Unibattle is back for the sixth year – get ready! It’s more important to take part this year than ever, encouraging students to engage with financial education amidst the cost of living crisis.
What is Unibattle?
Unibattle is the annual competition where universities and colleges compete to engage as many of their students as possible with financial education and win the (highly coveted!) title of Money Smartest.
In doing so, students prioritise their financial wellbeing and develop essential money skills and confidence. They also have the opportunity to win some great prizes throughout the Unibattle fortnight.
How do universities and colleges take part?
Blackbullion partner universities and colleges take part in Unibattle by encouraging their students to sign up (or sign in) to the Blackbullion financial wellbeing platform and complete personal finance video lessons.
The more students that sign up and the more lessons they complete during the Unibattle fortnight, the higher the university or college will climb up the leaderboard.
Whoever is top at the end of the two weeks will be crowned the Money Smartest and reign supreme over all other universities and colleges!
Last year saw the University of Chester take the top prize and put an end to the University of Reading’s three-year reign. The University of Southampton and Staffordshire University followed in second and third place respectively.
Who will win this year? We’re excited to find out and one thing’s for sure – it won’t be boring!
When is Unibattle 2022?
Unibattle 2022 takes place between the 7th-18th November (excluding weekends).
This year’s battle once again takes place during Talk Money Week – run by the Money and Pensions Service to get the nation talking about money.
Talking about money is more important now than ever with the cost of living crisis; it’s vital that anyone struggling knows that they’re absolutely not alone and feels able to ask and seek help if needed. So there’s an extra reason to add this year’s Unibattle dates to your diary and to get involved!
What are the benefits of Unibattle for students?
Engaging with financial education
By ‘gamifying’ financial education during Unibattle and creating a sense of competition and buzz, students are encouraged to engage with financial education and their financial futures.
Every year during the Unibattle fortnight, there’s an uptick in how many lessons are completed, how many quiz questions are answered and how many budgets are created on our platform.
These are all activities that help students to improve their financial wellbeing and in turn, impact positively on their wellbeing.
Helping to understand and address the cost of living crisis
As the cost of living and energy crisis continues to bite, times are tough for many right now – students included.
Some students in the Blackbullion community have told us that they’ve found it helpful to try and understand what’s happening by getting their heads around inflation and the role that interest rates play.
Being aware of any actions that can be taken to try and combat the current economic situation can also be useful for feeling slightly more prepared and in control of personal finances. One of the lessons that aims to help do this is: How can you beat inflation?
Unibattle provides staff at our partner universities and colleges with an engaging and fun way to increase awareness of the Blackbullion platform and financial lessons like these amongst their students.
There’s an abundance of learning and resources within the Blackbullion platform to help students improve their money management (Budgeting 101 remains our most popular pathway of all time!).
However, we also know that there are times when it doesn’t matter how skilled a student is at budgeting; there just isn’t enough money to cover all outgoings. While Unibattle focuses primarily on financial education, it also provides an opportunity to tell your students about everything they can do within the Blackbullion platform – including visiting the ‘Find funds’ hub, where they can discover and apply for any additional funding that they may be eligible for.
New cost of living prizes for 2022
To further incentivise students, there will be amazing daily prizes on offer for those who complete personal finance lessons on the Blackbullion platform between the 7th-18th November.
Each weekday, students will have the chance to win two prizes. There will be a main prize on offer, as well as a bonus prize of a £10 voucher (or donation to a charity of the winner’s choice).
This year, we’ve introduced a series of new prizes with the cost of living crisis in mind, designed to either put more money in the winner’s pocket or help support a nutritious diet in the face of rising food costs. Including:
- £100 cash x2
- COOK voucher
- Nutribullet + recipe book
- Airfryer + recipe book
- A year’s subscription of the student’s choice, paid or reimbursed (e.g. Netflix, Spotify etc.)
And we’ve brought back some of students’ favourite prizes from previous Unibattle years too! Such as:
- ASUS Chromebook
- Apple AirPods
- KODAK Step Instant Photo Printer
See the full list of prizes here.
The best thing about Unibattle is bettering your financial upkeep and growing your confidence with money. I have become smarter with my money and it has benefited me in small but impactful ways!
Who is taking part in Unibattle 2022?
To take part, your university or college must be a Blackbullion partner.
More universities and colleges are participating in the sixth edition of Unibattle than ever before; almost 50 universities and colleges across the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand will be involved this year.
30,000 students took part last year and we’re looking forward to seeing even more get involved this time!
What resources can I use to promote Unibattle to my students?
Digital resources
Staff at all participating universities and colleges can use the Unibattle 2022 campaign cheat sheet to help spread the word about Unibattle amongst students.
Students recently told us that they’d like their universities to do more to educate them about money and support them. The cheat sheet is designed to help you spread the word about Unibattle and encourage students to get involved.
We’ve done all the heavy lifting to make sure you have everything you need. The cheat sheet includes:
- Images for use in emails, blogs and newsletters
- Email templates to use to promote Unibattle
- Social media images for Instagram, Instagram Stories, Twitter and LinkedIn
- Social media post templates (including suggestions of hashtags)
- TV screen adverts (videos and still images)
Download the Unibattle campaign cheat sheet now.
Unibattle website page
Point students to the Unibattle website page so they can take part.
This is also where the leaderboard will be from Monday 7th November, so you can keep an eye on your competition!
Unibattle merchandise
Participating universities and colleges will also receive physical merchandise to hand out to students and be used to increase interest in Unibattle. This year, there will be Unibattle-themed:
- Stickers
- Roller banner
- Promotional ‘business cards’
- Posters to put up around campus
T&C’s
All Unibattle terms and conditions can be found here.
Not yet a Blackbullion partner?
Get in touch if you’re thinking of becoming part of our community of 50+ universities and colleges and want to chat. Or, sign up for a live demo here.
Who knows? You could be next year’s Unibattle champion!
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