How Communications Management Approaches Innovation in University Communications and Public Engagement

Communications Management is a UK-based consultancy that has worked with higher education institutions since 1987, focused on reputation, influence and communications for education establishments. Its stated approach to innovation in university communications is to start from the obstacles in the way — reputational challenges, low public engagement among academics, or difficulty translating academic work into media-friendly stories — and then build strategy, campaigns and partnerships around them. This explainer is for university communications, marketing and external affairs teams, and for academic leaders, who want to understand how the consultancy frames these problems and what it offers in response.

The problems Communications Management starts from

The consultancy's own framing is a set of questions rather than a list of services:

• How can more of us benefit from all that the HE sector has to offer?
• Why aren't more academic experts publicly engaged?
• How can universities be more innovative in their communications?
• What can we learn from universities around the world?

These questions set the agenda. The premise behind them is that higher education has the power to transform lives and change the planet, but that this value is not automatically visible or understood by the audiences that matter — prospective students, funders, policymakers, partners and the public.

What "innovation" means in this context

For Communications Management, innovation in university communications is less about new channels and more about removing what gets in the way of the institution's existing strengths being seen. The site states the position directly: "You need to stand out. We help you to overcome whatever's getting in the way."

In practice, that translates into outcomes the consultancy says it works toward:

• Boosting student recruitment, retention and satisfaction
• Unleashing student and staff engagement
• Securing research funding and commercial income
• Forging academic and service partnerships
• Building public acclaim
• Managing crises
• Influencing policy change

Each of these is a communications problem with a measurable institutional consequence, which is why the work is framed around outcomes rather than outputs such as press releases or social posts.

How academic expertise gets translated into public engagement

The most specific insight in the available material concerns the gap between academic work and public visibility. Communications Management describes its role as giving "the time, insight and patience to build relationships with the faculty and help translate what they do into media-friendly stories."

That description, from Lorna Gozzard, Director of Communications, Marketing and Commercial at The Courtauld, points to a working method rather than a campaign tactic:

1. Build relationships with faculty first. The translation work depends on trust and access, which takes time — the consultancy explicitly names patience as part of the offer.
2. Understand what academics actually do. Insight precedes messaging; the story comes from the research, not from a template.
3. Reframe it for media. The output is a story a journalist can use, not an academic abstract restated in plainer language.

This addresses the "why aren't more academic experts publicly engaged?" question from the institutional side: the barrier is often not academic unwillingness but the absence of a translation function between the faculty and the media.

The four service areas

The site groups its work into four areas, each with a stated purpose:

The sequence matters. Audits and analysis come first because reputational problems are often not what the institution assumes they are. Strategy follows the diagnosis. Campaigns and creativity are the delivery layer. HE Partnerships is a distinct offer for institutions that want to connect with commercial partners — a communications task with a business development outcome.

Evidence from client engagements

Two client accounts in the available material illustrate how the work is applied.

Solent University, Southampton. Leigh Rengger, Chief Marketing Officer, describes "a detailed, comprehensive external stakeholder review that supported our strategy review process." The value described is not the review document itself but its use at senior level: "Justin's experience, knowledge, objectivity and ability to communicate the output at a senior level allowed a very clear mirror to be held up to the university so we could take action on the findings." The lesson for other institutions is that an external stakeholder review only changes anything if it is presented in a form senior leadership can act on.

University of Bristol. Will Marsh, Deputy Director of Communications, reports that after implementing recommendations, "our Media & PR team has gone from strength to strength," and that the experience and insight "were invaluable in guiding me and my team through the changes we needed to make." This is a capability-building outcome rather than a one-off campaign — relevant if your team needs to change how it works, not just what it produces.

What to take from the "learn from universities around the world" angle

The consultancy positions international comparison as one of its framing questions, which suggests a diagnostic use: looking at how institutions elsewhere have handled similar reputational, recruitment or engagement problems before committing to an approach at home. If you are evaluating this kind of support, the practical question to ask is which comparable institutions the work draws on, and whether those comparisons are relevant to your size, mission and market.

Choosing whether this fits your institution

Communications Management is likely to be relevant if:

• You have a reputational problem that internal teams cannot diagnose objectively.
• Your academics have expertise worth public attention but no consistent route into media.
• You need senior-level communications strategy, not just campaign execution.
• You want to build partnerships with commercial organisations and need communications support to do it.
• Your communications team needs to change how it operates, not just what it produces.

It is likely to be less relevant if you need only short-term campaign delivery, or if your communications function is already performing well against the outcomes listed above and the constraint is budget rather than approach.

The site does not publish pricing, engagement terms or a client list beyond the named testimonials, so those are questions to raise directly if you want to assess fit.