Newsletter #24: Class of Covid; Bed sheet revolutions; the hustle of university messaging

🙋 What education marketers are saying

“I’ve held all different types of roles in HE, and in every single one, cultivating relationships wasn’t just helpful, it was vital to getting anything done.” Interview with Rachel Rau, Head of Partnerships at Study.eu. Read

📰 HE news

A poll by the Higher Education Policy Institute finds that student mental health is in decline, but there’s growth in “satisfaction” with online learning. I can’t help but feel that this is an underlying message of resignation, rather than satisfaction. Acceptance that Zoom Uni will still be a thing at least until the middle of next year. Read

What started as post-its and a sheet hanging out of a Mancunian window has escalated into the largest set of planned student rent strikes in 40 years. The Government’s staggered student return hasn’t made things any easier. Under the new rules next term, some students could be in their accommodation for as little as 3 weeks, yet receive the bill for a full term’s worth of living. Now might be a good time to check on the health of your comms team. Read

💻 Digital marketing news

Google is making more of podcasts in search results, enlarging thumbnails and pulling through episode descriptions. Predictions for 2021: Googling a topic will return relevant audio snippets from podcasts. Read

Spotify uses platform data to publicly thank its artists and target outdoor creative. The result is something that resonates with listeners too, finding “their personal dance floors” and “city soundtrack” acknowledged on a billboard. Good execution. Look

Google is discontinuing Gmail ads - the ones that look like emails and hold up a mirror to the contents of your inbox. Campaigns will be phased out from July 2021, but I doubt that will stop Google reading your emails. Read

🏫 What unis are doing

If you’ve never seen a university use the word “hustle” in its messaging, Bloomsburg University’s got you covered. Look

Aston Students’ Union’s new “Class of Covid” wall art captures the tropes of uni lockdown and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Students are tired, graduates are out of work, both are numb to the “you are the generation to rise from the pandemic” stock message. Sometimes, all you need is to see someone using a degree certificate to fight off a virus the size of a dog. Look

If you work in comms and have had the time of your life since March, a job as Oxford University’s COVID Strategic Media Relations Manager (fixed-term contract) could be for you. Closes in January and NO THANK YOU. Look

🧑‍🎓 What students are saying

“It won’t just be the class of 2021 which will be struggling to find a job post-Covid, but also 2022, 2023 and even 2024.” As internships and placements continue to be canceled, some students share their views on the graduate jobs market. Read

“The fact that education must take place online is inevitable. However, the amount of screentime that we have faced is unhealthy and unsustainable to say the least.” Open letter from UCL law students to their Dean, asking for changes in the way they are taught digitally. Read

👾 Culture shock

Shootings are so common in Rio that apps have popped up telling people places to avoid. Read

The Windows 95 sound but an AI attempts to continue the song. Look

This year, $74 billion was spent on Alibaba’s Singles’ Day. That’s roughly six times more than what was spent on Cyber Monday. Read