Department of Marketing, Branding and Communication

The Directorate of Marketing, Branding and Communication Department is responsible for implementing an integrated communications and marketing strategy. This ensures that all communications processes, both internal and external, are aligned to the vision and mission of the university. The directorate has, in the past five years, successfully initiated a range of activities to give effect to the university’s communication strategy.

This has included, among others, the marketing of the new corporate identity of the university, establishing and maintaining the university’s relationship with its alumni through the introduction of a new publication – Univen Alumni News, which will keep the alumni abreast with developments at the university and the enhancement of the university website to create a more modern and friendly atmosphere, using interactive social-media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. In addition, ongoing communication of key institutional issues and developments to various stakeholders was provided through, among others, the Nendila newsletter, Univen Community Radio, regular communiques and student e-mails. All these initiatives have resulted in better and improved communication with both internal and external stakeholders. These initiatives will be continued and strengthened in the next five years. The directorate will continue to nurture, advance, manage and protect the image and reputation of Univen through a proactive communications strategy.

To enhance communication with internal stakeholders, all directorates will be encouraged to have at least one structured meeting per month to ensure that all employees are kept informed of current issues. The main focus of the directorate, given Univen’s aspiration to be among the top South African universities by 2030, will be to aggressively market the successful transformation of the university, in particular the academic project by highlighting key achievements, including profiling successful research and community engagement projects, top researchers and postgraduate students.