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Divisional Communication Channels

The Divisional Communications and Web team have developed and manage a number of internal and external communication tools in the Divisional Office with the aim of:

  • Streamlining the flow of information across the Division
  • Reducing the duplication of effort across the Division
  • Utilising departmental resources (e.g. skills, outputs) to better align communications and PE processes and outputs
  • Providing departments/units/divisional/university staff with tools for promoting news, events and other items of interest
  • Showcasing activity in a joined-up, non-duplicative fashion
  • Developing a culture wherein communications generated by the Division and its constituent departments reflect their world-leading, innovative and diverse research and teaching

The following channels are available for you to use:

  • Medical Sciences Division website
  • @OxfordMedSci Twitter account
  • Oxford Talks and the weekly MSD Events Digest
  • OxfordMedSci News
  • Items for Internal Dissemination emails
  • Divisional Office Briefing (DOBe)

Key contacts: 

Medical Sciences Division website

The purpose of the divisional website is to showcase the diversity of activity taking place across the Division, while clearly defining the Division and its constituent parts. It also acts as a gateway to useful information harvested from divisional support and central University offices, and external resources providers.  

Specific webpages which can be used to promote activity: 

  • Support and Services – includes information specific to divisional office teams, news, announcements and documentation
  • Home page slide show/banner - this area of the home page is specifically for highlighting timely and interesting content (e.g. exciting news, funding opportunity, public/staff/student event etc.) from across the division. Send links and images to Alison
  • News – for highlighting departmental and divisional news. Send copy, links and images to Alison 
  • Events – lists all internal and external events taking place across the division. Events are pulled automatically from Oxford Talks (see below)
  • Get Involved – lists public engagement activities and feature items
  • Graduate School/ Skills Training home pages – slide show/banner available for promotion of student related announcements

Please speak to Alison about adding content to these pages.

@OxfordMedSci Twitter account

The divisional Twitter account aims to provide a central communication channel for departments, related units and support structures within the Division to share news and promote events, particularly items that aren’t pushed through the University’s social media channels; to improve interaction between the departments and the Divisional Office; to increase the number of visitors to divisional and departmental websites; to increase awareness of the Division and its constituent departments; and to provide departments with an additional means to communicate and engage with a variety of stakeholders and audiences.

The divisional Twitter account, @OxfordMedSci has a very active following (over 12,600 followers, October 2019), many of whom are internal. This channel has proved to be quite successful at promoting internal messages and will continue to be utilised in this way, alongside improving our externally focused content.

  • It is helpful if you send us pre-written tweets and any images you may have to accompany the tweet
  • For PE events we use #OxMedSciEngages
  • Please send tweets (or announcements) to Janice

Oxford Talks and the weekly MSD Events Digest

The MSD Events Digest aims to help reduce the number of emails relating to events (e.g. talks, workshops, symposia) being sent across the Division; and to ensure researchers receive information about talks they are interested in. The Division discourages the use of cascading emails to promote events and all departments and the Divisional Office now use this centralised process to promote events.

Every Thursday afternoon we send out the digest, listing all the divisional events coming up in the following week. All undergraduate and graduate students in the Division are automatically subscribed, and staff can opt-in (3500+ subscribers, Jan 2020). The digest is automatically updated from the central events calendar Oxford Talks, which also feeds into the divisional website Event page.

  • Please add your event to Oxford Talks. Alison can advise   

OxfordMedSci News

Oxford MedSci News is an internal staff newsletter, which is delivered via email on the 2nd Monday of each month, from Professor Gavin Screaton, Head of Division to all staff and students in the Division.

The newsletter aims to provide an official channel to disseminate business critical information; provides the Divisional Office with a channel to get out messages which we think people ought to know; and showcase the breadth of work going on across Division. In order to ensure all staff and students receive business critical information; reduce the amount of email being sent across the Division and create a sense of divisional community.

Please refer to the Medical Sciences Division Newsletter Strategy May 2016 for further information (contact Alison to see this)

Items for Internal  Dissemination emails

Alison sends a weekly email digest (titled Items for Internal Dissemination) (depending on volume or urgency this is sometimes bi-weekly) of announcements to one nominated representative (most usually the Communications Officer) in each of the 16 departments who is responsible for disseminating information to their departmental community (either through departmental newsletters, intranets, cascade emails). 

These emails are intended to amplify important divisional and university announcements already featured elsewhere; help mop up announcements that have missed the newsletter deadline; allow departments to choose which announcements to deliver to their staff; consolidate individual messages so that staff do not receive irrelevant announcements, and/or too many announcements.

Departmental communication staff decide which content is relevant to their community and disseminate according to their departmental policies. This has proved to be quite a robust mechanism for disseminating information to departments that is streamlined and avoids duplication.

  • Please send your announcements to Alison for inclusion in this email

Divisional Office Briefing (DOBe)

The aims of DOBe is to increase understanding of what the Divisional Office does for the Departments; ensure academics and administrative leads receive important information, which has otherwise been disseminated in committee papers or to relevant communities only; raise the profile of the Divisional Office and the services it provides to departments.

The DOBE is sent out termly to all senior academics and administrators in the Division.

  • Please speak to your line manager about adding content to the DOBe

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