New Australian University Promoting On-line Degrees

University of Adelaide advertisement,
Parramatta Road, Sydney,
Photo by Tom Worthington, 9 August 2025

Adelaide University, formed from University South Australia and University of Adelaide, is promoting it's online education. The 'launch from anywhere" campaign appears on a bus shelter in a main street in Sydney, as well as on social media. This bus stop is on Parramatta Road, which fronts three universities (Sydney, UTS and Notre Dame). It is a daring move for one of Australia's leading universities to promote e-learning  and so close to major campuses. Would those a short bus ride from established universities choose to study online, at a university 1,000km away?

Adelaide is also home to Torrens University, the Australian arm of a multinational online learning provider. However, while Torrens has elearning as its core business (supplemented with campuses across Australia), Adelaide University was formed from two conventional campus based institutions. Australia's capital city research universities have tended to keep their online offerings low key, for fear of being seen as low quality. Universities run occasional weird e-learning TV advertisements, or provide e-learning at arms length though Open Universities Australia.

The campaign is aimed at Australians, with international students being excluded. Student visas ban fully online study. However a student who is in another country, and doesn't visit Australia doesn't need a visa. They could complete a degree online without leaving home. I did this 2013 to 2016, studying in Canada, from Canberra.

It may be that Adelaide University has judged offshore students would not be willing to pay full fees. In contrast domestic online students pay the same fees as on campus students. When studying online at an Australian university 1,000 km away I was a little annoyed I was paying for the upkeep of playing fields I never used, or saw. ;-)

Be Recognised as a Leaders in Education for only $1,000?

Recently I received an email which I thought was asking me to write an article nominating to educators. A fee of just over $1,000 was offered. But when I looked more closely, I would have to pay the fee and then I would appear as one of the leaders.  Along with a  profile or me, would be a photo. I would even get a certificate recognising my achievement (the achievement in this case being have paid a fee). Does anyone really fall for these sort of scams? 

Canberra Toolkit for International Student Promotions

The ACT Government provides a free online toolkit of materials for promoting Canberra. This includes for promoting international students to come to Canberra to study. As someone who writes a blog about education (highereducationwhisperer.com), I signed up for the toolkit. First thing I did was search for resources on "innovation". What came up were photos of Petr Adamek and Rachael Greaves from Canberra Innovation Network, and a couple of photos of the Mugga Lane Solar Farm. Those are relevant, but more pictures of students would be good, perhaps from CBRIN events.

But having found some images I am not sure what to do with them. I ticked a box below each image. I clicked on the basket item. But what happens next. Do I have to go to a checkout? Do I have to pay for them? I clicked anot basked icon further down the page and was at what looked like a checkout. This required me to describe what the photos were for and who the client was. The system, I assume, is designed for professional marketing companies.

This all seems a little old fashioned. In the modern era, you do a web search for materials, if the licence suits, you use them. You don't waste time explaining to some gatekeeper why you want to use them, or have to order and download them. You don't want to wait while your order is processed (why do stock photos have to be processed?)

It is useful to have attractive images, videos and test to show Canberra as an attractive place to come and study. However, university will need more than this to attract students, as they mostly study online now. In some ways this makes the city around the university more important, as the student will be spending very little time on campus (at least not in the classrooms). Also what will be important are employment opportunities in the region, during and after study.

Lets Do Online Learning for Social Distancing

Swinburne University's "Let's Do This" TV advertisement for e-learning has been slightly modified from previous years, to allow for social distancing (I can find the modified version online). This was originally produced by the creative team of director Curtis Hill, DP Joel Betts and Producer Elise Trenorden. In past years Swinburne have had the less silly TV ads for online courses. It will be interesting to see how the universities which have offered online courses in the past, and marketed them on TV, handle the current situation, where just about all students at all universities are studying online. This raises some difficult quesitons for the universities which are members of the Open Universities Australia consortium: if they have been able to provide most courses for most students online, why not keep doing that?

Universities Trashing Their Reputations with Glib Marketing

Recently I received an e-mail with the intriguing title of "eBook: 3 Australian Universities share the secret to online learning success". I was offered a "full eBook", but was disappointed to instead get just a thirteen page pamphlet, plugging a commercial conference. The three Australian universities lending their name to promotion have a track record of excellence in on-line education, but you wouldn't know it from this booklet. Instead you would think the institutions were only concerned with shallow short term feel good marketing to students. I suggest universities should avoid trashing the reputations they have built up over decades with glib marketing exercises.

University Advertising Failing to Make the Grade

Australian universities are currently using TV advertisements to attract on-line students.

In 2016 Swinburne University's "We're here for you" campaign,  had a tutor appear in person, seemingly out of nowhere, to help an on-line student in a cafe. This year their "Let's Do This" is less silly, apart from having a cat in it. One annoying point was when the narrator says "... lets make the grade ..." the screen shows the word "Distinction" and a tick. Universities should, I suggest, avoid giving students unrealistic expectations of how easy study is and in particular distance eduction. Students should not be given the idea that making the grade means getting a distinction. This may contribute to the high levels of stress and mental illness experienced by students.

In contrast, Open Universities Australia's 'Stop asking "What if?" and find out "What now?"' campaign focuses on ease of enrollment. This is much more low key (perhaps too low key) and doesn't set too many unrealistic expectations. While I found being an on-line student very stressful, enrolling proved relatively simple. One difficulty OUA have is explaining exactly what it is: not a university, but a consortia of universalities, offering on-line courses.

Deakin University Cloud Campus

One of the more entertaining parts of higher education are the advertisements universities use to attract students. Each year brings a crop of silly video promotions. This year "Deakin University's Cloud Campus is your campus; without walls" is at least short, if somewhat mixing metaphors. 

An exception to the usual fluffy kitten approach to university marketing is the Australian Catholic University (ACU), with their "ACU I Impact through empathy" campaign.

Impact through empathy

One exception to the usual fluffy kitten approach to university marketing is the Australian Catholic University (ACU), with their "ACU I Impact through empathy" campaign. This depicts the ACU's graduates, in health and education, helping people. It still shows study in a positive light, but is much more serious and sober than some of the sillier advertisements of other Australian universities. One point ACU glosses over is its origins in religious education: although the Vatican is briefly shown.

One of the more entertaining parts of higher education are the advertisements universities use to attract students. However, students have high rates of mental health problems. Depicting study as something fun, social, and easy, with instructors always to hand, may contribute to the problem.

University study is not fun, easy or pleasant: it is hard work, frustrating and lonely. Instructors cannot be as available, or helpful, as students would wish, due to resource constraints and the need for students to learn though their own efforts. As a result students may think there is something wrong with them.

ACU's approach is not just a matter of marketing. When studying education I made use of ACU's Canberra campus library and sat in on some graduate student sessions (one day I accidentally also sat in on an undergraduate teacher training class). There is a sense of caring and sharing which pervades the campus and the approach of the staff, different from a typical university. This may be just a matter of size, with a small campus able to be more personal, or it may be due to the caring disciplines the institution teaches.

Media Plan for an Open University

Athabasca University's advertising and media buying Request for Proposals was released on-line, providing a rare insight into how universities and open universities in particular, see themselves and their students. Based on my experience as a recent AU graduate, the analysis seems accurate. The female skew was particularly pronounced for the MEd, and the students were a little older as this was a graduate program. Reading other student's profiles, I wondered if to fit in I had to acquire a husband, two children, a dog and an alpine sport. ;-)

"Athabasca University, Canada’s Open University has issued an advertising and media buying RFP. The school is dedicated to the removal of barriers that restrict access to and success in university-level studies and to increasing equality of educational opportunity for adult learners worldwide. They are committed to excellence in teaching, research and scholarship and to being of service to the general public.

Athabasca University (AU or University) has been a leader in distance and online learning since its inception in 1970. Today, the University serves 40,000 students throughout Alberta, across Canada and in 80 countries around the world. With a focus on liberal arts, science and professional education, the University offers more than 850 courses in nearly 80 bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral and undergraduate and graduate certificate and diploma programs.

The University’s online and distance approach to university learning makes it possible for people to take courses and earn degrees regardless of their location or their family, career or community commitments. Individualized study courses may incorporate both print materials, e-texts and a variety of multimedia tools, allowing students to learn when and where they choose and at their own pace.

Athabasca University is a full member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the International Council of Open and Distance Education, the Canadian Association of Distance Education, and the Canadian Association for Graduate studies. Athabasca University was also the first and just one of two Canadian universities accredited with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education in the United States. In 2006, it became the first public post-secondary institution to be fully authorized to operate in both Alberta and British Columbia.

Media Advertising Target Audience

• National campaign with a primary market of Alberta, secondary markets of Ontario and British Columbia, and tertiary markets throughout the rest of Canada.
• Primary: Individuals currently in the workforce who are looking to expand their educational options; this segment of the population would benefit from being able to fit studies within their existing busy schedules. The goal: increase program enrolments.
• Secondary: Individuals currently enrolled in post-secondary studies elsewhere who are looking to take certain transferable courses offered by Athabasca University (i.e.: visiting students). The goal: maintain number of course enrolments.
• Prospective students, female skew; ages 25-34.
• Indigenous, rural and northern population (with the goal of increasing program enrolments).
• This does not limit the target audience, only provides a general guideline for existing targets within Canada."

From Athabasca University advertising and media buying Request for Proposals

Australian universities TV advertising blitz

Australian universities are currently conducting a TV advertising blitz, with some extravagant claims made. Charles Darwin University (CDU), claims to be a ‘new world university’. This is a curious claim to make, as CDU is not in the new world (the Americas), but  Darwin (Australia). The video shows an animation of what looks like a desert canyon and an island with skyscrapers, neither of which are characteristic of the small mainland tropical city of Darwin.

CDU also claims to be ranked in the top 2 per cent of university’s worldwide. This is based on raking 251 in the Times Higher Education World University Ranking, out of an estimated 23,000 universities world wide. However, there are 34 other Australian universities in the list, with the lowest at 601. This makes CDU a mid ranking Australian university, in a country which overall has very good universities.

CDU are not the only ones with creative ads , or the first. In the 2016 "We're here for you" campaign, Swinburne University had a tutor appear in person, seemingly out of nowhere, to help an on-line student in a cafe. It seems unlikely that Swinburne deploys tutors to cafes around Australia.  ;-)

Strange claims, are not confined to Australian universities. In answer to the question "What is Athabasca University's ranking in Canada?"
Athabasca replies: "Distance education institutions such as Athabasca University are not ranked in the same way as traditional universities.". This is clearly untrue: Athabasca is included on the Ranking Web of Universities alongside non-distance universities. Athabasca ranks quite well, at 40 out of 352 in Canada (1229 in the world).

Viewbooks for Australian Universities

Apparently "viewbook" is the US term for: "a promotional booklet with pictures that is published by a college or university and used especially for recruiting students; also: an online version of such a booklet" (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2015).

It might be worth Australian universities having the word "viewbook" on their web pages, so that international students using US term can find it. Some Australian universities, such as UoW, do use the term. However, just using that term it could be confusing for students who are not familiar with it. I suggest including the term, but not making it too prominent.

I came across the term in a posting on an EDUCAUSE mailing list.

Marketing Universities

Universities are all selling the same products (research and education), so it is not surprising if their marketing is similar. Prestige institutions use their research reputation to market education ("We have a Nobel Prize winner!"), while those without a research record use vocational relevance ("We will get you a job!"). Australian universities seem to be going through a spate of re-branding at the present.

The University of Western Sydney (UWS), a vocationally orientated institution with a good reputation, is re-branding itself "Western Sydney University" (WSU or "W" for short). This seems a reasonable change to make, but there has been some criticism that a large part of the $20M marketing budget will be spent on this. See "University of Western Sydney to get new name and logo", by Melanie Kembrey, Sydney Morning Herald, August 7, 2015.

 A more questionable case of re-branding is that Central Queensland University (CQU), a modest university (in, as the name suggests, central Queensland), is reported to be changing to "Australian National Regional University" (ANRU"). CQU is a regional university in Australia, but the problem is that the new name would be very close to that of the "Australian National University" (ANU), one of the country's leading research universities (where I am an Adjunct Lecturer). See "University games: protect ANU from CQU's rebranding overreach" by Ross Fitzgerald, The Age, 6 August 2015.

Use of Architecture to Promote University Programs

The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is using its new Frank Gehry designed Dr Chau Chak Wing Building to promote the UTS Business School. This includes an advertisement on the side of a NSW bus. I am nots ure what the architect would make of his work being used in this way, but this is in a long tradition of universities using architecture as part of their branding. The Great Dome of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is used in stylized form by many of MIT's units, such as the Schiller Lab.