Coventry University kicks off lucrative comms review

The agency that wins the £320,000 brief will work as general media liaison alongside the marketing and comms department.

The hunt comes as the institution, which currently retains Communications Management, recently rose up the university rankings.

The higher education sector’s comms activity is also increasing across the board against a backdrop of tuition fee adjustments and competition.

Erika Coghlan, director of marketing and comms at Coventry University, pointed to these factors as key considerations in the brief. She said: ‘The higher education sector in the UK has undergone significant changes over the past 18 months, and comms requirements will be adapting to accommodate increasing internationalisation and a more competitive market.’

Coventry University was recently ranked among the top five modern universities for student satisfaction after student approval rates rose for the fourth year in a row.

It has released a pre-qualification questionnaire for the tender, with the winning agency starting in April 2013 and working until March 2015.

A wider flurry of briefs has followed big shifts for universities as the Government seeks to reform funding. However, last week Labour slammed coalition plans after a report by the Higher Education Policy Institute think-tank stated the cost of such reforms has been ‘seriously underestimated’, leaving a potential £1bn-a-year funding ‘black hole’.

It is not known whether Communications Management will repitch for the work.

This article was first published on prweek.com