by 32%. The initiative is also a benchmark for measurement and impact – achieving 16% enrolment growth from partner schools compared to 7.8% across all schools.
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rL9zeexRaY
Highly Commended: Western Sydney University Marketing Team, Western Sydney Open Day + Brand Activation
This was an exceptional initiative in a hotly contested category. The canny Charge Towards Chage campaign, built on careful market research with prospective students, resulted in a 21% increase in Open Day registrations. This has all the early hallmarks of a great campaign and it will be interesting to see what the results are next year.
Highly Commended: Student Success, Customer Experience and the Office of the PVC First Nations Strategy: Deadly Pathways, Transforming First Nations Recruitment.
This initiative demonstrated exceptional outcomes in an area – Indigenous Recruitment – that every Tertiary Institution could learn from. The storytelling campaign, built on the stories of students, generated more than 152,000 views, 167,000 social media interactions and 10,000 visits to the first nations landing page. The enrolment results will be keenly watched over the next year, to see if the outstanding engagement can convert into a recruitment win in a high priority recruitment area for the sector.
Best Low Budget Campaign 2026
WINNER: Natalie Schenken, Bond University: SurfStrong: Recruiting a National Research Cohort Without Paid Advertising
Natalie paired up with Bond researcher Dr Davinia Beaver seeking to recruit 400 surfers over 40. They recruited Layne Beachley and Joel Parkinson and Pauline Menczer to provide interviews, quotes and testimonials advocating to join the research, earning 10 stories across traditional media. Surfing Queensland donated a participation prize of a trip to the Maldives and they recruited 574 surfers, of whom 447 agreed to participate in the research. Total spend was $1,245.90 for printed materials, merch, a banner, two a-frames and posters. Recruits were sourced from six States. Outtake: “General media databases alone are unlikely to reach specialised audiences at scale. Recruitment is more effective through communities and networks the target audience already trusts.” There were 51,000 views of a news story on socials and extensive views of Bond socials.
Watch: https://youtu.be/qleiEVpvfMg
Best Tertiary Education Fundraising Campaign 2026
WINNER: Marcus Ward – Griffith University: Griffith University Brighter Futures Campaign
It is one thing to secure big donations from a few donors, but quite another to simultaneously engage donors and alumni in a masterclass of fundraising and friendraising – with the Brighter Futures campaign creating a formidable network of brand ambassadors for Griffith University across South East Queensland and beyond.
The campaign raised $125m in philanthropic support for scholarships, research and community impact and also 100,000 unique alumni engagements. The Griffith team achieved their fundraising goal in 2025, two years ahead of target and continue to strengthen the university’s resourcing and network of advocates. By combinging fundraising and almni engagement in one framework, the Brighter Futures campaign has created a strong template for strengthening the position of a university in the community, at a time when social licence has been sorely tested.
Best Photograph 2026
Cavan Flynn – Bond University: Eight Nations, One Goal, One Community
Cavan’s entry was remarkable, achieving a highly effective series of photographs which were critical in attracting extensive PR and social engagement, with the photo nominated for best photograph of swimmer Hannah clinching the award, on the basis of its use of light, and strategic approach to composition and creation. The entire shoot was achieved for a very low cost, borrowing flags and props from other areas of the university and giving a premium photographic experience to multiple students, embodying the principle of building community and celebrating excellence. The photoshoot had a direct and significant impact in contributing to the Bond brand.
Highly Commended: Global Marketing, RMIT University: Find your Future – RMIT Open Day.
The RMIT Global Marketing team entry was an exceptional example of strategic campaign development and delivery, with an outstanding image used across multiple mediums as part of a successful campaign to rekindle engagement and application numbers for RMIT.
Best Tertiary Education Communications Campaign 2026
Flinders Wicked Problems Operations Team, Research Profile Team, Media Team: Australia’s Wicked Problems: Positioning Research at the Centre of National Conversation
Built on a report that identified Australia’s pressing problems, the Flinders University Wicked Problems campaign reversed the traditional university approach – making community priorities rather than university solutions the starting point for the campaign. Peta Pool and collaborators from Flinders set out to demonstrate that the University was focused on issues that mattered to community – and delivered. The campaign achieved an audience reach of 9 million, with 280,000 content views across articles, videos and other content based on 40 research impact stories. It is a repeatable and scalable framework for communicating research impact that Flinders will continue to use. This was an exercise in positioning, and it certainly boosted the profile of Flinders and provided a framework for future success.
WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XWCvUKqSEo
Best Tertiary Education Marketing Campaign 2026
WINNER: University of Canberra Marketing Team and Born The Agency: The "U CAN @ UC" Brand Identity Relaunch Campaign
This was an incredibly tight category, with a range of outstanding campaigns submitted, but the University of Canberra’s campaign emerged the winner, with demonstrated excellence across planning, strategy, development, deployment and impact. The UC campaign was helmed by Renee Murphy was delivered by the UC Marketing Team but also Vice Chancellor Bill Shorten, who took the time to sit on the panel selecting Born The Agency and their vision to reclaim the university’s accessibility as a virtue.
This is a cracker of a campaign, not just because it worked, but because the rationale and work to bring it to life was squarely grounded in evidence and marketing nous. Applications to UC increased 10% year on year and domestic CSP demand rose 60% in Semester 2 2026 alone, but equally, the entry noted another key metric – anecdotal evidence of a change in internal brand perception. Some staff were moved to tears, seeing UC’s attributes recognised as a feature.
Highly Commended: University of the Sunshine Coast: ‘Better Starts Here’
This was a high impact, low budget campaign created by the University of Sunshine Coast team in conjunction with a production company, covering 18 locations in five days but always ensuring real students the centre of the frame. The campaign was developed with a tight brief, crystal clear alignment with the university's character and values and great results – a 30% increase in consideration and a 7% increase in preference for the university following the campaign launch. This is an outstanding result from a team that set a benchmark for marketing excellence.
Watch the story of the campaign
Highly Commended: RMIT University Global Marketing Team: What the Future!
Awareness of RMIT had fallen by about 10% over four years to 2024 and fewer students were considering RMIT as an option. The What the Future! Campaign responded to the concerns of students who were expressing higher levels of uncertainty and concern about what their future would hold, not just with employment, but also climate, global security and technology change. The campaign turned around awareness, with a 10.4% increase in 2025 and a 10.8% increase in preferences.
Highly Commended: University of New Englend, Tag and Carat: Like It? Lock It In
Research showed that UNE weren’t getting as many early entry applicants as some competitors, and prospective students liked the concept of locking in a uni course before they had finished their exams.
The campaign resulted in an 11% year on year growth in Early Entry applications and critically was achieved for a modest spend.
Highly Commended: UTS Marketing and Communications Team: ‘It’s not just a university, it’s UTS.’
After a challenging year of headlines for UTS, the marketing team leaned into the theme of unconventional excellence, building on the perceptions that prospective students held about UTS and focusing on the institutional differentiator – comfort and pride in taking unconventional routes to outstanding outcomes. The campaign was very successful against the backdrop of a challenging year, with a 7% increase in brand favourability for industry.