University of Gloucestershire’s digital-only prospectus wins national award

The University of Gloucestershire has won a prestigious industry award for its digital-only undergraduate prospectus, which it developed with current students as part of its a ‘Who Cares? We Do’ campaign.

In announcing the University as the winner of the Gold Award in the Best Undergraduate Prospectus category, the judging panel at the 2021 Heist Awards praised the digital-only prospectus for its positive environmental impact and sustainable nature.

The University also won the Silver Award in the Best Use of Content category at this year’s Heist Awards, which celebrate the best of the education sector, for its ‘Who Cares?, We Do’ campaign.

The digital-only prospectus supports the commitment to tackle one of the issues that students have told the University that they care about most, tackling climate change.

The University of Gloucestershire – the UK’s number 1 sustainable university (People and Planet League, 2019) – announced last year that it was ending the production of printed prospectuses, replacing it with Instagram Stories, podcasts, social storytelling and a digital prospectus instead. 

It followed research suggesting that while UK universities print 2.5 million prospectuses annually, only a handful of pages were actually read, as prospective students looked online for information.

As a result, the University took the decision to discontinue its printed prospectus and work with students to create a fully accessible and interactive online version instead, linked to mobile friendly, easy to browse, supporting content.

The supporting ‘Who Cares?, We Do’ landing page featured more than 40 contactable current student profiles, embedded Instagram Stories, campaign podcasts and student blogs covering key issues. 

James Seymour, Director of Communications, Marketing and Student Recruitment at the University of Gloucestershire, said: “Every year thousands of prospectuses end up in the bin. We wanted to show our students that we care about the issues that matter to them, so we took a stand.

“We’re proud that our commitment to sustainability, student support and digital storytelling was recognised by the judges, but even prouder of the many ways in which we work together with our student and staff community to tackle climate change, and equip our graduates to become the environmental leaders of the future.”