The numbers

All work is delivered against annual activity and financial plans, which are signed off by the vice-chancellor. In 2022 the Communication and Marketing Department (CMD) had a total annual budget of R38 084 974 and it was split as follows:

• university-wide activities: R7 116 031
• operating costs, including salaries: R30 968 942
• 94% of our university-wide was spent, with only a small surplus remaining
• 100% of our operations budget was utilised in 2022.

Creativity

CMD responded to 742 media enquiries, crafted 337 UCT News articles, issued 242 proactive media releases, organised Drupal 9 training sessions for 155 content managers, produced 112 videos, and delivered 69 events all of which together highlighted institutional excellence and successes. These communication and marketing outputs touched on strategic themes, including transformation, inclusivity, women and their role in research, mental health, entrepreneurship, decolonisation and work being done to address sexual and gender-based violence.

In 2022, CMD also worked on plans to sell more UCT merchandise; not only was the catalogue expanded, but a better merchandising platform was also investigated.

Complexities

A complexity CMD faces is that its work often has to be reprioritised and set aside to respond to crises or critical issues that affect the institution. This is exacerbated by the number of adhoc and unexpected projects the team needs to support and sometimes lead on. Further, CMD also needs to invest in digitising some of its processes.

These are complexities which will have to be addressed in the coming years to truly unleash the potential of this creative and committed department.

Budget breakdown