The 2011 EUPRIO Award for ‘Outstanding communication vision, practices and work in European higher education’ was shared between three winners because of the high quality of entries.

The Awards are a highlight of the annual conference of the 600-strong European Universities Public Relations and Information Officers (EUPRIO) association.

This year’s event was held in the Czech capital, Prague, and the Award winners were:

The best new media project from Lund was for a ‘guide in the pocket’ mobile phone app – which not only reminds students of lectures but also shows them the way by GPS straight into the lecture hall.

Designed for freshers and visitors to the campus and town ‘A guide in the pocket‘ was the brainwave of two engineering students, Andreas Jönsson and Robert Magnusson.

It went live just four months after the University gave it the green light – in time for the start of the 2010-11 academic year! A new version for both iPhone and Android was ready for this academic year – with a special setting for information about hotels, taxi, buses, and a guide to museums and places of interest in Lund.

The new version lets us send messages to a specific group of students…
…for instance, to let them know if their lecture is cancelled,” said Lisbeth Wester Leandersson, Informationschef / Head of Communications and Marketing at Lunds Tekniska Högskola.

The best print award demonstrated that printed media still has to be counted for in the age of cyberspace.

The award went to Teesside University’s Research and Enterprise edited by Nic Mitchell. The magazine uses high quality journalism and striking photography to tell the story of how the University helps business and society through knowledge transfer.

This print category attracted entries from Turkey to Finland, from Eastern Europe to West and judges said the quality of contributions proved that printed media was still sometimes the most efficient and maybe the most used channel in communication.

“The winning entry succeeded in targeting a very sophisticated and notoriously hard to catch audience-the business sector. By combining outstanding high quality in design and writing with a variety of topics, Teesside University´s magazine has managed to successfully reach out and engage an exclusive and sophisticated group of readers in surrounding society,” said award judge Tina Zethraeus from Sweden.

The best communications campaign went to Alexandra Hroncova for the Czech Technical University’s for CVUTIX comic book aimed at primary school pupils.

Launched in autumn 2010, CVUTIX presents eight stories with eight characters from the University’s eight faculties undertaking the tasks of traditional superheroes. In sketched stories, they show in amusing ways the kinds of things that can be studied at CTU.

It is necessary for us to start communicating with a forceful and fresh voice at primary school level. “Secondary school pupils already have an idea of whether they are going to study the arts, the natural sciences, or engineering. Children at primary school can be motivated to study engineering, particularly when the advantages can be explained to them,” said Alexandra.

CVUTIX is given to primary school pupils during their regular ‘fact-finding’ visits to CTU and sent free-of-charge to teachers. The children can also take part in internet competitions. With only 5000 copies printed, it has become a collectors` item among comic book fans in the Czech Republic.

The judging panel was headed by Laure Schönenberger, one of the Swiss representatives on EUPRIO’s Steering Committee. She was assisted by Tina Zethraeus from Sweden and Christine Legrand from France.

We had submissions from all over Europe, said Laure, “and were delighted by the high quality of the work being carried out by professional higher education communicators across Europe.”