The University of Warwick is facing mounting criticism over a high-spending global marketing strategy – labelled by critics as a “fiasco” – with academics accusing senior leaders of indulging in vanity projects while staff are urged to cut costs.

Further questions have been raised about decisions made by the university’s marketing team, including placing expensive advertorials in glossy magazines, overseas trips and celebrity partnerships.

Supporters say Warwick’s activity, and wider “Beyond” rebrand, are necessary to stand out from the competition in an era of constrained finances.

But one academic at the institution, who asked not to be named, said they were “infuriated” by what they called an “embarrassing” and “appalling” marketing push.

In the latest developments, it has emerged that the university has paid for articles in Harper’s Bazaar India, The Times of India and lifestyle magazine Monocle, in addition to the spread in Vogue Singapore that focused on its chief marketing and content officer, Ajay Teli.

Marketing activity has also included sponsored appearances at the South by Southwest festival in Texas, hiring celebrity chef Aldo Zilli to create a “sardine and prawn” dish to celebrate the 700th anniversary of Venice – where Warwick has a base – and the staging of a press conference in Mumbai, again featuring Teli.

A now-abandoned initiative called “Undivided” had previously been developed by a London agency but was never adopted, despite reportedly progressing through senior approval stages over two years. Warwick said this was not intended as a branding project.

“The executive team fails to question dubious marketing campaigns. Staff are rightly furious after being told to cut costs while money is being spent on this,” said another academic.

The university said its rebrand had been the subject of an extensive consultation but staff alleged they had been asked to choose between two concepts that were “equally awful”, with “no option to choose ‘none of the above’”. One academic described the subsequent fallout as a “fiasco”. 

The glossy new identity forms part of Warwick’s wider marketing efforts during its 60th anniversary year.

Use of the branding is said to be being tightly controlled with phrases such as “infinitely curious” central to a relaunch of the university’s website.

Changes were made to the website after the initial criticism, with a link inviting users to “explore our brand” replaced by a more conventional “study here” button.

Luke Robert Mason, a PhD student at Warwick, said the campaign appeared to view universities as being like “luxury brands” but “to think about them as such is to fundamentally misunderstand their purpose”.

“They don’t exist to cultivate prestige – they exist to expand knowledge, support critical thinking and serve the public good.”

He praised aspects of the campaign that highlighted Warwick’s research, but added: “Real innovation in communication for higher education is not a glossy campaign or a sans serif logo. It means new ideas for how knowledge is created, shared and made accessible to all.”

Marketing experts were divided on the effectiveness of such a campaign, saying it appeared to target affluent overseas students over domestic audiences.

Marcel Knobil, a brand expert and founder of Superbrands, said: “I totally understand why UK universities want to reach wealthy, education-conscious audiences abroad...but I would advocate earning the right to editorial, rather than paying for hype cloaked as editorial.

“When you’re meant to be a weighty and honest bastion of intellect, it can be asking for trouble…Universities should not attempt to appeal to affluent markets at the cost of their own reputation and integrity.”

Michael Beverland, professor of brand strategy at the University of Sussex Business School, said campaigns like Warwick’s “may work” to attract students in status-conscious markets such as India.

But he warned the strategy risks internal backlash: “The ‘Beyond’ tagline is not good – it’s easy to ridicule or use against management,” he said.

“Universities should try and take their internal stakeholders with them, rather than just present a brand – or in this case, a campaign idea – to them as a fait accompli.”

But Kevin Ibeh, a professor of marketing and international business at Birkbeck, University of London – who is an external adviser to Warwick’s Africa strategy – defended the broader rationale behind the university’s approach.

“In an era of constrained funding, strategic branding supports financial sustainability and subsidises struggling academic areas,” he said.

“Given that universities’ need for financial sustainability is increasingly beyond the gift of most governments, or even donors, nuanced adoption of ideas from successful business organisations ought not be dismissed and mocked…Strategic branding is thus important, and resources gained therefrom typically help universities to ensure breadth of academic provision by subsidising ‘struggling’ subject areas.”

A Warwick spokesperson previously said the projects “are driven by our desire to amplify the university’s standing as a globally recognised, loved and progressive education brand in our 60th anniversary year”.

The university declined to answer any further questions about the strategy.