As a unit within the Office of the Vice-Chancellor, the University Marketing and Communications Office (UM&C) continues to serve as an in-house agency overseeing the brand and reputation management for The UWI at a regional level. It provides strategic marketing and communications support, brand/reputation counsel, internal communication, media relations, publications, website project management, digital marketing, event management and other related services to the University system.
In August 2019, Dr. Rhonda Jaipaul-O’Garro assumed the role of University Director, Marketing & Communications. With almost two decades of service at The UWI, she previously held the portfolio of Manager in the department since 2006. She continued to be supported by Marketing and Communications Officer, Mrs. Shyvonne Williams-Serrette.
During 2019/2020 academic year, and perhaps more than ever before, the critical role of strategic communications, maintaining effective internal communication and the reprioritising of digital marketing communications came to the fore as the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the University’s operations.
In the period under review, the UM&C functions continued to focus on aligning directly with the strategic pillars of Access, Alignment and Agility and the strategic imperative of promoting a cohesive single UWI brand consciousness as outlined in the Triple A Strategy. The following is an account of some of the major activities undertaken by the Office during the reporting year.
As the University pivoted to online operations due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, UM&C effectively executed marketing and communication strategies for a range of innovative virtual programmes and events including the first-ever virtual Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Excellence, Vice-Chancellor’s Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year Awards, University Council meetings and Graduation ceremonies, among others.
With the increased attention given to digital publications, the office spearheaded the creative design, content development and production of the first fully online Vice-Chancellor's Annual Report to Council, and two special online reports on strategic areas: Leading Climate Action and Building an Entrepreneurial University.
The Office conceptualized and managed several website/digital projects to support the advancement of the University's strategic priorities. Among these a unique UWI Climate Advocacy and Action Repository; UWI COVID-19 Task Force website; a re-design of the University's main website (which is currently in progress) and others.
As a critical contributor to the operationalisation of The UWI Five Islands campus, UM&C led all marketing and communications related activities required to support the successful launch, implementation and first year of operations for the University’s fifth campus in Five Islands Antigua & Barbuda. This entailed service by the University Director, Marketing & Communications on the Campus’ Implementation Committee, and managing marketing and communication around landmark initiatives through 2020/2021 as follows:
In July 2020, 26 students completed the China component of a 2+2 Bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering with a concentration in mobile application technologies. The group which spent the past two years studying at the Global Institute of Software Technology (GIST) in Suzhou, China is the inaugural class of The UWI-China Institute of Information Technology (UWI-CIIT).
UM&C has led the marketing and recruitment to support the UWICIIT since its inception. These activities include overseeing the strategy and implementation of the largely digitally driven marketing campaign, publications for career fairs and publicity around major experiences and initiatives involving the first cohort of students.
UM&C was also a key resource in the response plans to support our students and staff in China, at the onset of the pandemic in January 2020. The UM&C team provided issues management counsel and communications support to the Office of the University Registrar as concerns surrounding UWICIIT students stationed in China emerged during the start of the COVID-19 outbreak. That counsel led to positive and proactive management of stakeholder communications and media relations.
In leading the 2020 annual Global Giving campaign’s marketing and communication focus, UM&C shaped a plan that honed in on encouraging individuals to give—as little or as much as they could afford. The result was that personal responses were the highest ever in the campaign's history. In addition to the online donations, a record number of scholarships and endowments from alumni and friends, saw the attainment in excess of the campaign target of US$500,000.
The marketing and communication plan to support Global Giving 2020 campaign included the creation of over 15 individual communication pieces—among them, an online brochure, full service website to facilitate online donations, video features, social media content, and management of media relations.
To enable to strengthening of the UWI brand visibility and global media profile, UM&C developed and executed major strategic communications programmes aligned with key brand pillars and focal areas such as UWI’s SDG and Climate Advocacy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Reparatory Justice and its world ranking status.
The first phase of The UWI’s Triple A Strategy was keenly attentive to the building of the University’s regional and international reputation. UM&C continued to give emphasis to the University’s world rankings and its performance in four significant league tables, and its ‘triple first’ positioning in the review year. The Office also worked closely with THE team to increase the academic and research reputation of The UWI through leveraging strategic advertising opportunities in its world supplement as well as case study and seminar representation during the year.
UM&C also collaborated with the Office of Global Affairs and Office of Global Partnerships and Sustainable Futures on a range of MOU signings, outreach activities and special partner events in the period under review, all of which were executed as virtual events. Some of the major ones included Open Society Foundation, European University Institute and the Association of Caribbean States (ACS).
In another ‘first ever’ achievement, UM&C worked with teams from University of Glasgow and Future Learn on the media relations and communications roll-out for the first MOOC on History of Caribbean Slavery, which attracted an enrolment of over 10,000 participants.
The Office of Global Partnerships and Sustainable Futures remained a key partner on a range of communication products and events to raise the profile of The UWI's Climate Action agenda. These included:
UM&C was also pleased in the review year to have identified an opportunity and initiate building out a SDG Media Partnership with Loop Caribbean, for co-created content centred on public advocacy and knowledge sharing to support and showcase The UWI’s ongoing work and impact in activating its strategic agenda and role as global leader in the mobilisation of research and advocacy in SDG 13 (Climate Action).
The design and implementation of a communication framework for the Office of Board of Graduate Studies & Research (OBGSR) by UM&C has helped to launch and sustain its Innovation and Entrepreneurship Webinar series, since March 2019. UM&C in the review year also spearheaded the content development, editing and design of a special stakeholder publication, Building an Entrepreneurial UWI, in collaboration with the OBGSR.
The UM&C Office continued to play an enabling role in the evolution of UWItv as the primary public education and outreach arm of the regional university, and a critical asset in the University system’s communication toolkit. With the unique proposition as an “owned media channel”, UM&C has adopted UWItv as a strategic element in the institution’s marketing communications mix, enabling delivery of engaging, relevant and valuable content to key internal and external audiences.
UM&C has worked with UWItv to produce hundreds of hours of live regional content over the past year for major initiatives, including over a dozen seminal outreach activities related exclusively to COVID-19. UM&C continued collaboration with UWItv as part of its logistics and planning team and has been instrumental in the promotion of its programming across multiple stakeholder groups.
During the reporting period strategic marketing and communications activities were complemented by a robust media relations programme resulting in significant improvements and greater impact of our public relations on both brand awareness and brand reputation. This was evidenced by:
The University Director, Marketing & Communications served as a member of the UWI COVID-19 Task Force, convened by the Vice-Chancellor in February 2020 and chaired by Professor Clive Landis. The U-M&C Office led the design, launch and maintenance of the UWI COVID-19 Task Force website, committed to providing information and resources early in the pandemic to a range of stakeholders. During the reporting period, the site attracted over 21,661 page views. This vital communication asset in the UWI COVID-19 response programme, received the accolade of a Gold award in the EduADAwards presented by US-based Higher Education Marketing Report.
UM&C also coordinated a range of events including regional and international media interviews for the UWI COVID-19 Task Force and other UWI personalities on the issues related to COVID-19. This included significant BBC World News coverage on The UWI's input and the Caribbean's proactive response to the pandemic. UM&C also designed several other communication pieces including graphics, videos and public outreach initiatives – working in collaboration with the Task Force and UWItv to raise awareness about virus, public education, and key resources to enable an informed science and expert-based response in the Caribbean.
As our university adjusted to remote teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, UM&C worked with the Office of Online Learning and the Office of the Chief Information Officer to create and launch the UWI Teaching and Learning Remotely website. This central repository helped to guide successful teaching and learning experiences for faculty and students, supplemented the resources provided by campuses CETLs and other e-learning stakeholders, and offered relevant links to campus-specific tools all in one easily accessible space. During the reporting period, this microsite attracted over 4,557 page views, 4,132 of which were unique page views.
The UM&C Office also continues to support the planning and operationalisation work for UWI Global Online in partnership with the Office of Online Learning.
In April 2020, Vice-Chancellor Beckles appointed a committee to advise the university on “Imagining the UWI for the 2020/21 Academic Year”. The University Director, Marketing & Communication was names to serve on this committee, co-chaired by Senator Lisa Cummins and Dr. Canute Thompson.
During the year, UM&C provided invaluable marketing and communications services to support a range of strategic and governance-related initiatives including, but not limited to:
University Marketing & Communications Office
The University of the West Indies
868 662-2002 ext 84246 or 82316
universitymktgcomms@sta.uwi.edu
