7 free templates for university comms teams

Fragmented modes of teaching and learning mean it's more important than ever for education institutions to get the right messages across, quickly and simply.

'University comms', for the sake of this article, is a broad term that we’ve used to cover anything produced and distributed by:

• university marketing departments producing content to promote enrolments, for example
• administrators preparing comms for students or fellow staff
• advancement and donor relations teams preparing donor comms
• community and alumni networks with updates and newsletters
• college sports teams, and
• faculty members generating reports or teaching materials.

If any of these apply to you, we think you'll find what you need in the list of free templates below.

1. College sports player profile
2. Campus newsletter
3. Donor communications
4. Academic profile
5. Higher education annual report
6. Research communications
7. Science feature article

They’re ready to use and be customised with your branding and imagery. And if you're after more inspiration, check out how some of the world's most iconic brands are using Shorthand, in our higher education and research comms examples page.

Back to the templates; let’s start with a fun one:

College sports player profile template

Championing your best talent is a surefire marketing tactic, whether you’re using a sports program to boost enrolments, or simply selling tickets to the next big game. This bio-style piece has a top nav that can be customised with your brand colours and logo, and features a range of different media types, to really keep your readers engaged.

Campus newsletter template

As higher learning fragments into hybrid and remote models — and ‘campus life’ is faced with its own set of challenges — it’s more important then ever to reach your readers where they are. This could mean on at school, in transit, at home, or abroad. This campus newsletter template is perfect for keeping your community engaged, no matter where they are. 

In an online newsletter style, it features a range of headings and layout styles, so you can break up your various headlines and passages of text with attention grabbing imagery.

Donor comms template

Financial donors are vital to ensuring an academic institution is able to continue with new research, offer scholarships, revitalise facilities, and more. This template is a modern take on a research report for donors, and it leaves the traditional PDF for dead. It will help you keep your donors well informed about the fruits of their generosity, reaffirming your appreciation, and demonstrating returns on their investments.

This template breaks it down to a series of projects, allowing you to offer updates on a range of advancements or projects in one area after another. With ‘talking heads’ captions, you can put faces to the names and departments your benefactors are aiding with their support.

Academic profile template

Exploring the groundbreaking work of your faculty members and students is a great way to promote your institution to the next generation of thinkers. This bio article, in the style of a magazine profile piece, will hero all of your larger full-width imagery with things like scrolling reveal sections, as well as in-line media for smaller and detailed graphics. It uses colourful box quotes to separate descriptive and high-impact passages of text from the rest. It also has a brand strip along the top, which is ready for you to apply your brand’s logo and identifying colours.

A ‘More Stories’ section at the bottom is in keeping with the digital magazine style, and will let you direct your audience to the next great read.

Higher education annual report template

Make a big impression on donors, investors, alumni, and research partners with this professional annual report template. Shorthand has many annual report templates, but this one is geared specifically for universities and schools. 

From the inspiring banner photos to the opening mission statement, this template is designed to show your organisation at its finest. You can highlight key facts and statistics to capture readers’ attention, then fill in the detail with text sections. Like all of our annual report templates, it includes spaces for financial summaries and a link for readers to access more information.

Research communications template

Often, academics will need to report on their research in ways that inform, educate, and engage their audience, rather than simply presenting data. In these times, their findings must be accessible, understandable, and interesting. 

This template is perfect for teams who need to publish content containing more detail than the typical article or blog format allows. Use it to blend text, engaging illustrations, charts, photography, infographics, and hard data, to communicate your work with precision and clarity.

Science feature article template

Your institution’s work isn’t always viewed only by faculty, donors, or students. Sometimes you may need to explain rock formations to children, or weigh in on climate crisis debates, fight misinformation, or simply explain research to the wider public. As with the previous example, information must be accessible and engaging for the wider public in these instances. 

This template, in a feature article style, will help you bring your work, and your facts, figures, and images, to life for them.

Augment blocks of text with interactive graphs, photography, and infographics — bringing context and clarity to facts and hypotheses. This template includes illustrated explainer content, animations, and scroll effects, all of which can be customised with your own data, narratives, and brand styles.