Lifting university participation

Reputation

The University of Adelaide has turned to its own students to help attract other young people into the higher education sector using an innovative web-based campaign.

The University is building on its successful and award-winning Life Impact advertising campaign - this time focussing on current students rather than graduates, with the stories produced by students.

University of Adelaide Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Fred McDougall said: "The objective of our advertising has always been to encourage participation in higher education by demonstrating the beneficial outcomes of a university education generally and a University of Adelaide education specifically. Market research by independent research company Colmar Brunton Intelligence showed a significant number of those surveyed after our earlier campaign believed the main message was more about university or education in general rather than just about the University of Adelaide. That's an important message for us which we want to carry through into this campaign."

In "Life Impact on Campus", Bachelor of Media students studying video production have produced 12 short films about students, researchers and lecturers at the University to provide a student view of what life is like at university, filmed in hand-held 'handy-cam' camera style.

The films are part of a new website 'www.adelaide.edu.au/lifeimpactoncampus' launched last week. Feedback from this site will help identify which films should be developed into broadcast television commercials.

Other Media students, doing multimedia production, have contributed to the design of the website and assisted with film shoots and documentation. They will run a feedback site managing chat about the films, student life and the University, and will promote the website through email networking.

The University's Director of Marketing and Strategic Communications, Mr Michael Neale, said: "The Life Impact campaign has been very successful to date in achieving both our primary objective of highlighting the outcomes of studying at the University of Adelaide and our secondary objective of encouraging higher education participation. But we did not want to be complacent. We wanted to move forward with the concept, finding a new and creative way to make Life Impact even more relevant to a younger audience. We also wanted people to see what university life was really like from the perspective of the students."

In 2004, the Life Impact campaign won an Australian Marketing Institute award for marketing excellence in the category of branding in South Australia. Life Impact told the stories of highly successful graduates and the impact they have had on the community and the world.

"Now, as a student-focused institution, it's highly appropriate that we get students to tell their own stories and those of their friends, colleagues and lecturers," said Mr Neale.

Story by Robyn Mills