Why You Should Start a Podcast (And How We Can Help)
Podcasting has been around long enough now that it barely needs an introduction. But in a university setting, it’s still underused as a tool for teaching, research communication, outreach and community building. That’s starting to change, and for good reason: according to Edison Research’s Infinite Dial study1 , an estimated 22 million people (aged 15+) in the UK now consume podcasts every week. It’s a medium people actually want to engage with, and it fits naturally into the kind of conversations that already happen across higher education.
Why Podcast?
Audio and video podcasts can serve a surprisingly wide range of purposes in a university setting. The format works whether you’re a research group looking to reach beyond academic journals, a professional services team trying to connect with students in a more human way, or a teaching team wanting to offer something beyond the standard lecture.
A few of the most common use cases:
- Research Dissemination: making academic insights public, without the journal paywall.
- Teaching-Adjacent Content: supplementary material, practitioner perspectives, or an asynchronous alternative to a lecture.
- Community Building: staying connected with alumni, prospective students, and wider professional networks.
Despite the benefits, launching a podcast from scratch can feel daunting. Academic and professional services staff who try this independently tend to hit the same wall: editing eats more time than expected, the equipment and software have a learning curve and momentum stalls once term gets busy.
The most successful projects share a common lesson: podcasting works best as a team effort. Which is exactly where we come in.
How We Can Help
The Digital Media Production Team offers a podcasting service for Schools and Units across the University. You bring the subject expertise and the ideas, the presenting team and ideas; we handle the technical side.
We provide full technical support at our dedicated studio spaces at Walter Bower House:
- Professional Studio Recording: Bookable 3-hour sessions with capacity for up to four in-studio participants, plus the ability to seamlessly integrate a remote guest via Microsoft Teams.
- Audio or Video Formats: Whether you want a traditional audio release or a multi-camera video podcast, a dedicated producer will set up and record your session.
- Full Technical Edit: We manage the entire post-production process, balancing audio, removing fillers (the ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’), and integrating your School’s specific branding into the final podcast.
- Rapid Delivery: Your finished master files are typically delivered within 5 working days of the recording session, ready for you to publish.
Case Study: The Careers Centre Podcast
Sometimes the best proof of a service is a team who nearly didn’t get their podcast off the ground without it. The Careers Centre had been trying to launch a podcast for the best part of 18 months, with the idea appearing on agendas again and again, only for it to stall each time on the same problem: nobody on the team had the time or technical background to take on editing, equipment and software on top of their day jobs.
That’s exactly the gap our podcast service is there to close. As one of the Careers team put it:
“Access to a dedicated studio with the technical staff dramatically lowered the barriers to production. It allowed us to focus on what we can add the most value to: careers-focused content, speaker engagement, and aligning episodes with student needs.”
The result was six episodes recorded in our studio over three weeks, an audio-only series covering everything from non-linear career paths to demystifying assessment centres.
Episode one launched in week 1 of semester 1, with new episodes releasing every two weeks. Series two is already scheduled to record in December and January and launching at the start of semester 2, proof that once the barriers are out of the way, momentum takes care of itself.
The Podcast 123 workshop
We are currently developing a podcasting workshop which will be available through PDMS. If you’re not sure where to start, that’s exactly what this workshop is for. In small groups, we work through developing your podcast concept and the decisions that actually make or break a podcast before it ever gets recorded: who is your audience, how many episodes are realistic, and what makes your concept worth pursuing.
By the end, you’ll have a clearer idea, a realistic workflow, and a concise pitch you can actually act on.
Let’s Make Something
If any of this sounds relevant to your work, the best next step is to come along to a Podcast 123 workshop and road-test your idea in a room with other people doing the same thing. From there, booking studio time is straightforward.
Ready to get started recording? Fill in our Media Request Form and we’ll be in touch to discuss availability.
References
1 – Edison’s Research Infinite Dial UK Podcast Consumer 2026